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You’re right about young people. Time trialling just isn’t attractive to them, road racing has got all the allure.
People also don’t seem to keen on 12hours now. Perhaps a rejuvenation could happen through reducing it to 100mile. So 10,25,50,100. Would increase competitor numbers.
skinny-
You’re right about young people. Time trialling just isn’t attractive to them
That's OK, we'll wait for them :) TTing in the UK form will be fine as long as we keep attracting MAMILs, AG triathlengers and former runners and rowers too old or knackered to continue in their original sport. Young people who still think they can get anywhere in cycling shouldn't be concentrating on TTs in the 21st Century, although they are always welcome to come and treat an evening 10 as a 20 minute FTP test and keep the rest of us in our place.
The men's BAR might eventually drop to 25/50/100 if there are no 12s run, but we're not there yet. Making it easier just to increase numbers smacks of "prizes for all".
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Even in the days before road racing really existed in Britain (Pre 1942, apart from the Isle of Man and a few closed circuits) I'm pretty sure most of the then young people would have preferred to race en ligne rather than *contre la montre*if they'd had the chance. And as Tester so rightly says that's what young people should want to do.
Time trialling has many advantages, but for any ambitious young rider it will probably be a sideline. We can't all be Anquetil.
I'm not sure that many riders have ever been keen to ride a twelve - it's something that's far more enjoyable in retrospect than in anticipation - or when you're actually out there doing it.
However I am strongly opposed to taking the twelve out of any BAR competition (that, Hippie, was the reason we met as competitors in the 2011 Kent CA event). It might increase numbers to remove it, but it wouls severely detract from the interest. Aside from the fact that it would be an obvious dumbing down, a reduction in standards, it should be remembered that from the 'story' point of view it's the longer events that are more worth writing about. You try to find something interesting to write for a report on a 10! A twelve usually provides some drama because things can go wrong but be overcome by ingenuity or just sheer grit.
So let's keep the twelve as long as we can.
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P.S. to Skinny:
When I mentioned 'younger people than me' in my first post on this subject I wasn't talking about actual young people, just those who are younger than me - which includes almost everyone. I was not thinking of competitors - it was writers I had in mind.
gbj_tester
clubman
It is sad but true that the BBAR is not what it used to be.
It is worth remembering that this competition was originally started by 'Cycling' (as Cycling Weekly then styled itself). Naturally there was a lot of coverage in the magazine, which at the time delared itself to be 'the leading cycling journal of the world'. Whether this claim was valid may be debatable, but it would certainly have seemed true to pre-war British cyclists.
To have full coverage of your efforts every week in such a publication was a tremendous spur to competition generally and the BBAR in particular.
Since CW has pretty much lost interest, the competition has gradually gone down hill. However in the age of the internet, journalism is at least partially democratised. It's up to us to write about the events that interest us and to publish where ever we can.
I've done what I could do in recent years but more activity is needed, and from younger people than me.