Entering The Record Books

Can a decent club-level rider pedal themselves intothe prestigious Road Records Association recordbooks? We sent Richard Abraham to find out

- Richard Abraham

This isn’t a story about breaking a record. First of all, we didn’t know whether I had managed to do so until a couple of months after the attempt. And, what’s more, memory has condensed five hours and three minutes of cycling through beautiful Welsh hills and not-so-beautiful Welsh dual carriageway into nothing more than minuscule photographic snippets.

Instead this is a story about attempts; about hope, uncertainty, expectation, elation, disappointment, and the honest thrill of giving something a go. Although none of these seemed particularly relevant on the small hill on the A40 in the village of Bwlch, one of those few vivid snippets of memory that I hope — when old age and senility comes around — will be one of the first to go.

Bwlch was very near the finish of my Brecon Beacons circuit, a loop established two years ago by the Road Records Association (RRA) like a worm on a hook to lure out riders and reverse a recent decline in record attempts. I was the first to take the bait.

The RRA is a British cycling institution. It is the custodian of Britain’s road riding records, the most famous of which is Land’s End to John o’ Groats. Its record books are packed with other prestigious titles like London to Edinburgh, Pembroke to Great Yarmouth and London to Bath and back, and the names on its roll of honour include Gethin Butler, Eileen Sheridan, John Woodburn, Ralph Dadswell and now Mike Broadwith, who broke the End to End record just a few days before my attempt in Wales.

Broadwith rode for almost two days through thunderstorms and neck pain; my attempt, at 104 miles (more on that missing mile later), was the shortest of the circuits available to choose from. I had to set a standard time of four hours and 55 minutes.