Two 20km, closed-road time trial events have been announced for the Tour of Ayrshire cycling festival in Kilmarnock this spring.
Taking place on 29 April, the Tour of Ayrshire (ToA) is one of only two UK qualifying events in the annual UCI Gran Fondo World Series - essentially a world championships for amateur and sportive cyclists.
The newly announced Chrono (time trial) events will run alongside the Tour of Ayrshire Gran Fondo, with the fastest riders in the gran fondo and the individual time trial qualifying for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships final in Albi, France this August.
Riders in the Chrono will enjoy fully closed roads and a Grand Tour format. A large warm-up area will be provided with 60 serviced, under cover turbos and a substantial start ramp. The route itself is over 12.4 testing miles (20km) and heads out of Kilmarnock's beautiful Kay Park into the local countryside before returning to the finish at St Joseph's Academy in Kilmarnock.
The top 25% of all starters in the ToA Chrono, by age/gender classification will receive an invitation to compete in the Time Trial at the 2017 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships in France.
Tom Caldwell, CEO of the event organisers Golazo Cycling said: "This is a new event on the Scottish calendar but is open to riders from all over. The ToA Chrono is a UCI Gran Fondo World Championship qualifying event and is expected to draw competitors in from around the world.
"The same event at the Tour of Cambridgeshire attracts over 800 riders, at least 20% from overseas and sells out in a few hours. Given the appetite for time trailing in Scotland, we have high hopes that this will be a popular event."
There are 500 places available in the ToA Chrono and the start of the individual event, at the very sociable time of 10am, will be organised according to UCI Masters age and gender classifications.
The afternoon will see teams of four riders competing in the ToA Team Chrono. Time trial bikes are not allowed, and competitors on road bikes will compete in four different classifications - Male, Female, Mixed and Corporate. The Team Chrono is not a qualifier for the UCI GF World Championships.
The Tour of Ayrshire is supported by East Ayrshire Council, Scottish Cycling, the Braveheart Fund and Action Medical Research.
Pre-registration for the ToA Chrono is now open and early applicants can take advantage of an early-bird price of £45.
Pre-registration for the ToA Team Chrono opens on Monday February 6th.
For more details on the Tour of Ayrshire, visit www.tourofayrshire.com/chrono.
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