Time Trialling
Time trial: a test of a competitor's individual speed over a set distance, in which competitors are separately timed.
At its heart, a time trial is you against the clock. Riders are typically set off at 1 minute intervals with the slowest riders set off first and faster riders set off last.
There are age graded categories for both men and women with prizes typically for 1st - 3rd in Open Events (these are usually events on weekends).
For those local to Edinburgh, most Wednesday evenings through summer from May to August/September, Edinburgh Road Club organise a series of TTs open to all CTT affiliated clubs (check in with your club committee if you aren’t sure). If you aren’t a member of a club you can enter up to 3 races to try it out before you would be expected to either become a CTT private member or join a CTT affiliated club.
Hervelo are British Cycling and CTT affiliated. We are always accepting new members so if you want to join and take advantage of our affiliation you can find out more here.
Sophie at the ERC Wednesday Night TT last summer
We have members regularly taking part on Wednesday nights, in fact we had two category winners last year!
Most of our riders were on their road bikes, however, a few gave it a go on their gravel bikes, so don’t let not having a road bike stop you!
What do I need to take part?
A bike, with two working brakes.
All events organised through Cycling Time Trials (CTT) have a road bike category to level the playing field for those that are not on flashy, specialised time trial bikes. You can read more about what qualifies as a road bike on Page 46 of the CTT handbook but if you’re just starting out, you don’t need to get bogged down in the details, more than likely your bike will fit into this category without any modification needed. The main takeaway is no clip on aero bars allowed! Gravel and mountain bikes also fall into this category. It’s really the TT bike and non-TT bike categories.
A white front light and a red rear light
A helmet
“Aero” Bars
Where can I find out about more events?
Scotland is slightly unusual in that time trial events can be hosted either by British Cycling or Cycling Time Trials. If you are looking for events in England or Wales, most events will be on CTT with very few on British Cycling.
British Cycling, filter by region:
Cycling Time Trials, use the map function to see event start locations:
All the info you’ll need for the ERC midweek series can be found on the facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/ERCTT/?locale=en_GB
These haven’t been uploaded to the CTT website yet but keep an eye out for them over the next couple of weeks!
Worried about turning up alone? Reach out to us and we’ll make sure to come and say hello and are very happy to help pin a number on! We had members racing most Wednesday nights, but even if we aren’t there, everyone at these events is really friendly! Remember everyone was new once!
If you still aren’t sure, keep an eye out for calls for volunteers to marshal on the ERC facebook page, you can see what it’s all about before pinning a number on!
Races are normally on open roads, so be aware of other road traffic.