Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

Club events aren't really the venue for long distance exploits.

I'm struggling to find events to use as training rides before the 24hr in June. There's the Hounslow & District 100 and that's about it. All the 12hrs and most of the 100s happen after June. Audax on a TT bike is looking like an option but navigation will likely be a massive pain.

Can anyone suggest a good flattish, A road near London?

MDCC tester is right, you have to look at open events to find the longer distances. I suggest you consider the North Hants RC 50 on the Farnham-Alton course on 8th May, which seems an obvious warm up for the Hounslow 100.

I'm sure Hippy knows this already, but for the benefit of others, don't forget open events generally have a closing date 13 days before the race (check the handbook and allow for poor postal service), and they require an entry form (download from the CTT website).
If you are a newcomer to opens don't be put off by all those spaces on the form for distances you have never ridden - just leave them blank, but remember to sign the form at the bottom and send the entry fee.
It's those two things which will be of most interest to the organiser. The reason all the other information is requested is mainly to do with laying out the field, handicapping and what to do if the event is oversubscribed. To deal with these in reverse order:

1. Oversubscription. (i.e. too many entries) This has been rare in recent years, particularly at the longer distances. Apart from the BDCA 100 you can more or less forget this problem at 50 miles and upwards.
   
2. Handicaps. Nothing like as important an issue as it once was. The current open form doesn't give the handicapper enough information so they generally have to rely on guesswork anyway. Handicaps really work best in club events where the riders are known to the handicapper. Again don't worry if your form looks a bit empty.
   3.Laying out the field. This is about seeding - who gets the honour of an '0' or '5' number. If you are a novice the organiser will know where to put you, so again, don't fret about it.
   
   

I've gone to the trouble of explaining this at length because I believe there is currently a problem in that too many potential TTers seem to fail to make the step up from club events to opens. There are a number of possible reasons for this, but the least good one is that it's too difficult to fill in an entry form.

I'll mention just one club event, slightly longer and harder than the norm, the Hounslow fixed gear 27 this Saturday (see above).