Last week, in an effort to instill fairness in budding racers, Cycling Canada announces plans to ban time trial bikes from youth events.
The restriction will apply to the National Road Championships in June, meaning Canadian under-17s and juniors will have to rely on “only one bike frame” — in other words, their road bikes — in all competition categories. They also don’t allow extension poles or disc wheels.
Why does Cycling Canada do this? Well, they hope it will “ensure consistency, equity, accessibility, increase engagement and talent identification, and improve shipping efficiency.” I couldn’t agree more.
As we all know, cycling is an elaborate sport and where there is technology, there is an expensive revenue market. Today, a decent time trial bike costs between £3,000 and £12,000. Add to that the cost of comparably priced road bikes, and the sport quickly becomes a playground for those who can afford it.
I never rode a bike as a kid, I played football. My parents used to buy me top-shelf boots and good training clothes, but I guess if I’d been asking for a £6,000 time trial bike, I’d have been told where to push it.
That’s Cycling Canada’s desire to improve access, equity and inclusion. Teenagers should not be in an arms race to compete in a time trial, nor should they feel like they are at a disadvantage at the start of a race. Winning shouldn’t be just for the rich.
Of course, this isn’t always the case. Children from wealthy families do tend to gain advantages in cycling, just as they do elsewhere in society. In trying to level the field, we see other parents going above and beyond their means.
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I remember reading a Twitter exchange late last year in which Michael Tarling, the father of former European time trial champion Josh and IPT Academy rider Finlay, criticized someone who said bike racing was “fashionable as hell” “People’s affairs.
Tallinn responded: “We sacrificed, scrimped, begged and borrowed money to help our lads get where they are. As a result, we will be struggling financially for many years. Would not hesitate to do it again.”
In another post, he added that the family had “remortgaged multiple times” and topped up their credit cards, often relying on second- and third-hand equipment. The Tarlings’ efforts to give their sons a chance are very commendable – but should parents really have to go through this? I’m concerned that this isn’t a sustainable structure for youth racing, especially as equipment becomes more and more expensive.
Banning time trial bikes also makes sense from a talent discovery perspective. According to one experiment, riding 25 miles of power at 250 watts, a rider on a road bike would be nearly 6 minutes slower than a competitor on a time trial bike. my windsock. The improvement in aerodynamic performance is so significant that two equal drivers can finish dozens of places apart in a race.
Places on the national team are usually determined based on performance. Likewise, teams, scouts and agents look for wins when scouting promising riders. Is the person who wins the game usually the strongest? Maybe. But similar talents who cannot afford equipment are being eliminated. What does this teach about fairness?
I admit that I would be ignorant if I did not say that there are other sides to this argument. Canadian junior athletes risk being disadvantaged in international competition because their rivals use time trial bikes to train and compete year-round, according to a new ruling from Cycling Canada. Additionally, a lack of experience on a time trial bike may hold them back when they graduate from the junior division. What I’m saying about this is that the vast majority of people – those who don’t go straight to the professional level in their teenage years – can still rely on the under-23s to keep up.
There is also the question of where our boundaries lie. Banning time trial bikes is a first step, but what about time trial helmets and state-of-the-art tights? Amateurs in the UK tell us that road bikes can be aerodynamically optimized to look and behave like time trial bikes. Will this unfairness continue? Maybe, but certainly not that obvious.
The reality is that there are many barriers to entry for those who want to get into bike racing and make a career out of it. If banning time trial bikes can eliminate one of those, count me in.
