Taking the trial out of TTs: We tried to master the 'race of truth' without getting obsessive about it

Time trialling need not require an all-consuming, slavish commitment to lonely intervals and geeky aero gains

Alex B

CW's Alex Ballinger attempts to master the 'race of truth' without getting obsessive about it

My fledgling time trial career started with a crash. Since that first mildly disastrous attempt in January, my TT path has taken many turns (and missed a few too) — I have turned up at the wrong start line, set off in a race two minutes after my start time, taken the wrong exit on a roundabout during an event, and somewhere amid all the chaos have managed to take a win.

Before we get into all that, let’s start at the beginning. Viewed from the passing distance of a car on an anonymous Hampshire dual carriageway, time trialling looks like a cultish existence. To the normal person, a gaggle of skinsuited pedallers congregating in a layby wearing funny-shaped helmets at 7pm on a Thursday seems at best eccentric, but to those inside it, it can be so much more.

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