January vote could clamp down on road bike specifications for UK time trials

After the issues that beset last year's UK road bike championship time trial, it is no surprise to see that proposals at the upcoming Cycling Time Trials annual National Council meeting concern themselves largely with the emerging drop-bar class.

It took seven weeks for George Fox to be crowned champion after his ride back in April, following complaints made by a fellow rider about his bike and his position. The CTT eventually upheld Fox's ride, which saw him beat runner-up Alex Dowsett by 41 seconds over the 22.4-mile course near Peterborough.

After that episode it seemed almost inevitable that CTT would move in some way to clarify the rules at its annual AGM – set to be held on January 26 – to prevent the same thing occurring again. And that appears to be exactly what is about to happen.

There are numerous proposed rule changes, put forward by various Districts and also the CTT's own Rules Advisory Group (RAG), which is supported by the CTT board itself.

The RAG proposals are the most extensive, and while they don't alter any of the basic road bike specs required to compete, they do leave far less room for interpretation, which was the issue previously.

Notably, it suggests that the only points of support should be the saddle, the pedals and the hands on the bars – this would have outlawed the position used last year by Fox and others, who used the bars as forearm as well as hand supports. Equally, the RAG proposals would outlaw the use of bidons mounted behind the saddle to aid with aerodynamics.

There are further proposals to ban such use of bidons on all other machines, not just road bikes, and restrict the use of hydration bladders in events under 30 miles, to preclude them being used as frontal fairings, and a proposed ban on any padding being used inside skinsuits for the same reason.

On another tack, there are also proposals from the Scottish and North-East Districts to allow late entries to open events, which are currently limited to 10-13 days prior to the race day. This would be a historic change if voted in "would boost participation in time trialling", the two Districts say.

It is theoretically possible that none of these proposals will be voted through, but the CTT is eager to build on what is becoming something of a renaissance following a sharp slump post-Covid. Indeed, the National Report for 2024 sees road bike entries continue to attract new racers across nearly all age groups. It would be a surprise if a large number of the road bike proposals did not succeed.