Team Time Trialling

Team Time Trials are races where teams of 2, 3 or 4 riders compete against the clock over a certain distance combining to share the work load. There are not many of these races on the calendar but Clarencourt have a particular experience and expertise in such races both as competitors and organizers.

In 1960 team time trialling was incorporated into the Olympic Games for the first time and this created some interest in this country as it was thought that since we had along tradition of individual time trialling all we needed was to put our 4 fastest blokes into the same team and we would be triumphant. Some hopes! GB never won a TTT medal.

In 1964 before the Tokyo Olympics the Kentish Wheelers promoted the first 4-up 100 kms TTT in this country on a course based on the Brighton and Eastbourne roads and it was billed as an Olympic Trial. The Clarencourt had some experience in TTs and in road racing and assumed that many clubs would enter so we entered a team. From the whole country only 6 teams entered and our team of Bob Conrad, Dave McLellan, Pat Lacy and Mick Ayliffe were fourth. The course was very difficult, the weather atrocious and we punctured in the first mile. We managed 2.48.55 to the Edgeware’s 2.34.17.

Anyway the seed was sown and we rode every TTT that was available from then on riding trials around the country including Leicester, Cambridge and Plymouth. When Old Mick Ayliffe died in 1978 the club decided to promote a TTT in his memory based on the Brighton road because of his enthusiasm for our participation in these races. This event became a very successful event, referred to often as the team time trial. It attracted entries from France and across the country including the GB World Championship and Olympic teams. When the TTT was dropped from the Olympic programme in 1992 the number of 4-up TTTs promoted in the UK dropped and the National Championship in the discipline was discontinued. The Clarencourt persisted in the promotion of their event and was rewarded by being chosen to promote the National TTT championship for the CTT when they reinstated the National Championship in 2004. Since then we have run the 4-up as the Surrey League Championship.

Last year we had our first ladies team in the race and the improvement they made in three month’s training was impressive. We hope to continue our association with this form of racing.