As the informal time trial captain for the club, I am stealing with pride the format used for club runs to put together a calendar for time trials in 2017

My aim is to help to get many people time trialling in 2017, and to coordinate entries to events so that there are familiar Beacon faces at races, with perhaps some team prizes for the taking! I will also coordinate team entries to events like Silverstone 9-up.
A quick introduction for those who have not participated in a time trial before - time trials are a type of bike racing in which the aim is usually to complete a set distance (typically 10, 25, 50 or 100 miles) in as fast a time as you are able. The courses are generally 'out and back' i.e. out along a road, turn around at a roundabout and back again, so that the start and finish are close together. Competitors are set off at 1 minute intervals, and the start / finish timekeepers back-calculate your time depending on the time you finish at. Time trials are a relatively stress-free introduction to racing - you race by yourself (i.e. not in a group of people) and you will be able to see yourself getting better each week which is rather satisfying!
It does not matter at all what bike you have - in the Midlands Womens TT Series in 2016 for example, competitors turned up on a huge range of bikes, from mountain bikes, to hybrids, road bikes to time trial bikes with pointy helmets.
Time trial courses are identified with a code name - a throwback to the days when bike racing on the roads was illegal! The codes disguised the whereabouts of the races, and the one-minute intervals meant that a cyclist racing along a road could tell a stern police person that they were simply out for a nice cycle

If anyone would like to know more about time trials, the second informal social to discuss racing (including time trials, road racing, track and cyclocross) is Thursday 12th Jan, at 7.30pm in the British Oak, Stirchley.
Right, onto the race calendar! There are hundreds of time trials throughout the year to choose from (full list here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gl7zqaw09sxj ... Kpgca?dl=0) and it can be difficult to pick which one(s) you want to do. In the Beacon TT calendar I will list suggested events - a combination of local events that are easy to get to, and further afield courses that would be fun, highlighting in bold the ones that I would particularly recommend.
If you are planning on entering any of these, or other, time trials, please comment below and I will add the names of those going to each event to the main post. Open events need to be entered 2 weeks in advance, while for club events, you turn up on the start line with your �2/3/4 entry fee.
Date - Event name - Course - Location - Entry deadline / Club event - Names of Team Beacon riders competing
January:
No races - time to plan out your calendar for the rest of the year!
February:
Sat 18th Feb - AeroCoach club TT - K34/10D https://www.strava.com/segments/4549609?filter=overall - �3.50 entry (free for first-time time triallists) Jess, Xav, Ian, James, John, Gavin, Keith
Sun 26th Feb - AeroCoach club TT - K34/10D - �3.50 entry (free for first-time time triallists) Jess, Xav, Ian, Keith
March:
Apart from the couple of early-season TTs in Feb, time trials start properly from April onwards.
Sat 4th March - TT training session, at Halesowen outdoor velodrome - mixture of training and basic position work to get everyone comfortable on TT bikes / in comfortable racing positions on road bikes - please let me know if you would be interested in this - Jess, Xav, Ian, David, James, Keith, Neil, Dave, Anne, Gavin
Jess (informal TT captain)