www.dadswell.co.uk Mostly cycling records, mostly on three wheels
This ride required a huge amount of planning and reconnaisance missions. Back to Rides in 1997
I knew the first 80 miles, but not much more.
So there was a need to learn several key sections and junctions either side of Hereford, the route through Worcester, across to Rugby and onto the A14.
I was ok to get to Huntingdon and then bits of North Road 24 course to Mildenhall. And I could then get to Great Yarmouth on the main roads. But I had to take a look at Great Yarmouth because I needed to get to the pier in the dark and without relying on marshals. That's a lot of driving, and not something to do in one go.
I've got lots of pages like the following, scribbled notes about landmarks and roadsigns. A great way of spending spare time.
The bottom left diagram was the short-cut out of the dead-end road onto the cycle path and then the main road. The cut-through that our man in Worcester promised me didn't exist.
There were quite a few phone calls
This note reminds me how ludicrously big the 1000 mile untertaking is. How come I didn't spot that?
The graphic was my plan for who did what, where & when. Everything seemed to be working, apart from me.
In my report for this ride, I mentioned that I had initally toyed with the idea of riding Pembroke-Yarmouth on my bike. I felt I would have been able to beat the Lowest Standard that had been set by the RRA, and maybe it was my only chance of grabbing an RRA bicycle record.
It was in 1995 that all this thinking took place, so the material below is out of sequence .... but it only makes sense to include it here.
This was my plan for 1995.
So I would do Pembroke to Great Yarmouth in May; the 1000 in June; Brighton & back in July; London to York in August and Cardiff to London in September.
Presumably the first one would be training for the second one.
I'm pretty sure the following schedule never got sent to the RRA. What amazes me is that I even created it (and printed a few copies). Highly optimistic, particularly the 12 hour.
Back to Rides in 1997