Cyclopedia (45 page)

TEAM TIME TRIAL
Exactly what it says, and varies from “two-up” races run in Britain for two-man teams, to the stages of the TOUR DE FRANCE that are contested by full squads of nine. There was a team time-trial world championship over 100 km from 1962 until 1993. A non-medal race for professional teams will return to the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS from 2012. The UK championship ran from 1970 to 1999 and was reinstituted in 2004.

Choice of formation is key in team time-trialling: some teams adopt a “two-line” formation, with the riders rotating continuously, taking short turns at the front. A higher speed results, but because weaker members do the same amount of work as the stronger men, they tire more quickly. In the “one-line” formation, the riders stay at the front of the string for as long as they feel is appropriate; the weaker elements do shorter turns.

In team time trials in the Tour de France, teams have to have a minimum number of finishers; the rules of team time trials in stage races vary, sometimes with the actual time of each squad counting toward his or her overall time, while sometimes a system of bonuses is put in place to ensure that losses are capped.

TELEVISION
“Newspapers created the Tour de France, radio made it popular, television made it magnificent,” said the TOUR DE FRANCE organizer Christian Prudhomme as he launched the 2010 race. Prudhomme, it should be noted, is a former television presenter, but he is broadly right.

The modern-day Tour is a televisual product, and that has an impact right through the sport. First, the way the sport is depicted is completely different. The historian Benjo Maso made the point that the victories of
EDDY MERCKX made less impact on public consciousness than those of FAUSTO COPPI because television pictures could not hide how weak Merckx's rivals were; much of the time Coppi was equally dominant, but the written press could big up his opponents.

The search for televisual novelty means that the Tour organizers seek out new, dramatic backdrops—in 2010 the vast North Sea dykes of Holland were the novelty—and they try to construct a route that may provide a last-ditch denouement. The dream scenario was that of 1989, where the race was decided in the final meters of the final stage (see LAURENT FIGNON, GREG LEMOND). Television finances the race; sponsors enter cycling in order to get in the Tour and “show the jersey,” and ever-greater resources are devoted to getting the pictures and showing them.

The Tour has massive airtime, growing from 38 hours in 1986 to 112 hours in 1996. Live stage coverage picks up about 50 percent of the available audience. The great increase in worldwide audience came in the 1980s as new nations figured in the action: 50 million in 1980, a billion six years later. The Tour is now covered by 65 stations transmitting to 110 countries. The television rights grew accordingly, going from 12 million francs in 1990 to 85 million francs eight years later. By then, television was the biggest contributor to the event's income.

Television money has enabled the sport to survive because it trickles down in various ways, but it has also created the massive imbalance within the sport, where the Tour dominates the entire year and lesser events struggle to get screen time because of production costs. The outcome has been that ASO, who run the Tour, have become the dominant force because they can use the Tour's revenues to subsidize smaller events, and its prestige to find sponsors and venues (see ASO entry for how far their tentacles stretch).

This is all relatively new.

The Tour was not shown live on TV until 1958; stage finishes in Paris were not even shown on the same day until the following year, while it was 1960 when images began to be shown using motorcycle cameras. Now it is televised in 186 countries.

THIEVES
The most prolific bike thief is believed to be Igor Kenk, a 50-year-old retired police officer in Canada, who in July 2008 was found to have 2,285 bikes stored in warehouses and garages across Toronto after a sting operation in which police planted bikes in various locations in the city and watched to see who stole them. Police raided a shop run by Kenk and found so many bikes inside that they could not be moved out of the upper floor. He was sentenced to two and a half years in jail—about three days per bike. In 2010, his story was made into an acclaimed graphic novel by Richard Poplak and Nick Marinkovich.

THREE PEAKS
The longest and hardest CYCLO-CROSS race in the world has been run annually over Whernside, Ingleborough, and Pen-y-Ghent in the English Peak District since 1961. Whereas most cyclo-cross races are on short park circuits, the Peaks consists of a single large loop with over 5,000 feet of climbing. The cyclo-cross was inspired by the classic fell run over the three mountains, and at the end of 1959 the first cyclist to complete the course was a 14-year-old schoolboy, Kevin Watson, who took almost seven hours.

The cyclo-cross was founded two years later and now draws such a large field that in places riders have to line up to get over stiles. Since its inception, course changes have extended
the distance to almost 40 miles, of which about 34 can be ridden. Part of the course is on private land, meaning that the race offers the only chance to ride the complete circuit. Mountain bikes were permitted for a few years in the 1990s, but the rule now is that only cyclo-cross bikes can be used.

TIME
TRIALLING
Yet another English eccentricity in European eyes, this branch of the sport is the most popular racing discipline in Great Britain, yet it exists in almost total isolation. It was not until 1994 that a regular time trial world championship was inaugurated—the first winner was CHRIS BOARDMAN—and time trialling in Europe is limited to a few one-off events held in autumn and individual stages in stage races. But in Britain, thousands of cyclists test themselves against the watch most weeks from February to October, and an informal local time trial is where most British bike racers compete for the first time.

The growth of time trialling can be traced back to cycling's formative years, when racing was banned on British roads after a legendary episode on the North Road—the main road from London to Edinburgh, now the A1—in which a horse collided with a cycle race. The British governing body, the National Cyclists' Union, forbade racing on the roads and refused to recognize RECORDS set on the roads.

The NCU's hope was that racers would compete on tracks, but that was impractical as not every town had one. Time trialling was the way competitive cyclists got around the ban: running timed events over fixed distances in which the racers rode “alone and unpaced,” separated by intervals of one or two minutes. Because the competitors rode solo, with no numbers (although they had to have bells), who was to know if
they were racing? There were no prizes, and the racers had to wear black. If they wore white socks, for example, they would be disqualified, and were, as late as 1945. Courses were referred to by CODES so that no one outside cycling clubs knew where the start and finish would be.

There had been time trials before—the NCU had run a championship in 1878—but the first time trial over one of today's set distances was run over 50 miles on October 5, 1895, by the North Road Cycling Club. In 1930 the sport was given further impetus with the creation of the BRITISH BEST ALL ROUNDER by
Cycling
magazine.

The most popular distances today are 10, 25, 50, and 100 miles, and for most club cyclists the key targets are those that equal a 25 mph average—24 minutes for 10 miles, “under the hour” for 25, and so on. A handful of 12-hour contests are also run as they enable cyclists to qualify for the BBAR, and there are also events over 24 hours and 15 miles, as well as over hilly courses of any distance from 10 to 60 miles. Hilly events on nonstandard circuits have become more popular since the first world championships were held in 1994, as they replicate the sort of course used at the World's. They are also easier to organize as traffic has become heavier on Britain's main roads. The end of season HILL CLIMBS are as atmospheric and popular as ever.

The joy of time trialling for the average cyclist is that even if you do not win, you always come away from a race with a result: your personal time. This can be compared with your times on other courses and those of your rivals—and national stars as well—and progression can be noted. Being low-key—usually just a few people with a watch in a parking lot—they are easily organized, which is why most British cycling clubs run midweek evening time trials on local courses. The best-known time triallist to go on to bigger things was CHRIS BOARDMAN, a national champion at 25 miles, who used skills honed in British time
trialling to win the yellow jersey three times in the Tour de France prologue time trial. However, he felt that a lack of bunched racing in his early years meant he did not have perfect bike handling skills: he quit three Tours due to crashes. Another time triallist to make it on the world stage was BERYL BURTON, who used her ability to ride solo to win several world titles, but lacked a sprint. SEAN YATES went from British time trialling to become one of the most respected pros on the European circuit and returned to “testing” after retirement. Boardman and more recently BRADLEY WIGGINS used time trials as part of their preparation for the Tour de France and Olympics. Time trialling has produced its own list of purely British greats such Ray “The Boot” Booty, who was the first man to break four hours for 100 miles in 1956, and Alf Engers, a flamboyant baker from the East End who took the 25-mile record from 55 minutes 11 seconds in 1959 to 49 minutes 24 seconds in 1978.