About time
How cycling latecomer Andrea Parish became Chair of Cycling Time Trials and how she’s trying to open up the sport to all.
You may wonder “How does someone who only bought her first road bike in her early 40s end up as Chair of Cycling Time Trials (CTT), the national governing body for time trials in England, Scotland and Wales?” Good question!
After buying my first road bike second-hand, and happening to get the right size, I turned up for my first club run. I quickly learned that, if I wasn’t one of the first to reach the top of the hill, I wouldn’t have a chance to eat or drink as it took me several more weeks to master removing the bottle from the bottle cage whilst pedalling, or even freewheeling. Oh, and a couple more to get it back in again!
After that, it didn’t take long for time trialling to discover me. Turned out I could make myself hurt, and frankly enjoy it, and well, I wasn’t last! Well, last isn’t really a ‘thing’ in TT, it’s slowest, though not even that. The race is only ever against yourself or the course, but then again, who am I kidding? It felt good to go fast and not be slowest on the results list.
Given a fairly recent experience at the time (breaking a leg in seven places), I knew I didn’t ‘bounce’ well, so road racing was never going to be an option. TTs were the perfect outlet for someone who had misspent their potential athletic youth. I could be competitive against women (and men!) of all and any age(s). I quickly fell in love with what has to be the quirkiest, most bonkers, quintessentially British discipline in the cycling canon.
Early morning starts at ‘sparrows-fart o’clock’. Mystical secret course codes harking back to the subversive beginnings of the sport. Coffee and cake back at a village hall HQ in an Open Event or just signing on from the back of someone’s car, in a layby, near a drain cover close to a lamppost in some obscure lane… if you’ve ever read and tried to decipher CTT course descriptions, this one will surely resonate. I feel your pain!
My first TT was low key and high octane, with variable cake quality and not a cucumber sandwich in sight, but it was a totally addictive experience. One which I have masochistically repeated many times since. Cycling, but especially time trials, changed my life. That decision to buy my first road bike was well made.
I blame my District Committee for how I got involved in the administrative side of the sport. CTT has a longestablished democratic structure based on affiliated clubs and districts that would take some explaining, so to cut a long story short, I turned up at my District AGM and was promptly pounced upon, er, I mean elected, to serve. My District put me forward as a candidate Director at the CTT AGM/National Council in December 2021 and I was elected Chair a year later.
CTT had lost its way, appealing to an ever-decreasing number of riders, but last year we introduced a new Road Bike class so that Road Bikes are no longer an entry point into TT but a competitive class of their own. I say ‘new’ but it wasn’t really: it was taking TT back to its roots of being a sport for all. Accessible. Low cost. Good for those of us who don’t, ahem, bounce well.
In just a few short months, we saw a 40% increase in road bike rides entries with nearly a thousand new riders taking part in Open Events last year, over 82% of whom rode road bikes exclusively and with more women and under 18s taking part because of this. I’m very excited and encouraged by that. It’s working, and in any case, if you have a road bike, you no longer have an excuse.
I can’t think of any other sport, where, lining up at the start, you get to be the minute woman [ ie start one minute ahead of someone, as TT riders start at one-minute intervals] of a double Olympic Gold medallist, or ride the same event and compare yourself with ex-Tour de France riders, or just be faster than your local Club Strava KOM/ QOM hunters (you know who I mean don’t you?). It’s the sheer joy of riding as fast as you can from fixed point A to fixed point B with an official time (and bragging rights). That’s the experience I’d like to bring to everyone, to share will you all, and everything that goes with it.
Being Chair allows me to initiate projects that extend participation, to encourage, to share with others what make time trials so special. To have the opportunity to write this and reach out to you.