Cycling Weekly

TT racing back on in Britain

Newbury Velo’s TTS get the domestic race scene rolling,

- reports James Shrubsall

Last week saw the first bike racing in the UK since lockdown began, when Newbury Velo staged two time trial ‘test’ events.

Both events were held just outside the club’s home town in Berkshire, and staged over 10 miles under club event rules. They were described by Cycling Time Trials as a valuable confidence-booster ahead of the official resumption of time trialling on Monday 13 July for club events, and this coming Saturday (18 July) for opens.

Covid-19 precaution­s were very much in evidence, with organisers Rachael Elliott and Glen Knight putting in place safety measures.

“Everyone who was helping was given a little bottle of hand sanitiser, they all had to wear face masks and were briefed on social distancing,” explained Elliott. “We had the car park set up, and people were told to arrive at HQ at a certain time, they can’t just arrive – just to keep numbers down in the car park. We had social distancing officers, as we call them, making sure people didn’t congregate… no one was allowed to turbo.”

The measures were nothing if not thorough, and Elliott and Knight produced a substantia­l rider manual that was emailed out to participan­ts — all of whom, said Elliott, were more than happy to get behind the measures.

“People were very, very happy with it – everyone adhered to it 100 per cent. We’ve got quite a good relationsh­ip with the local Thames Valley Police, and we had no problems,” she said.

In fact, she explained, in some ways the event was easier to run than usual.

“Usually there’s pressure to ensure that everyone gets a ride and the results are OK, the HQ is all set up, you’ve got dozens of helpers, that sort of thing,” said Elliott.

“It almost takes the pressure off you because everyone’s so keen to race again, you know, that they almost don’t care if the time is wrong. They’re just pleased to be out on the road.”

A relatively new club – it only formed last November – Newbury Velo has been at the vanguard of clubs providing competitio­n for race-starved riders. In response to the pandemic, it began running a popular midweek time trial series on Zwift, which is set to continue. Then, after the club arranged these latest time trials only for the official competitio­n restart date to be moved back, it managed to persuade the CTT to allow them to go ahead as a

demonstrat­ion of how Covid-19 measures could work.

“We were keen to really get new people into time trialling, and we’d arranged these events before lockdown,” Elliott explains. “We had full fields signed up, and then when they changed the date, we were really upset. So Glen was sort of backwards and forwards trying to get the CTT board to agree to let us run them, and they did.”

While the events were run under club rules, entry was opened up to local clubs, and even though the fields were restricted, Newbury’s two events still ended up with 60 and 90 riders respective­ly, up from 30 to 40 for a usual club event.

The first event, which was held on the

“It almost takes the pressure off as everyone’s so keen to race ”

H10/3a B-road course just outside Newbury, was won by Henry Latimer of Didcot Phoenix in 20.19, with Kirsty Mcseveney (a3crg) the fastest woman in 24.02. Sunday’s event, on the nearby

H10/3r course on the A4 road, saw Elliott and her tandem partner Ian Greenstree­t (both Aerocoach) set the fastest time – a blistering 19.38. Chris Loake (Aerocoach) was the fastest solo rider (20.15) with Jennifer George (Memorial Santos) fastest woman (22.15).

Loake described the organisati­on as “seamless”, but said some of the Covid measures were challengin­g.

“There was no pusher-off, which was quite entertaini­ng. You’d laugh at them trying to clip in, then when it got to your turn you’d be fumbling around like it’s your first time using clipless pedals.”

He said it was especially tricky having to arrive at a certain time.

“I’d normally get there an hour before and faff around with drinks bottles and getting changed. I like a nice 30-40-minute warm-up. I was left with 12 minutes to warm up and get dressed. But actually, when you get there, it’s just fab to be sat there on the start line. And in many ways, while the timing was a bit tight, it wasn’t hugely different to normal. It was just great to get out there and be on the road.”

Correction: Last week we erroneousl­y reported Kyle Bateman was the fastest woman at last Sunday’s TT. He was not. It was Kirsty Mcseveney as reported here. We apologise for this error.

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 ??  ?? Sign-on included a temperatur­e test
Sign-on included a temperatur­e test
 ??  ?? Gaining a contract will be “nearly impossible” for some U23 riders
Newbury’s club 10s attracted double the expected turnout
Gaining a contract will be “nearly impossible” for some U23 riders Newbury’s club 10s attracted double the expected turnout

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