ABC Centreville is affiliated to the Manchester & District Time Trial Association (M&DTTA) as well as the North Lancashire Time Trial Association (NLTTA).
The M&DTTA have a large number of events throughout the year, the majority being to the south of Manchester (read: deepest Cheshire).
The first TTs start in April 2021 – if you’d like to get involved, contact Dan, Nick or Paul who will be happy to guide you through the event entering process (it’s fairly easy and most events can be entered on-line, although there is still the odd organiser who insists on postal entries with cheques or postal orders!). You will have to register on the CTT web-site first. The club is already affiliated so there is no cost for registering. Time trials are relatively cheap to enter, typical entry fees are £12.00, increasing for longer events and championship events.
https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/register
Most events on the Cheshire ‘J’ courses are on Saturday afternoons (which is unusual for time trialling, where early morning starts are usually the norm). The M&DTTA points competition is season long, where points are awarded depending on placings – a rider’s aggregate points score, based on their 10 best placings (out of 20 or so events) dictates where they are in the overall league. Be aware though that longer distance events (50 miles plus) score higher points.
http://manchesterctt.org.uk/page37.html
The competition is for individuals as well as teams, where the points from the highest three ranking riders [from the same club] are added together to give an overall team score. In 2019, ABC Centreville finished fourth overall (and this was without the full quota of events being completed).
There are also team awards in individual events. Usually, the winning team is based on the total time of the three fastest riders from the same club. However, occasionally, the Bidlake system is used (named after FT Bidlake, one of the founders of time-trialling) where the fastest third counter of a club team is used to establish the result.
Team awards are not only the preserve of male participants. There are team awards for female racers too, in both the season long points competition and at individual events. With the increased number of ladies in the club, perhaps some of you will be inspired to see what you can do? With a bit of a concerted effort, there is certainly an opportunity to get ABC Centreville’s name back on the results sheets. See link to Manchester and District Ladies Cycling Association
Our club president, John Drake, has kindly agreed to collate all racing results and publish them on a regular basis. Please can you send all your results to him, along with any event write-ups, should you come over all journalistic.
Dan Shackleton
