It’s that time of the season again, when the Time Trial Series begins. This series of events last the whole season, 1st Thursday in May, thro’ to the last Thursday in August (the start times are 18:30 pm in May/August and 19:00 pm June/July), anyone in the club is be more than welcome to enter, from the “racing snakes” to the “Tourist’s/Club Run” members, regardless of the bike and perceived fitness.
There are three categories of rider :-
- Open – for riders who regularly ride “Open Events” and therefore would consider themselves quite quick.
- Club – for riders who just ride “Club Events” and have ridden a “10” before.
- Novice – For the complete novice rider, who have never raced before and who might want to try their hand at Time Trialling.
The type of machine or bike is completely down the rider concerned, the “Open” cat. rider will probably ride a special TT bike, the “Club” rider will possibly have a choice (TT or road bike) and the “Novice” will only probably have a road bike (although some people in the past have ridden a mountain bike). The type of machine is really of no concern (although the specialist machine will help with faster times), the art of doing well in this series is all about consistency/improvement, not speed, admittedly there is a prize for the fastest but the big reward is for the series winner, who in recent times has not been anywhere near the fastest rider!
The Prize list :-
1st (on Points) – £75.00
2nd (on Points) – £40.00
3rd (on Points) – £20.00
Fastest Novice (on Time) – £40.00
1st Lady (on Points) – £40.00
Fastest (on Time) – £40.00
1st Open Cat (on Points) – £20.00
1st Club Cat (on Points) – £20.00
(1 Rider, 1 Prize)
The event is run on a points system (it may seem complicated, it isn’t), whatever time you record, your position in the category you’ve entered, is noted. If you were the fastest in that category you will have gained 10 points, 2nd fastest 8 points, 3rd fastest 6 points, 4th fastest 4 points and 5th place 2 points. Your top 4 rides only count towards the final total, so therefore the maximum number of points to get is 40. The secret to winning the overall, is to gain bonus points, these are awarded by improving your times each week, so if you improve twice you will gain 4 points, improve 4 times and you will gain 8 points (last year’s winner improved 7 times, thereby gaining 14 points). There is another way of gaining points and that is to be a marshal for the event, for this you will receive two extra points each time you marshal. There is one proviso and that is, we would like T.T. competitors to marshal on two occasions (more bonus points).
