Scottish Cycling worked extremely hard with event organisers to avoid the clash between the National 10 mile TT Championship and the Sharon Argue Memorial Road Race and we certainly share the membership’s disappointment at the unavoidable outcome. 

In response to the feedback, we have spoken with the organisers of both events andwe have come to an agreement that the start time of the Sharon Argue Memorial Road Race will move to 12 noon and any female also competing in the National 10 Mile Time Trial Championship will be given an early start to allow them to compete in both events.  The organiser of the Championship will be in touch with all female entrants following the closing date to ensure that they have the opportunity to identify themselves. Whilst still not an ideal scenario we hope this does give people the chance to participate in both events if they wish and we would once again like to thank the organisers for their support in making this happen.

Following the comments received by Scottish Cycling, we hope that the following information helps our members to understand the process we went through to try and avoid this situation.

• Dates for all National Championship events are stated on the National event application form. 
• No event organiser or club applied to host the National 10 Championship during the National event application process.
• We immediately began to try to find a solution, which means we went without an organiser, and therefore a confirmed date, for some time.
• Whilst the solution was being worked on, we had to let other events secure their date and the two clubs we were engaging for the 10 TT were unable to deliver on Sunday 7^th May, so this date remained clear.
• During this time, the team were working on solving multiple calendar clashes, across the disciplines, across the country.
• One clash that required to be solved was between the Sharon Argue Memorial Road Race and the Pedal Power Women’s Road Race, both planned for August.  The team worked with the organiser of both events and the Sharon Argue Memorial event was moved to Sunday the 7^th May during December 2016; a great deal of alternative dates were discussed but the 7^th May was the only date that worked both for the calendar and the event organiser.
• Many weeks had passed and continuing discussions on the National 10 had crept into February 2017 as so many different avenues were explored to ensure that the National 10 Championships was delivered in 2017.
• Unfortunately, after many positive discussions with the clubs, the scenarios we were left with meant the clubs could no longer host the event.
• Throughout the process, we were in touch with key members of the time trial community and as a result Fife Century, very kindly, stepped forward and agreed to organise the Championship but were only able to do so on the 7th of May. 
• We spoke with the organisers of both events to find solutions to the clash, including potentially moving the Sharon Argue Memorial after it was live on the calendar, but unfortunately this could not happen.
• With the help, advice and support of volunteer event organiser Mhairi Laffoley stepping up, prepared to organise the Championship, we were left with two options to either deliver the National 10 Mile Time Trial Championship on the 7^th May or have no National 10 Mile Time Trial Championship at all.
• We made the decision, with engagement from both event organisers and feedback from some riders already entered for the Sharon Argue Memorial, to deliver the Championship event. 
• We understood the ramifications this may have with some members but hoped that members would appreciate the difficult situation we were facing and would absolutely not want the National 10 mile TT Championship missing from the calendar

The calendar compilation process is incredibly complex, accommodating all six disciplines across a finite number of weekends and a limited number of resources. We rely totally on volunteer organisers and clubs delivering Scottish National Championships and sometimes it means that clashes are far from ideal but unavoidable.  Hopefully for next year, we’ll have more engagement during the time of National event applications and calendar compilation to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

We have also responded directly to questions and comments made via email and we are happy to share this information at this link.