New Strava-based racing series launched for road riders in Ireland

*The new series is being organised by five clubs and you can ride the 10 courses at any time during the designated weeks - from next week to mid July*

A new Strava-based TT series as been launched for cyclists in Ireland based on an idea launched informally during the pandemic and which really grew in popularity for over year. In a nutshell, ten TT courses have been selected and riders can go an ride them - as fast as they can - whenever they want.

In the details of the race schedule, below, a specific week - starting next week and running until mid July - is designated for riders to tackle each course. You can ride it is often as your like that week and upload your fastest time to Strava at the end of the week.

As the series continues, you will pick your seven fastest times to commit to the overall results. That means you can take full part in the series by riding seven rounds, though you can ride all 10 too, of course.

If you are a TT rider, you can go at each course as fast as you can, just as you would any TT race. But if you take a more relaxed attitude towards your cycling, you can treat this as a challenge to test yourself.

In a fantastic move - and one that is now thankfully creeping in across the Irish road racing community - the new series is being organised by a collection of five Cork clubs; De Ronde CC, Cork County CC, Over The Hill CC, Midleton Cycling & Tri Club and Youghal Cycling. The clubs coming together in this way comes just after Munster Cycling has been announced as promoters of this year's National Road Championships, rather than one club taking on the task.

As this is a Cork-based TT competition, realistically it will popular with riders from that region. However, it's such an interesting and rider-friendly format - especially when numbers at more conventional fixed-date races are under pressure - we may see this format being extended across the country.

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The Cork Time
Trial League Spring-Summer 2022 involves five clubs organising 10 routes to be
raced over 10 weeks. It’s open to all cyclists over 18 years and you need at
least a Cycling Ireland limited competition licence.

There are a variety of flat and hilly routes from 10km to 30km with something to challenge and suit every rider type, as you will see in the links of each course below. Each route opens every Monday morning and all rides must be up loaded to Strava by 6pm the following Sunday on the league’s Strava Club account – available by following this link.

The competition will be split into a number of categories - for male and female riders - including ranking the fastest riders. It will also be handicapped, meaning a classification will be compiled based off an initial handicap, which each rider to be assessed from the outset by the handicappers. Those riders who do better than their past performances suggest can, and will, beat leading riders.

There will also be a separate classification for aero riders, meaning those who go at this full-on - with TT bikes and other aero kit - will also have their results compiled into a separate classification.

Brendan Hennessy of Old Velos, which also has a role in organising the series, said he and a group of others had rolled out a similar concept in east Cork during the pandemic lock-down periods. He explained when the project was launched, just five riders were taking part as travel restrictions were in place.

However, Hennessy said by the time the series had run its course, 50 riders who taking on the weekly Strava segments in TT mode. He added the series was generating a huge level of chatter online, including comments on Strava from the riders taking part and others interested in the idea. Based on the popularity of the informal series during lockdown, he expected the more formal series now being launched to prove very popular.

You can enter and get more information by following this link and, below. we've set out the schedule of courses and the weeks you must ride them. There is also a Facebook group for all riders who plan to take part in the series, which you can join by following this link.