National 12-hour TT results still aren't finalised... two months after it finished

Update 23/10/2023: The morning after this story was published road.cc was contacted by Cycling Time Trials to confirm that the results had now been finalised. In a short statement the time trialling governing body told us: "CTT announces that following a hearing of an Ad Hoc Committee held on 21 October 2023 under the Rules of CTT, the provisional result of the National 12 Hour Championship on the 13 August 2023 stands, and will be published as the final result."

The hearing occurred five days after road.cc first contacted CTT for clarification on the situation. Full results can be found here, original story follows...

Nobody will be particularly surprised to hear that to complete the National 12-hour Championships time trial, a gruelling all-day distance-chasing event against the clock, riders require discipline, tenacity, willpower and patience. Perhaps a tad more unexpected, as it turns out, is that those very same aforementioned attributes have also been necessary when waiting for the finalised results, the men's field still in the dark more than two months later.

The reason for the delay communicating the result of the event, held on the D12/1 course in Cheshire back on August 13, is because Cycling Time Trials (CTT) received "a formal objection", the governing body for time trial events tells us, which in turn has sparked "a confidential process" of investigation, as well as plenty of discussion in the various online time trialling forums of course.

> Road bike category introduced by British time trial governing body to "get more people time trialling"

A CTT spokesperson this week told us the governing body "regrets" the delay, but "the process set out in CTT Rules is being followed", a process that will remain "confidential".

CTT regrets the final results for the 2023 National 12 Hour Championship held on 13 August 2023 have not yet been published. As all riders are aware, a formal objection was received so the process set out in CTT Rules is being followed.

In fairness to those directly involved this is a confidential process so no comment will be made whilst it is ongoing.  However, the result will be announced as soon as possible after it is completed. The final results will then be issued.

And while many of those who rode the event will not care if their position in the standings changes, the distance achieved alone more important to many who competed, for a select few the "process" looking into the "formal objection" could be the difference between a top ten, podium, or winning.

"It's all very frustrating," one rider who did not want to be named but is waiting for the confirmation of results told road.cc, their finishing position currently in limbo. "We were hoping it would be resolved by now."

"I don't know much of what is happening or when an outcome is due so I can't really comment, I suppose my interest is what will happen. [Given my finishing position] I cheekily have a bit of interest in what is happening but honestly don't know. Fingers crossed something will occur soon."

It's all happening at Espley! #National12 well underway. Timechecks & tea too! #timetrial #cycling #ttbike #roadbike pic.twitter.com/rRA7AMobVj

— Cycling Time Trials (@Cycling_T_T) August 13, 2023

Another competitor posted on social media asking if anyone had heard of an update, "the National 12-hour results seem a little long in coming out", another reply saying "we really need an update on the process, what meetings and timescale, if not the content of what decision is being made".

A third reply said the "whole thing is very hush-hush" but admitted at the same time nobody wants "to risk undermining the investigation or accuse anyone of anything untoward".

The situation will be keeping CTT occupied in an already busy year for the governing body who in April announced the introduction of a separate road bike category at all of its events in a bid to get more people time trialling.

"If you have a road bike, even if it cost £150 off eBay, you can enter an open event," CTT's chair Andrea Parish said at the time. "Having a separate road bike competition and rankings system is very much part of the process of taking time trialling back to the 'every person's sport' that it once was — and to where it needs to be for the future.

"There's still space for elite athletes, but we're also creating space that people can occupy in different ways and we're making sure that their achievements are properly recognised."

Then, in June, CTT followed British Cycling's lead and ruled that transgender women can no longer compete in female events, instead requiring individuals to compete in the 'open category'.