Time, Speed and Truth – A history of timetrialling review

Time, Speed and Truth is a history of timetrialling from the late nineteenth century to the modern day. It’s a curious and fascinating story, which says quite a lot about the British attitude to cycling in general. The book by Peter Whitefield provides a good overview of the strange evolution and some of the great characters which shaped the sport of time trialling. There are some good black and white photos, and the book comes with a CD of 300 images by the great photographer Bernard Thompson. It will appeal to anyone who has ever had the ‘timetrialling bug’.  I also found it quite interesting from the perspective of cycling culture and social attitudes.

The brief history of timetrialling is relatively well known – racing early in the morning, on secret courses, invitation only, no publicity, riders must dress all in black. It was a race where people were kind of pretending not to race – very British, I suppose. In those early days, the overwhelming sense was that cyclists were a bit of a nuisance and the more inconspicuous they could be the better. Those organising time trials had an  almost paranoia they would lose the right to race on the roads; and this become deeply ingrained – long after the situation on the roads had radically changed. By the 1930s, cyclists were no longer really the ‘menace to horse riders’ It was the new motor car, who was the undisputed King of the road (and causing up to 10,000 fatalities a year. See: changing attitudes)

Although I know the basic background to timetrialling it was still interesting to know a bit more detail about it’s early evolution. It’s hard to imagine, but there was  a brief time in the 1880s / 90s, when motor cars were not really yet on the roads. The roads were primarily intended for horse drawn carriages and pedestrians. All very stately and slow.

As a cyclist you often feel there is a ‘law of the jungle’ – the biggest, heaviest and fastest vehicles get right of way. But, for a decade, it was actually the bicycle which was the fastest machine on the road. Inevitably, cyclists started organising races, but bizarrely, most races were ‘paced events’ i.e. a cyclist using pacing from either another cyclist or later motor car. It led to the bizarre situation where a race of 50, may have 80-100 cyclists fighting it out at the finish line.

However, these racing cyclists were not liked. There were incidents of conflict between horse drawn carriages and racing cyclists, and the police prosecuted the cyclists. Cycling was essentially a working class pursuit. Horse drawn carriages were the transport of the upper classes.  It’s unsurprising, the police took complaints of the rich more seriously. It was from these incidents  and fear of losing the right to cycle on roads, that the sport of time trialling was born.

This was the start, and the sport was born. The thing I like about the book is that it gives more insights into these early races and developments. Although, ironically, the press reports were also deliberately vague about many details. It really was a matter of great secrecy – even up to the Second World War. There are the odd reports about the Bath road 100, but it’s very different to contemporary cycle journalism.

There is inevitably a strong nostalgia about looking back to these ‘golden years’ Great races, like the Bath Road Club 100 mile TT, the North Road 100 and  other great classics. Despite the conflict over the strict division between pro and amateurs, there was a certain purity of the amateur sporting challenge to time trials, and I think it is this, Whitfield is trying to capture.  Until quite recently, timetrialling really did dominate the local domestic scene. In the ‘halycon days’ of the 1940s and 1950s, the 12 hour and 24 hour races were  quite common. It seems everyone had plenty of time to spend all weekend cycling. There were even often huge crowds at races to see the great stars of the day – Ray Booty, B.Burton, A.Engers could all draw in the crowds.

In the book, there are brief profiles of some of the characters who made the sport and broke the records. From Birdlake to Beryl Burton, from Ray Booty to Chris Boardman. I think it is the characters of the sport, which make it so fascinating. For each of these cyclists, it would have been nice to know more, e.g. for further reading you might consider the book Obree v Boardman. But, it still nice to have a record of  the mercurial Alf Engers, the passion of David Lloyd, the sheer audacity of those like Andy Wilkinson who went out and smashed so many records. It was also nice to have a brief mention of  the modern ‘stars’

Like the author, I share a certain regret / wistfulness the sport has been somewhat marginalised. The loss of the great classics, the demotion of race reports from Cycling Weekly  Partly the sport itself is to blame – with so many races on busy dual carriageways, it’s not really surprising it fails to attract a new generation. But, it does raise the question of why people are so happy to spend £50 for a semi official sportive race, yet, don’t want to spend £7 to do a time trial on similar roads. And ironically, as the author notes, there is the fact that British cyclists who grew up with the time trialling culture have gone on to win stages in the Grand European tours with such good effect (Boardman, Wiggins, and more recently Alex Dowsett – who still does local 10s and 25s).

But on the other hand, we may ask why have time trials been so big in the first place? There really is no where else in the world where time trials developed such a deep culture and strong roots in the club scene. This is the good thing about the book, you begin to understand how the sport developed and captured so many people’s imagination.

Yet, despite its increasing marginalisation behind the product reviews of Cycling Weekly and the more exotic pro scene on the continent, there is much to be proud of in the history and perseverance of time trialling. As a current rider, it means a lot to learn more about the early pioneers of the sport -  cycling all weekend to get to races and then trudging up and down bumpy roads on single speed. The great thing is that essentially time trialling is still the same as it was 110 years ago. We may spend £3,000 more on our bikes. There may be more traffic, higher average speeds and increasing difficulties in finding courses, but throughout the past 100 years, it always been the race of truth – riders against the clock.

Price £25 including Post & Packing

Order from:

Peter Whitfield, Tachbrook House, Park Street,

Charlbury, Oxfordshire OX7 3PS

Call 01608 810837 Email: peterwychwood@hotmail.co.uk

Related

Classic time trial photos