Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

But on honest courses.

All courses and rides which comply with regulations are honest.

you would have to strip out the days then when it windy for the some riders and sill for others. The weather is not honest so why should the traffic be.

Was that the same year? Too many long rides ruin your memory...

Wales? I thought Welsh courses were quite quiet compared to southern courses.

I believe the CTT said they’d be introducing a national ranking system this year after trialling it behind the scenes last season. I haven’t looked into it at all, so not sure if it helps with what you want, but I would assume it would benefit riders who perform consistently across all types of courses?

I would assume it would benefit riders who perform consistently across all types of courses?

As far as I know, it's kind of the opposite; if you value a high place in national rankings, your best strategy is to game it by only riding the courses where you do well.

I love the idea of competing for places, but it's only fun if you are really fast, for most people it can be pretty demoralising. You feel like you did a great ride and got a course pb by 3 mins, but you come 89th.

In my opinion, beauty of TTing is that you can compete against yourself. Every year I try to better my own time on the E1/25 but also look at realistic ways to improve my PB on the fastest course I'm happy to ride on, and can reach from London.

Good point there.

Interesting. I only do a few races a year so wouldn’t figure.

Anyway, reminds me I need to sign up for north road hard riders, favourite race of the year really.

Was that the same year? Too many long rides ruin your memory...

Yes, it was after the first Newbury 12. Not much shocks me in terms of long-distance riding but I could hardly walk after doing 264, and saw you ride 290-odd, then have a quick shower and jump on your other bike to ride home.

I only do a few races a year so wouldn’t figure

It's not about doing a lot of races to get points, it's about the quality of the field and your place in it in whichever races you do. As a crude example, if you win the national 25 championship, you'll be higher in the rankings than somebody who wins several local open 25s, because beating all the best short distance testers in the country once trumps beating your local competitors every week if none of them is rated in the top 10 nationally.

hehe I'm an idiot.

They probably are a bit quieter, and in my case it wasn’t so much the traffic alone as the combination of bad weather and traffic. When a rider with a strong rear light who passed me became invisible in the spray only 100m in front, combined with HGVs not slowing a jot for the conditions it became pretty scary.

That said I may have been additionally sensitised by the tragedies in IPWR/TABR/TCR and another local fatality. Anyway, I’m going to stick to other stuff until I get my fast course mojo back.

Yeah. This.

All I ever try to do is PB for the course (and bike) I am riding. Highest position I have ever finished for an open (not including middle marker events) is 15th. I was over the moon until I realised that all the local fast boys were elsewhere that weekend. But in the end I left the HQ knowing the fact that I'd PBed the course.

FYI if you want to know what an honest course is like compared to the E2, there's a 25 down in deep Kent that is flat apart from one small climb midway that you also come back down, and at 7 in the morning has virtually zero traffic. My best is a long 1hr2 on an average morning, but it's a mid 56 on the E2 on a better than average, but not fast, day.

Ah I understand, makes sense.

And I wish. I’d love to win a national.

Last time I was in those conditions I'd ridden 4hrs to the race only for it to be cancelled because the spray was bad for visibility. I wonder who decides the spray cancellation thresholds.

I understand what you mean when there's been a recent cycling death and how it can knock you. I was in two of those races and knew Mike :(

FYI if you want to know what an honest course is like compared to the E2,

Fifield.
My best there is 1:05:00, and I was pleased with it.

1:05:00

1:04:24 for me. I'm not aware of anybody going faster than Wouter Sybrandy round there, 53:45

Which course is Fifield? I think I rode a 15mi near there.

Which course is Fifield?

This is the 25 mile, there are 10 and 15 mile variants on the same circuit

Yeah, I (vaguely) remember that. I rode it to get the club 15 record for dudes, which didn't exist at the time so seemed like an easy one to try for :) Not done the 10 or 25 though because eeew sporting courses.

eeew sporting courses

The modern version of the 10 isn't that bad, it's 270' up and 340' down, which is actually less climbing and more descending than the H10/8

Last time I was in those conditions I'd ridden 4hrs to the race only for it to be cancelled because the spray was bad for visibility. I wonder who decides the spray cancellation thresholds.

I expect it would be the organiser's call to cancel if he judged it was unsafe for any reason. I'm not aware of any actual measure or threshold of spray.

DC courses are obviously not great in spray, especially ones like the F1 which have a fair bit of traffic and run north-south, hence prone to crosswinds. I was once on the R8 / A40 Abergavenny course on a wet day. I do remember not being able to see much when riding west, more from rain on my visor than spray. It was quite early and the traffic was light, and I got a PB so I was happy.

Not done the 10

I have. 50 times on the current version :)

Those ruts add up...