First 10 mile hard ride.... very pleased.

bendewey
bendewey Posts: 23
edited August 2008 in Road beginners
Brought a Trek 1.5 a month or so ago and its still all standard.

Have been dong regular 20-30 mile rides 2 or 3 times a week, more if i can!

I generally average between 19 and 21 mph depending on conditions! Is this good/pretty quick?

Last night i thought i would test myself over 10 miles, the course was pretty hilly, two 8% climbs (i take it this is pretty steep???) and i finished it in 28 min 23s. I reckon on a flat course with no traffic or junctions etc i could take at least 2 or 3 minutes off this! Again, would this give me a respectable time in a 10mile TT??

If i wanted to join a club and race, what sort of licence etc would i need? I dont understand the licence system at all, would somebody care to explain?

Thanks
Ben

Comments

  • whyamihere
    whyamihere Posts: 7,716
    Considering how recently you've started riding, you're doing brilliantly. I'm guessing you were pretty fit to start off with? Same for your 10 mile TT, very impressive. The beginners benchmark for a flat course is 30 minutes (average of 20mph), and you're obviously well above that.
    To join a club (which you're nearly ready for, if you can do 40 miles at about 17mph average you'll be fine with most clubs) you don't need a license. For official races, you'll need to be a member of British Cycling and get a license from them, but many clubs will run unofficial time trials which only require membership.
  • Well, I am pretty envious of your average speed. I have been cycling for ages and you seem to be training at my "eyeballs out" TT speed. I am a girl (and an old girl at that), so don't get too excited at being faster than me...

    "Open" TTs require you to belong to the Cycling Time Trials world. As far as I know, membership of an affiliated club does the trick.

    "Club" TTs often will allow non-members to take part. However, these events are run by volunteers for the club. If loads of non-members turn up, it is hard on the volunteers, who might end up standing out in bad weather as it grows dark, and all for a bunch of strangers who they might never meet again...so some clubs only run TTs for members.

    A friend got in touch with a local club (Wyre Forest) via their website and asked if he could turn up and ride one of their TTs. He got a nice message back saying he was welcome. He enjoyed the event (rode it on an old touring bike) and subsequently joined the club. You could try this route in to time trialling - some clubs are keen to attract new members, others less so.
  • BeaconRuth
    BeaconRuth Posts: 2,086
    bendewey - was your 10-mile route a circuit that came back to the same starting point or was it a random 10 miles, possibly mostly in the same direction? The reason I ask is because all official time trials are required to have the start and finish points within a certain distance. This means that any advantage you gain in one direction from, say, downhills or a helpful wind have to be 'paid back' on the return. It is much much easier to cover 10 miles quickly with a strong wind behind you than it would be to ride an 'out and back' course.

    As turbo hamster said, many clubs will welcome you to try out an evening 10 mile TT, but don't hang about because with the evenings drawing in, club's only run evening events to the end of August. There are still open events going on in September but they're a bit more formal, require club membership and have to be pre-entered.

    Ruth
  • bendewey
    bendewey Posts: 23
    BeaconRuth wrote:
    bendewey - was your 10-mile route a circuit that came back to the same starting point or was it a random 10 miles, possibly mostly in the same direction? The reason I ask is because all official time trials are required to have the start and finish points within a certain distance. This means that any advantage you gain in one direction from, say, downhills or a helpful wind have to be 'paid back' on the return. It is much much easier to cover 10 miles quickly with a strong wind behind you than it would be to ride an 'out and back' course.

    As turbo hamster said, many clubs will welcome you to try out an evening 10 mile TT, but don't hang about because with the evenings drawing in, club's only run evening events to the end of August. There are still open events going on in September but they're a bit more formal, require club membership and have to be pre-entered.

    Ruth

    It was a circular route, starting and ending at the same place. May have to give my local club a ring and see if i can do a TT to see how i get on!
  • BeaconRuth
    BeaconRuth Posts: 2,086
    Super! Well done then. That's a very respectable first attempt.

    Where are you based? Do you know any local clubs? Often there are folk on here who can give you local advice about clubs.

    Ruth
  • bendewey
    bendewey Posts: 23
    I live in Brixworth which is 5 miles north of Northampton.

    Only know of a couple of local clubs, Welland Valley CC being the closest. Not sure of many others?
  • BeaconRuth
    BeaconRuth Posts: 2,086
    I doubt you'd go far wrong with the Welland Valley CC. They are a pretty large and well-established club from what I know. The easiest way to find all your local clubs who are involved in time trialling is to go to the CTT site: http://www.ctt.org.uk/ and look under 'Clubs' and then 'South East Mids (N)'.

    Ruth
  • Bronzie
    Bronzie Posts: 4,927
    whyamihere wrote:
    For official races, you'll need to be a member of British Cycling and get a license from them, but many clubs will run unofficial time trials which only require membership.
    You only need a full BC Racing Licence for bunch racing (about £65/year) - as has been said above, to ride an "open" TT you just need to belong to a club affiliated to Cycling Time Trials. You can also get a "day licence" for around £10 to enter a bunch race if you just wanted to have a go without paying for a full licence.

    You can also enter BC "Go-Race" races on a BC Bronze membership - £12 or possible free from your local club - see the BC Race Calendar for list of Go Race events
  • kettrinboy
    kettrinboy Posts: 613
    i live not far from you in Kettering so probably know most of the roads and hills you use,over the last week ive done 5 rides ,4 loops and one out and back on consecutive days of 10,14,14.5,10&12 and my ave for those rides was 20.99 to 21.13 but thats taken me just over 2 years riding , and 8000 miles to do that so if your doing those speeds after a month thats good going, perhaps youre just a "natural" instead of having to have worked at it like me
  • bendewey
    bendewey Posts: 23
    kettrinboy wrote:
    i live not far from you in Kettering so probably know most of the roads and hills you use,over the last week ive done 5 rides ,4 loops and one out and back on consecutive days of 10,14,14.5,10&12 and my ave for those rides was 20.99 to 21.13 but thats taken me just over 2 years riding , and 8000 miles to do that so if your doing those speeds after a month thats good going, perhaps youre just a "natural" instead of having to have worked at it like me

    Nice to know there are some other cyclists about, rarely see anybody else out on the roads round here!

    Do you ride in a club?

    I take it from your name you are young? I only ask because im only just 19 and dont know anybody my age who rides!
  • kettrinboy
    kettrinboy Posts: 613
    edited August 2008
    Sorry thats a bit of a misleading screen name i,m actually 45 and only got my first decent bike at 43 so that maybe explains why it took me relatively longer to get up to a good pace , I meant to say there is a 9.33 mile TT circuit very near you that Kettering Cycle Club uses for their evening TT series, it starts in Old on the road leading up to Mawsley village, the starting point is where the minor road forks off down to the left, but you bear right to head NE out of Old up to the T junction , then turn left and follow the road all the way thru Foxhall to the T junction ,turn left and head down by the old airfield to Lamport , just into Lamport turn left and follow the road to Old into the village and back to the starting point , my best time last year was 26,23 which is 21.2 ave still my fastest ever ride to date,I thought it was a fluke at the time, its taken me till last week to get back to that speed.To give you some idea of how fast the club riders go the last meeting was 2 days ago the winner did 20,52 the slowest 32,49, the vast majority of the 20 odd starters did 23 to 27 mins, why not give it a whirl sometime to see how you compare,I,me not in a club at the moment but might join a local one at some point in the future