An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: contre la montre – literally "against the watch", in Italian: tappa a cronometro "stopwatch stage"). There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials (TTT). ITT's are also referred to as "the race of truth", as winning depends only on each rider's strength and endurance, and not on help provided by team-mates and others riding ahead and creating a slipstream.
Starting times are at equal intervals, usually one or two minutes apart. The starting sequence is usually based on the finishing times in preceding races (or preceding stages in the case of a multi-stage race) with the highest ranked cyclist starting last. Starting later gives the racer the advantage of knowing what time they need to beat (and also makes the event more interesting to spectators). Competitors are not permitted to draft (ride in the slipstream) behind each other. Any help between riders is forbidden. The rider with the fastest time is declared the winner.
Read more about Individual Time Trial: Professional, Performance and Tactics, Time Trial Equipment, The Fastest Grand Tours Time Trial in History, UK Time Trial Competition
Famous quotes containing the words individual, time and/or trial:
“It is not alone the fact that women have generally had to spend most of their strength in doing for others that has handicapped them in individual effort; but also that they have almost universally had to care wholly for themselves.”
—Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)
“Time was. Time was.
White robes like moonlight
In the sweetgum dark.
Unbucked that one then
and him squealing bloody Jesus
as we cut it off.”
—Robert Earl Hayden (1913–1980)
“A man who has no office to go to—I don’t care who he is—is a trial of which you can have no conception.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)