Time Trialling
Club Events
The Club runs evening time trials during the summer months on a Monday evening from April to August when the evenings are light. These are run on 3 different courses in rotation and start at 7pm with entry on the line of a couple of pounds. We get up to 40 riders on the warm sunny evenings but a few less when it is wet wild and windy. These are designated 'Club' events.
There are also other local club 10s to ride and we are regulars with the North Bucks RC which run their ones on a Wednesday night, also on 3 different courses around MK, with only one being the same course that we ride. They also run some early and late season ones on a Saturday or Sunday mornings.
If you want to time trial on a Tuesday night then you can with Bicester Millenium at the Weston on the Green aerodrome perimeter road (located between Bicester & Oxford). As this is a closed/private road they run earlier and later in the season and they also run a couple of Open events and even run the odd 25m event (10 laps!). This is about 27 miles East of Milton Keynes
If you live further South and want a super fast course then head off to Hertfordshire Wheelers and ride on the A10 dual carriage way, again on Tuesday evening.
Thursday - nothing on, then head off to the St Neots evening 10 where Kevin Stokes & Geoff Perry set the course record on the Tandem in 2009.
Link to club TT schedule for summer 2009: http://www.teammk.com/node/1683
Link to the League results for 2009: http://www.teammk.com/node/2608
The 2010 events will be publicised in due course.
Open Events
These are 'official' time trials usually over the standard distances of 10 miles, 25 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles, 12 hours and even 24 hours! Team Milton Keynes usually runs one a year over (just to be different) approx 20 miles in April. These are run under CTT regulations (www.ctt.org.uk) and TMK is affliated to the London North Section.
For these events one is required to enter on an official entry form 2 weeks ahead, otherwise you will get your entry "returned". They usually cost between £7-£10 depending on the quality of tea and cake at the finish 
(no only joking).
Fields can be up to 120 riders, or more on the popular fast courses, which usually means flat dual carriageways. Many others are run on quieter single carriageway roads and "sporting courses" events have evolved to include the odd hill and to include a bit more bike handling skills.
Time trialling has a long history in the UK, which predates even the formation of the City of Milton Keynes, and they are traditionally run early (you've been warned) on a Sunday morning, when the roads are quieter. So this can mean from as late as 10am to as early as 5am (yes 5am) for the longer events on the busier roads (regulations mean that riders have to be off the road before the traffic count gets too high). So think 7am to 9am is typical.
So Sundays mornings will cover all the distances except for the 24 hours, when you need to start on the Saturday, otherwsie you would be late for work!
Time Trials are also run on Saturday afternoons with the usual start time being 2pm but some will run later up to about 5pm. The majority of these are of 10 miles or to a lesser degree 25 milers. A few 50s are run and only one 100 miler, which appeal to those you don't like getting up early in the morning. National Championshipships are run later in the morning as well.
There are various season long competitions, but the main attraction is beating ones' personal best and going under the hour for 25 miles. Once you've cracked that and prepared to ride further than the end of the road then it is under 2 hours for 50 miles and for the few under 4 hours for a 100 miles. For 12 hours, 240 miles has a nice ring to it as it is 20mph.
