ΟΝΕ ΒΙΚΕ ΤΟ RULE THEM ALL

Road bike time trials are undergoing a resurgence, as the sport attempts to make itself more accessible and attract new blood. But one bike will always be fastest, and we think we've found it

-  James Shrubs

Is this the fastest road bike in existence? Last year George Fox's Argon 18 was ridden to a 19.06 10-mile time trial - that's a stonking 31.4mph average, which as far as anyone can work out, is the fastest solo 10-mile road bike TT by a current racer. It's not the fastest ever, but we'll get to that.

Fox's eye-opening road bike performances, which include 49.43 for 25 miles, come as UK time trialling attempts to embrace this new-old branch of the sport. In an effort to make events more accessible, many events are now putting on separate races for road bikes alongside their standard open categories for the super-aero 'spaceships' that many with the enthusiasm (and the wallet) ultimately gravitate towards.

Mindful that ambitious riders would be just as likely to push the envelope with road bikes as they are when it comes to modifying their low-pro bikes for speed, Cycling Time Trials (CTT), time trialling's governing body, recently standardised the spec for what a 'road bike' must look like a sign that racing against the clock on drop bars is being taken seriously.

It's fairly non-interventionist and doesn't go much further than outlawing disc wheels and tri-bars (see box). Clothing isn't mentioned either.

The beauty of the road bike category is that it can be all things to all riders. As a super-accessible roll-up-and-ride event, it's hard to beat. Entrants can feasibly whip the mudguards off their workaday commuter and ride out to their local TT, race, then ride home. All without really feeling at a disadvantage or that they're not taking it as seriously as they ought to.

But as is always the case in our sport, there are those that want to push the boundaries of what we thought was possible and they are now taking this branch of time trialling into an exciting new era in the ceaseless quest for speed.