BIG INTERVIEW
While hangover from Covid lockdowns could have contributed to these lower rider numbers - with foreign holidays back on the cards last year, or lingering Covid illness impacting rider fitness, or even the return to busy life following interrupted years - Parish has identified a number of ways to entice more riders back to the sport. “Our main objective, really, is getting more people to ride time trials,” she said. “We don’t have a direct relationship [with riders], because its through our clubs. So there is a lot of planning and strategy involved to try and provide a lot more value to our riders in a way that the current structure is not designed to do.” One major obstacle Parish has identified is the so-called
‘arms race’ - the rapidly escalating pursuit of aerodymanic gains for time trial riders, and the associated costs, which may make competitioin unaffordable for many. With the proliferation of carbon and 3D-printed components, wind-tunnel testing, and very expensive bikes, even at amateur level, the podium in time trials may now have a price tag attached, so to combat this trend CTT has been turning its eye to road bike-only competitions, giving more riders a chance to compete at the pointy end. Parish said the organisation is also looking at ranking
systems, offering riders an alternative to racing purely for PBs, and in theory boosting the popularity of events with more varied terrain. CTT also carried out a survey of its riders in 2022 to
identify the causes of the decline in rider numbers. Parish said that a number of riders indicated that they would prefer to pay membership directly to CTT. Under the current setup, riders must join an established cycling club or team with CTT affiliation in order to be able to compete in time trials. “I have a working group that I set up last year just to connect with people and find people with some good skills that we could work with. “We’re looking at different kinds of competitions, based on performance, not necessarily fastest time. It means people won’t have to leave their district, their performance on a hilly course can be expressed just as easily as on a faster course. “That mean’s people think ‘wow, okay I don’t need to think about the arms race, I don’t need to think about getting a fast bike or equipment, I can be competitive because it’s my points based on my performance within a race that counts towards this competition.’ “So what I’m trying to do is turn time trialling on its head, frankly.”
24 | April 2023
The money question Of course to help support its renewed efforts, CTT will need income. As previously mentioned, the organisation currently
makes money through two ways - a levy charged to all riders competing in Open events, and affiliation fees paid by cycling clubs and team. But Parish is aware that this may not be enough to sustain the organistion in the long term: “The challenge for us is making us really relevant again and getting the message out. We need to find alternative revenue streams, so we can actually do better work. We can provide more support, we can start going into the development phase of how we take time trialling into the 21st century.” With better funding, CTT can look to offer a better
service to its riders, including potential electronic timing systems (even on open roads), and live results. On all these plans for the historic organisation, Parish said: “For me personally its about taking time trial back to our grassroots, back to any every-person’s sport, the democratisation of it. “If you’ve got a road bike, ride your road bike. I’m really hoping that in addition to some other work that we will have ongoing very soon, we can definitely attract more women into the sport.”
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