In many
racing sports an
athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a
time trial against the
clock to secure the fastest
time. In
cycling, for example, a time trial (TT) can be a single
track cycling event, or an
individual or
team time trial on the road, and either or both of the latter may form components of multi-day
stage races. In contrast to other types of races, athletes race alone since they are sent out in intervals (interval starts), as opposed to a
mass start.