The team at Cycling Time Trials (CTT), the governing body for time trialling in England, Scotland and Wales, have announced that transgender women (those who have transitioned from male to female) will no longer be eligible to ride in female competitions.
CTT’s purpose is to facilitate and run time trials – where each competitor rides alone against the clock for a set distance or time. By its nature, time trialling is a “gender affected sport”; which by definition means that the strength, stamina and physique of the average competitor of one gender is different from another.
Following extensive internal work and insight from other sports governing bodies, CTT have made this decision as it is certain that transgender women can retain the physical advantages gained by a male when going through male puberty, and this does not support a level and fair playing field for competition. The team emphasise that all transgender persons and non-binary persons are very welcome to continue taking part in competitive time trialling, and following in the footsteps of British Cycling. have renamed the male category to Open. Non-binary persons (persons who affirm that they are neither male nor female) will also be invited to compete in this category.
The new policy will mean those competing in the female category are able to satisfy all the following requirements:- 1) Their sex assigned at birth was female, and 2) They must not have undergone any part of male puberty, and 3) Their testosterone serum level must be below 2.5 nmol/L if tested.
The Board of CTT will create a new body – a Gender Tribunal, to decide gender eligibility issues and provide sensitive guidance to those affected by this policy. More information about this can be found here.
Andrea Parish, Chair of Cycling Time Trials (CTT) says: “Here at CTT, we are committed to the promotion of inclusivity and a fair competition in sport. This decision underpins these such values and shows our collective support for women’s sport.”
