www.dadswell.co.uk Mostly cycling records, mostly on three wheels
This page covers activity for 2010 to 2019
There were three attempts at records, all successful.
2010 RRA #39 Pembroke to London tan-tri with Paul Mace 11h 34m 58s for 244 miles
2012 RTTC #16 24hours with Marina Bloom 424.81 miles
2019 RRA #40 Circuit of Yorkshire Dales tricycle 7h 51m 24s for 143 miles
This was the final phase in the game. By this time, I was finding it a bit difficult to get short-notice days off from work. I think I was also finding that many of my helpers (from over the past 20 years) we getting less able to do the job, and so it all started to feel tougher to arrange things at the usual short notice.
However, we did get something done in 2010...
Report for the Pembroke to London ride with Paul. Comments and feedback received.
Schedule for Pembroke to London Weather charts
I may have submitted attempt notices in 2011, but nothing came of them.
As an aside: In 2011, James Cracknell made his second End to End attempt on a tandem bicycle.
The next project was the RTTC 24 hour record with Marina in 2012.
Marina hadn't ridden the tandem tricycle for 5 years, so we arranged to ride the North Norfolk Wheelers 100 to check we still worked well together. Ferg Muir took a couple of great photos, although I look a bit fat in one of them.
Report of the 2012 National Championship 24 hour with Marina
At this stage, I had broken (or established) 75 records. 16 were under the RTTC banner in time trials. 39 were RRA records, and 20 from 'regional' RRA organisations.
Very nice, but was a pity that 39 wasn't a 40. Much more elegant.
Later that summer I rode my final 12 hour TT. I had said for many years that as soon as I couldn't get the tricycle over 230 miles (370km), I would pack up riding 12s.
On the plus side, this was the year that the abovementioned Mr Morrissey rode the 12 (along with a couple of others from High Wycombe CC) and it's always great to see your mates out there.
In 2013 I still submitted schedules for Paul & me to go for York to Edinburgh, but we didn't get to the start line.
I had the idea of a 40th RRA record, but cycling was drifting down my priorities, as I was much more interested in running. This was mainly because I was no longer living in the leafy Chilterns. Instead, my environment was suburban West London, with lots of cars and lots of traffic lights.
I published schedules, again for York to Edinburgh, in 2015. But I'm not sure who I was kidding.
Around this time, the RRA added several new record routes to their list. I wasn't really in favour, but others seemed keen to add challenges that avoided the unpleasantness of city centre terminal points.
The new records were in the form of Circuits of National Parks. There were 5 added initially, and in 2020 a further route in Scotland was added.
When new records are added, the RRA doesn't just take claims from the first people to ride the routes. It publishes a table of Lowest Standards - effectively placeholder record times - that the first claimants are expected to beat. On behalf of the committee, I took the job of calculating the standard times for these new records. The strategy is to come up with a time that is not so challenging as to put decent riders off, but also not so easy as to mean that 'anyone' could do it. I was quite happy with the times I'd come up with, for men and women, bicycles and tricycles, solos and tandems.
I also had absolutely no interest in riding any of the circuits. My RRA aspirations were extinct. My time had passed, and I would now simply sit and watch the others.
At the next RRA AGM, my Lowest Standards were deemed too hard, and I was asked to go away and make them easier. Dutifully, I produced revised tables, about 10% slower than before.
In 2018, the first attempts were made, and caused a certain amount of interest on Social Media and in Cycling Weekly.
After a while, I found myself interested. Just wondering, what if...? I took a look at the table for the solo tricycle time for the Yorkshire Dales record. 7h 55m for 143 miles. Pretty close to 18mph. The 'younger me' sneered at 18mph. The '2019 me', who wasn't really doing much cycling, was a bit nervous.
I decided that I would ride a 100 mile time trial in May, to see how I got on. It was clearly going to be slow, but would it be too slow? I calculated that if I could beat 5h 20m, then I would have a go at the Yorkshire Dales record. Even that calculation was a bit risky, because the Yorkshire Dales are a lot hillier than the A31 in Hampshire. And the record attempt is 143 miles, not 100 miles.
Anyway, I took 5h 7m for the 100, so I had to do the record attempt.
The story of the Yorkshire Dales record Schedule for Dales record attempt
And that, more than 30 years after it started, is the end of the story. Many people have been a part of this extraordinary journey, for which I'm very grateful.
In the earliest days, Den and Eddie Mills were prepared to help out someone who they had basically never met or even heard of. And my first two record attempts were failures!
For all of the 1990s, Michael Radford was a very generous supporter of my record attempts. His backing made it possible for me to do multiple rides each year, and crucially I was able to do the End to End ride without the worries of fuel and accommodation costs.
And for the last attempt, Phil Hurt and Keith Lawton were prepared to help a proper chancer, who seemed to be determined to do the smallest amount of cycling possible as preparation (although I'm not sure I told them that beforehand!).
I offer my thanks to you all, and dedicate this website as recognition of the huge efforts you put in, to get me (or us) across the finish line.
Ralph
(and Gerry, Liz, Dave, Marina and Paul)
There were three attempts at records, all successful.
2010 RRA #39 Pembroke to London tan-tri with Paul Mace 11h 34m 58s for 244 miles
2012 RTTC #16 24hours with Marina Bloom 424.81 miles
2019 RRA #40 Circuit of Yorkshire Dales tricycle 7h 51m 24s for 143 miles
This was the final phase in the game. By this time, I was finding it a bit difficult to get short-notice days off from work. I think I was also finding that many of my helpers (from over the past 20 years) we getting less able to do the job, and so it all started to feel tougher to arrange things at the usual short notice.
However, we did get something done in 2010...
Report for the Pembroke to London ride with Paul. Comments and feedback received.
Schedule for Pembroke to London Weather charts
I may have submitted attempt notices in 2011, but nothing came of them.
As an aside: In 2011, James Cracknell made his second End to End attempt on a tandem bicycle.
The next project was the RTTC 24 hour record with Marina in 2012.
Marina hadn't ridden the tandem tricycle for 5 years, so we arranged to ride the North Norfolk Wheelers 100 to check we still worked well together. Ferg Muir took a couple of great photos, although I look a bit fat in one of them.
Report of the 2012 National Championship 24 hour with Marina
At this stage, I had broken (or established) 75 records. 16 were under the RTTC banner in time trials. 39 were RRA records, and 20 from 'regional' RRA organisations.
Very nice, but was a pity that 39 wasn't a 40. Much more elegant.
Later that summer I rode my final 12 hour TT. I had said for many years that as soon as I couldn't get the tricycle over 230 miles (370km), I would pack up riding 12s.
On the plus side, this was the year that the abovementioned Mr Morrissey rode the 12 (along with a couple of others from High Wycombe CC) and it's always great to see your mates out there.
In 2013 I still submitted schedules for Paul & me to go for York to Edinburgh, but we didn't get to the start line.
I had the idea of a 40th RRA record, but cycling was drifting down my priorities, as I was much more interested in running. This was mainly because I was no longer living in the leafy Chilterns. Instead, my environment was suburban West London, with lots of cars and lots of traffic lights.
I published schedules, again for York to Edinburgh, in 2015. But I'm not sure who I was kidding.
Around this time, the RRA added several new record routes to their list. I wasn't really in favour, but others seemed keen to add challenges that avoided the unpleasantness of city centre terminal points.
The new records were in the form of Circuits of National Parks. There were 5 added initially, and in 2020 a further route in Scotland was added.
When new records are added, the RRA doesn't just take claims from the first people to ride the routes. It publishes a table of Lowest Standards - effectively placeholder record times - that the first claimants are expected to beat. On behalf of the committee, I took the job of calculating the standard times for these new records. The strategy is to come up with a time that is not so challenging as to put decent riders off, but also not so easy as to mean that 'anyone' could do it. I was quite happy with the times I'd come up with, for men and women, bicycles and tricycles, solos and tandems.
I also had absolutely no interest in riding any of the circuits. My RRA aspirations were extinct. My time had passed, and I would now simply sit and watch the others.
At the next RRA AGM, my Lowest Standards were deemed too hard, and I was asked to go away and make them easier. Dutifully, I produced revised tables, about 10% slower than before.
In 2018, the first attempts were made, and caused a certain amount of interest on Social Media and in Cycling Weekly.
After a while, I found myself interested. Just wondering, what if...? I took a look at the table for the solo tricycle time for the Yorkshire Dales record. 7h 55m for 143 miles. Pretty close to 18mph. The 'younger me' sneered at 18mph. The '2019 me', who wasn't really doing much cycling, was a bit nervous.
I decided that I would ride a 100 mile time trial in May, to see how I got on. It was clearly going to be slow, but would it be too slow? I calculated that if I could beat 5h 20m, then I would have a go at the Yorkshire Dales record. Even that calculation was a bit risky, because the Yorkshire Dales are a lot hillier than the A31 in Hampshire. And the record attempt is 143 miles, not 100 miles.
Anyway, I took 5h 7m for the 100, so I had to do the record attempt.
The story of the Yorkshire Dales record Schedule for Dales record attempt
And that, more than 30 years after it started, is the end of the story. Many people have been a part of this extraordinary journey, for which I'm very grateful.
In the earliest days, Den and Eddie Mills were prepared to help out someone who they had basically never met or even heard of. And my first two record attempts were failures!
For all of the 1990s, Michael Radford was a very generous supporter of my record attempts. His backing made it possible for me to do multiple rides each year, and crucially I was able to do the End to End ride without the worries of fuel and accommodation costs.
And for the last attempt, Phil Hurt and Keith Lawton were prepared to help a proper chancer, who seemed to be determined to do the smallest amount of cycling possible as preparation (although I'm not sure I told them that beforehand!).
I offer my thanks to you all, and dedicate this website as recognition of the huge efforts you put in, to get me (or us) across the finish line.
Ralph
(and Gerry, Liz, Dave, Marina and Paul)