BIG INTERVIEW
The history To many, time trialling may just be a niche pursuit consisting of strange helmets and skinsuits, as riders gather in dual carriageway laybys around the country, but it is in fact a discipline with a long and bizarre history in the UK. The origins of time trials date back to the 1890s, when
the National Cyclists’ Union (a precursor to British cycling) banned racing on public roads, over fear of a backlash from authorities. As a result of the ban, racers began to compete in clandestine events, against the clock, on public roads, and so time trialling was born. Following the popularity of these races, an official body,
the Road Racing Council, was established in 1922, eventually transforming into the Road Time Trials Council, and finally in CTT was established as a non-profit company in 2002. But with such a long and rich history, also come plenty of
challenges when operating in the 21st century - including the ever-present question of diversity. Time trialling has been a discipline dominated by that
traditional cycling demographic, the white middle-aged man. During our conversation, Parish revealed that in 2017, 87% of all CTT Open events were ridden by men, and just 13% by women. “There is a huge amount of work to do to encourage
women”, said Parish. “We should be attracting people from across the spectrum. Given that we are a grassroots, volunteer-led organisation,
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albeit the national governing body in an amateur sport, we’ve backed ourselves into a real niche, elite corner with some of the things we’ve done. “I’m really hoping that in addition to some other work that we will have going on very soon, that we can definitely attract more women into the sport.” Parish said her own experienc of time trialling has been welcoming, friendly, and helpful, but that she realises that may not be everyone’s experience: “I think we need more specific information and education pieces, just to try and reach out to women. And of course, like many other cycling disciplines, time trialling is also predominantly white, so CTT has engaged with grassroots organisations like Evolve - a cycling network of Muslim women, that has been branching into promoting time trialling through its platforms.
Crunch time Part of the reason for CTT’s hard look in the mirror, is the significant tail-off in rider numbers in Open events last year. Entrants in 2022 were down by 45% in 2022, when
compared with 2017, and rider numbers have been trending downward year on year. When one of CTT’s two sources of income is a levy applied to each rider entering an Open event, this has serious implications for the future of the sport (the other source of income is money paid by cycling clubs for CTT affiliation, which gives club members access to CTT events).
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