A NORTH Yorkshire sporting club has launched a season of individual events, each known as ‘The Race of Truth’.
The Selby Cycling Club (Selby CC) time-trial season began last Wednesday (April 3) on a six mile course on roads near Drax.
The club hosts time-trials - run against the clock over specified courses - with riders starting one minute apart from each other.
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Specialists in the sport use wind-tunnel tested bikes and kit to make themselves as aerodynamic as possible.
The composition of routes can be ‘there and back’, on flat, straight sections of road, or a mix of hilly sections, or circular routes.
Selby CC, like many cycling clubs up and down the country, do not require entrants to be members or to ride on specialist equipment although they must have their own roadworthy bike.
Hopefuls just need to turn up 30 minutes before the start, pay their £5, and pin a number onto their kit.
Ben Watson from Addform Vive le Velo Team covered the season-opening distance of six miles in a time of 13 minutes 12 seconds – at an average speed of 27.27 miles per hour (43.632 kilometres per hour).
Among those riders choosing a road bike for the time-trial, homegrown rider Steve Gelder of Selby CC clocked in at 14 minutes 41 seconds.
Selby CC Club organisers said first-timers were smiling throughout, and received help and support from all the other competitors.
The next time-trial hosted by the club is a ten-mile circular route, meeting at Drax Sports and Social Club on Wednesday, April 24, from 7pm.
Time-trials also feature within many of the professional cycling world’s most prestigious international road racing multi-day events and riders flying the flag for Great Britain including Chris Froome, Emma Pooley and Sir Bradley Wiggins, have all medalled at the Olympics.
To find out information about the scene at Selby CC, visit https://www.selbycyclingclub.co.uk/events/time-trials or email time-trials@selbycycling.co.uk
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