I belong to a triathlon club and we are starting a 20 -25 mile time trial this week. My question is should we go out together (10-15 riders) or maybe go in 15 sec intervals…
Never heard of a TT sending people off in groups??? 15 seconds is also fairly close… not much time for racers to get set. I’ve always raced TTs at 30-60 second gaps.
JB
I would second what JB said. I would suggest at least 30 second intervals.
We do a weekly series and start at 30 second intervals. This way, you are close enough to catch or get caught quickly, so its more fun as you see other people go by. We also opt for a 1.5 to 3 mile run afterwards. Its a TT/duathlon series.
Maybe I should ask would a hard group ride be as beneficial as a time trial…
Our road group is doing a club TT this weekend. We use one minute intervals.
To mimize the people needed to put it on, you can do a foot-down start (no need for a holder at the start).
And I’d go with 30 second intervals. Don’t even THINK about a group start. Unless you’re all training for ITU pro races…
Standard procedure for this distance TT is 1 minute apart. Hence the phrase “catching your minuteman”. It is enough to allow for you to catch your rabbit if you are speedy but also keeps the field from bunching up. It also makes it easier for the timekeeper to get accurate times for every rider.
you can also have the fastest start first. This prevents slower riders to get discouraged.
"you can also have the fastest start first. This prevents slower riders to get discouraged. "
Francois, that is an excellent point. One that deserves more consideration than most realize.
Even in our little club we do it “by the rules” with the one minute intervals and the slow people going first. We have some members who get passed by four or five riders on a 20 km TT.
I’ve argued that we should do reverse order to not discourage newbies and slower folks. The people who organize the events argue against and insist upon “going by the rules” but then wonder why we have such small numbers coming out for the club TT’s.
The fastest riders should go off at 5 min intervals with the others graded as closely as possible so that most riders should catch one rider each. Obviously this is perfect world.
1 minute is the UK norm although if it’s an unofficial training run I’d recommend 30 secs as this is safer on the roads as from a drivers perspective you’re closer together and much more visible.
I would say anything up to 10km should be 1 minute minimum and up to 40km 2 mins apart…that’s worked for us all…we hold our own Time Trials and max. turnout is something like 20-odd riders so we have even had 4 rider TT’s in the past!!!..we still do it as officially as possible…
…the thing about TT’s is that the “legends in their own minds” really find out how slow/fast they really are and hence shy away from them more often than not…these are the types that draft you on straights and rolling sections and then wait for a hill to power past you…but that’s all they do…Spanish riders are like that on the roads we cycle in…they like hills…