Dual carriageway Time Trials

Central reservation is a new one for me.
I think that is what we call a (center) median here in the states.

I’ve done one TT and it was on a dual carriageway. Like it’s been mentioned above, it felt safer than it looked. It was a real thrill bombing down the slip road onto the main road, felt totally bizarre.
As a counterpoint, I’ve marshalled roundabouts on dual carriageways for our club evening TT. Was horrible to watch the riders who had no intention of slowing, cut in front of cars who had no intention of slowing. In one evening of about 25 riders I saw 3 possible incidents including one swearing match between rider and driver.
Refuse to be part of the madness now.

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I regularly race on dual carriage ways in non covid times & much prefer it to single carriage ways.
The traffic is all going the same way with good visibility. There are no cars trying to overtake down the middle of the road between on coming traffic and junctions are wide with slip roads unlike T junctions on B roads and no parked cars.
If you check the Cycling Time Trial accident reports you find the vast majority occur on single carriageway roads, with a recent trend involving head down riding into stationary objects like parked cars (sometimes on a 2nd lap when the car hadn’t moved!).
Top tip get a very bright rear TT light eg Forth Scorpion & a small flashing front like an eXposure. Having marshalled on DCs the increase in visibility from those lights is remarkable.

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I really like the A10/19 & A25/11 :slightly_smiling_face:

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The LED light is compulsory now…I use a Lezyne strip 300 lumen flash - the Forth Scorpion won’t fit on my saddle - and in answer to the codes…serious answer that is…letter is the regional code - E is London east - the rest is usually a combination of the distance and er…not sure - anyhow E2/50C is the 50mile TT course - slight variation to the old E2/50 starting and finishing near Newmarket :laughing:…get out there it was the only UK racing last year…unless you were one of the young UK roadies who turned up and embarrassed all us veteran TT riders last year!

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Probably worth mentioning that the course codes originated from when mass start racing on the roads was illegal and time trials developed as a dubiously legal way of racing where the riders wouldn’t be racing head to head. Everyone wore black alpaca jackets and the course codes were a way that only those in the know, would know what they referred to.

As already mentioned the letter is the regional code (most of which bear no relation to the area) I grew up racing in Kent which is Q then most regions have the distance followed by the course number so Q10/19 is the Tonbridge by-pass ( was Sean Yates’ favourite course) and the Q10/22 is on the A20 east of Maidstone. Other regions swap the distance and course number like the E courses mentioned and the F region (centred on the A1 north of London) I have my 25 and 50 mile PBs on the F1/25 and F1/50 but the last time I was visiting the UK they put traffic lights on the course so no fast times anymore, I once overtook a tractor on the F1/25 and had to go into the outside lane to do it😀

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UK (Cycling Time Trial) regional codes.

https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/find-districts

Links through to clubs, courses & results.

Of course you still need to find the 3rd drain cover past lamp post 3921A to find the start line :wink:

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Agree with most of what you say - but some sporting courses are great and present additional challenges and stimulation.

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Pod1976 Tonbridge bypass Q10/19 is the one and only TT I’ve done. Really enjoyed the feeling of flying down that slip road and merging with the traffic at about 40mph.

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The course that I marshalled on was the East Peckham dual carriageway. Do you know it? It goes across 2 major roundabouts twice doesn’t it? How can that be safe at 7pm on a weekday when it’s still busy with traffic?
I’d love to do more TTs but I’ll be buggered if I’m taking that sort of risk.

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This is my favourite bit: A truly British thing :smiley:

I’ve had to go an recce these courses beforehand to work out which tree or road sign they meant. Not so much as a faint line sratched on the road to help.

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With quite a bit of experience, having organised a number of timetrials on dual carriageways and ridden many both on dual carriageways and on sporting courses, here is my contribution.

Most dual carriageway courses benefit from good visibility and if a well designed route, very few sliproads. The time of the day can have a huge impact on traffic flow, but if the flow is too high they shouldn’t be used at that time. A good organiser will go above and beyond with safety signage. When riding, be confident and don’t hug the inside of the lane. This encourages drives to attempt to pass in the same lane, rather than moving out to the other lane. Incident can and do happen, and sadly when they do, they can be serious. Having said that, one serious incident in an event I organised was caused by a rider going into the back of another competitor, rather than a motor vehicle. The vast majority of driver are really good, and the frequency of riders in an event, combined with warning signs and good visibilty helps them to make good decisions. Dual carriageway events are great for that sensation of getting into a rhythm and fast speed.

Sporting courses, generally on country roads , present different challenges. From a safety perspective, there is less visibility, vehicles find it more difficult to overtake, partially due to vehicles coming in the other direction and there tend to be more junctions. Speed of traffic can be slower though and there is generally less traffic overall. As a challenge they are different, needing more thought regarding your effort, and can require a little more in bike-handling skills. They tend to include more varied gradients. They can be great fun, and the views are better.

If I had to only do one type for the rest of my life, I think I would go for the sporting courses.

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I rode Tonbridge a few times and I grew up in Yalding so know the East Peckham roads, but the 10 course didn’t really get used until after I moved away. Most of my club 10s were at Harrietsham or Lashenden in the early 90s.

Yeah, Sporting courses can be fun. I was just talking about DCs the OP mentioned

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Q10/19 is my local course, and my current PB!

I don’t think you were asking me, but as I regularly ride that course for club 10s and in training (in fact, I rode along it today), I don’t find it to be dangerous.

I did it at as an unofficial TT at 7.30pm back in August, and have regularly done this.

In the evenings traffic is generally heading north or south, so whilst there are RABs to negotiate, most traffic continues in the same direction. Of course, this isn’t an excuse to not treat the RABs with caution, but I’ve never had any kind of near miss.

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Thanks Sam, do you know what your cda is? I think I’d be around the same power for a 10mile TT but from some threshold work on the roads recently I’m no where near that speed. Something I really need to work on I think.

Don’t know what my cda is. I think there’s a way of approximately working it out but I don’t know how. Never been in a tunnel. This was from an Open last summer. Position is pretty good.

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My only TT in the last few years was on the WW10/03 DC course in Scotland. By far the fastest and probably one of the safest courses in the area. With a bright rear light that others have mentioned it felt fine, besides the section where the inside lane exits so you have to transition to the middle lane or risk losing the course all together. Again as others have said probably the only racing we will get here for the first half of the year !

ooof that hip angle!

Those cranks look so long. Have you tried shorter cranks? Might help generate some more Watts by opening hip angle a bit more (just from 1 shot from a random internet stranger with no training in bike fitting, for what its worth)

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Thanks Sam. I think those roundabouts look worse from a marshals position. You watch countless stupid, angry drivers, speeding through or honking their horns at each other then every minute or so you see one of your riders approaching and just have to hope they get lucky with sensible drivers.
However, the most aggressive incident I observed was a rider being forced to slow down by a car already on the roundabout so he rode up the back of it waving his arms and shouting. I was not impressed.

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