Duration of Club Time Trials

It's a long-standing question as to how long the timekeepers should stay at the finish to wait for the last rider. Sometimes the long awaited rider will have abandoned the event, but no one has informed the timekeepers. We don’t want to disappoint someone who’s pedalled hard even if they’re not as quick as the majority of riders – everyone deserves a time. However, with our large entries there’s a knock-on effect as people wait at the signing-on point for the timekeepers to return (sometimes in the gloom) to see the results and gather up equipment, so everyone is affected.

The simple solution is to have a cut-off time which everyone can understand. In most cases this will be different for every event.

Below is a simple formula which provides a cut-off time, on the assumption that the last man off can achieve a 20 mph average. This puts an obligation on the slower riders to avoid booking a late number and implies the faster riders should avoid filling the early numbers. It's worth remembering that the cut-off time defines the ‘safe’ limit of daylight in may cases.

Let    N = Number of last rider
        D = Course distance (miles)
        T = Total time of event (mins) taken from event start time.

Then T = N + 3D.

eg. for a 10 mile TT with last man at no.50:
T = 50 + 3 x 10 = 80 mins.
So for a 7 pm start, the cut-off is 8.20 PM

For a 25 mile TT with last man at no.45:
T = 45 + 3 x 25 = 120 mins.
So for a 6.45 PM start, the cut-off is 8.45 PM