A roundup of all National and Group News

I am pleased to say the Series is well and truly underway with 10 riders having completed the necessary six rides to gain a category. So far Stafford RC seems to be dominating the Series.

No suprises to see that Karl Moseley and Scott Westwood have gained Elite status already and Rob Weare and Mark Mullender are now ranked as 1st cats. It won't be long before Phil Clark joins the upper rankings of the Series, having completed five races so far.

No less than four riders from Stafford RC are straight in as 3rd cats including two women Sue Semple and Annis Moore (who has ridden the most races - 7). Not far in front of them are Alastair Semple and Matthew Moore. Also from Stafford is Sue Smith who has started well as a 4th cat.

The last rider who has completed six races is Mark Burnham from Coventry RC who also starts as a 4th cat. Well done to all the riders who are taking the newly vamped competition seriously and best of luck to those who we will no doubt see completing their 6th race shortly.

The VTTA’s National Championship 25, held on 2 June, was restricted to members only and set what may be a new precedent.

It is true that some of the Association’s short distance championships are so oversubscribed that the restriction ‘Preference to Members’ has to be applied, but the limitation ‘members only’, no matter how few entries, is rare, if practised at all.

The invention and introduction of a system of age standards for time triallists some 70 years ago, was meant to cater for those comparatively few riders back then who were over the age of 40 and who had little chance of beating their younger rivals.

As the pendulum has swung and veterans outnumber youth by a huge margin, the standard tables have been appropriated by almost all promotions, creating a situation where membership of the VTTA would seem to some to be unnecessary when awards can be won on calculations which are borrowed, if not actually filched, from a benign organisation which exists for the benefit of all.

Advocates of a ‘members only’ restriction would agree that such a ruling could not apply to the longer distance event where a joint promotion is necessary in order to share the large requirement for helpers and where the inclusion of a VTTA Championship might add to the attraction, but in the 10, 25 and perhaps the 50, one wonders whether it might be politic to include such a limitation.

With the introduction of new standards in 2012, there were many occurrences of the fastest rider winning the best on standard award also. It did seem to some to be unjust that such riders should eschew membership of the very organisation which had created the format by which they were able to take a double dose of the prizes.

A telling remark by one of those fast riders whose gains amounted to a considerable amount of money (by time triallists’ benchmarks) was:

“Membership of the VTTA has no relevance to my performances.”

Whatever the differing views may be, the London Group’s staging of the 2013, 25 mile championship, with an entry of 86, all members of the VTTA, and a group of 33 marshals, also all members of the VTTA, was the hoped for memorable occasion – even though I says it who shouldn’t!