'We're trying to get to the parkrun situation': British time trialling organisation reboot signals brave new world

Cycling Time Trials, the UK's time trialling organisation, has rebranded and launched a new website, as it continues its drive to modernise and attract new blood to the sport.

As well as a new look marking a considerable departure from it's old and rather antiquated incarnation, the new site has a huge amount of back-end development that will spell real change for current time triallists and, importantly for CTT, new ones too.

With built-in support for electronic events timing, social media integration and ready adaptation for developments in years ahead, CTT considers it wholly future proof.

It also features comprehensive club entry system that CTT chair Andrea Parish hopes will transform the experience of those looking to start racing.

"We're trying to get to the parkrun situation there, where it's a mass participation sport and open event," she told Cycling Weekly. "Once it comes online, it's just a game changer for us.

"I really want to change time trials, not just on roads. I want to get off-road. We've got clubs doing that."

She added: "The more clubs that affiliate to us, the more we can do for clubs, the more I can increase the value proposition, the more revenue that we can raise to actually sink into the development of the sport, to diversify what we do for time trials. "

The site's electronic timing would be offered up to all affiliated clubs, Parish explained. It would enable timekeepers to carry out timekeeping duties using a tablet, with riders entered online automatically imported into the line-up. Marshals around the course will also be able use devices to register split-times, which will be instantly synced with the result board at the HQ – along with the final times when they, too, are recorded.

Although it had improved in recent years, CTT's old site – and even CTT itself – had been considered rather clunky and antiquated.

Parish, who was voted in as chair in December 2021, conceded as much herself, saying: "I'd come to realise that CTT was seen as fuddy duddy… that upset me. So there was a lot that I set out to change."

The new site has far less presumed knowledge, she said, with the aim of making time trialling easy and attractive to navigate for those looking to try racing for the first time.

"It's all about attracting the new riders," she said. "I mean, the current riders know the ropes, don't they, and this is about attracting new riders. Anyone has got a bike essentially come time for trial. I think that's the premise," Parish said.

"As to how you start your time trial journey, what are your next steps... all the bits and bobs that were really wordy, really old fashioned on the old website, we're chunking them down. We're making it easier for people.

"We've gone from one extreme to another - we've got real brand awareness now," she added. It was the 'impossible' website, she added, saying: ​​"What we've actually delivered, under any normal circumstances for any company – and dare I say any other governing body – would be completely impossible."

Parish referenced an article written in Cycling Weekly magazine (January 3) as part of our 'State of road racing' review, which outlined a 10-point plan to support the sport at grass-roots level: "I'm like, hang on a minute, we are soon there on so much of this. Us, little cycling time trials," she said.

Indeed, post Covid, in what has been a testing time for many sports, not least time trialling and road racing, it feels like CTT has made considerably more progress than British Cycling in boosting entrants and underpinning its grass-roots offerings. Its launch of road bike time trials as a standard recognised class has brought hundreds of new riders, while more recently it launched the Tribes initiative, to support club riders in a nationwide competition that does not penalise slow courses.

Optimistic as she is, Parish is under no illusions, she says, that the world of amateur sport is no longer the same as it was back in 2019 – and that isn't about to change.

"We are in a post-Covid world," she said. "The game has changed. We cannot go back to that. So we have to adapt, we have to do things differently, and we have to understand that the landscape has changed, and we actually have to take what we've got and make the most of that and use that as a new base for growth."