Cycling Time Trials (CTT) today launches major new website functionality that will seamlessly integrate road bikes into all events, but crucially separate them into their own category in the results.
Riders who choose a standard road bike with drop handlebars and spoked wheels over a dedicated TT bike with tri-bars and a rear disc will no longer have to enter a ‘road bikes only’ event: they will be able to enter any event in the CTT calendar, simply indicating which type of bike they’ll be riding.
Afterwards, riders will be able to easily filter results by bike type on the CTT website – as well as into men’s and women’s results and age groups.
Additionally, CTT’s Spindata rankings system, which currently doesn’t take account of the type of bike ridden, will now separate road bike performances from those set on TT bikes and publish distinct road bike rankings. A rider will need just three road bike rides to be included in Spindata’s road bike rankings.
Andrea Parish, CTT Chair, explained: “Recognising road bikes as their own category is all about improving accessibility and making time trialling available to everybody.
Having a separate road bike competition and rankings system is very much part of the process of taking time trialling back to the “every person’s sport” that it once was – and to where it needs to be for the future.
There’s still space for elite athletes, but we’re also creating space that people can occupy in different ways and we’re making sure that their achievements are properly recognised.”
As of April 18th 2023:
- All CTT time trial events will recognise road bikes as a distinct category of racing, with results presented on the CTT website filterable to show the road bike results within each event. Team time trial results can be filtered to show teams where riders were all competing on road bikes.
- Riders will be able to indicate which category (road bike or TT bike) they are entering and can amend that up to the closing date.
- If a rider decides to change which type of bike they will be riding after the closing date they can do so and the organiser can amend their details to reflect in the results what they rode on the day
- Rider profiles will be updated with personal bests separated into TT bike and road bike categories.
- Riders can set a default of road bike or TT bike on their profile to streamline their entries.
- Spindata will be updated to recognise road bike results distinct from time trial bike results, and award points accordingly. There will be separate rankings published on Spindata for road bikes.
- ResultSheet will recognise the new road bike category.
- It will no longer be necessary for organisers to list separate road bike-only events to support a road bike category in their events, but there will be no change to the event listings for the 2023 season.
And additionally, all event results on the CTT website can be filtered to show male or female results showing the position of each rider within their gender. For team time trial and tandem results the teams can be filtered by all male, all female, or mixed teams.
Road bike participation in time trials has increased steadily since the 2000s, when it was estimated to be close to zero, equating to a rise of over 1,000% based on road-bike-only events.
Parish concluded: “We know there’s already a big appetite for road bikes. In a rider survey last year the message came back very strongly that people wanted to ride road bikes and they wanted a separate competition.
So now we’re able to give our ‘customers’ what they want as well as attract new ones who won’t feel as though they need to spend a large amount of money on specialist equipment.
If you have a road bike, even if it costs £150 off eBay, you can enter an open event. The whole thing is about giving people an opportunity. You’ve got a road bike, so time trial.”
For more information head over to www.cyclingtimetrials.com
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