Eastern Counties CA 100 Back to Rides in 2000
Early morning travellers in the Cambridge area will have spotted that a
Tandem Tricycle was being hauled up and down the A11.
Once again,
I
teamed up with the "inspirational" Dave Johnson for an attempt to beat
the RTTC 100 miles record for tandem trikes. It stood at 4-01-56,
and so we were hoping to take it inside 4 hours.
We were last off, at 0540 (after a ludicrous 27 mph "warm-up" for the 3
mile ride to the start). The first 25 miles took 56 minutes, and with
the second only a minute slower, we were nicely placed.
Then Dave needed to make a brief stop (due to drinking too much on a cold day?), which cost us a minute. Ten miles later, there was a very bumpy section of road. I decided to avoid it by riding on the far left margin of the carriageway. Shortly after doing that, we realised that the left tyre was punctured. We rode on the flat for 5 miles until a spare wheel was available. What with the extra delay of actually performing the change, we were throwing time away. The third 25 miles took 1-02-30, which was a lot slower than we were expecting.
Happily, though, we were still ahead of the record, and a big effort for
the fourth quarter gave us a final time of 3-50-55. That'll do nicely,
thanks very much.
Ralph