Thinking of racing? Here's what's required

I think that's a very odd view - Cycling Weekly were late to the Sportive bandwagon so to suggest it's somehow their fault that time trialling is declining whilst sportives boom is bizarre.

Time trialling is declining because it's stuck in the past. If you don't believe me look at what you have to do to enter one; decipher a code to find out the course (due to pre-war cloak and dagger shenanighans), discover it's on a dual carriageway that is a motorway in everything but name, get an entry form that demands to know your previous best times for the distance, send it with a cheque to an organiser then wait to see if you're in or not. If you do get in, which for the newcomer isn't guaranteed, then you've got to get up at 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning to ride.

For most sportives you're all but guaranteed entry, you can ride with your mates and there are goals set to aim for on a scenic, well signposted route.

Clubman to Coureur - response to comments.

I do not disagree that there are at least some things about time trialling that are stuck in the past, and I have myself referred to ‘committee dinosaurs’ in my posts elsewhere on this forum.

It does seem that dealing with entry forms is more off putting to newcomers than it was in the past. I don’t think it’s worth discussing why this is so, but I am convinced that the on line method should be universally available and I shall press for this for all my own club’s events for next year.

Other points raised above:

Closing Dates.
Not a month in advance, but 13 days in most cases.

‘Sportives all but guarantee an entry’.
There are very few open TT’s that attract full fields now. Even my entries are accepted! Most organisers are only too pleased to get your entry form and don’t much care what’s on it so long as you’ve signed it and sent the entry fee, which is usually modest by current cycling event standards.

Courses.
I accept there may be difficulty for new riders to know the nature of courses. This is one of the reasons why it is so desirable for newcomers to join a club where they will get this and other information.
Incidentally, the course code system may have started in the ‘private and confidential’ era, but even I cannot remember a time when the codes were anything other than a convenient shorthand. Anyone really in doubt about a course could always telephone the organiser.

Vets
Yes, time trials have too many vets, but remember these are the riders whose youthful ideas about cycle sport were influenced by the old ‘Cycling’ magazine I referred to in my article.

Finally, can I remind you that what I wrote advocates racing in general, not TT’s in particular and for myself, to have had a racing career consisting only of time trialling would have been like eating only bread and never having any jam, but time trials have their place and often that's at the beginning and at the end of your time as a coureur.