A LONG WINTER'S NIGHT

Over the Christmas holiday two Londoners took on the “bonkers” challenge of riding 500km in one go around Herne Hill velodrome, in freezing temperatures. Amy Sedghi tells a tale of saddle soreness, frozen beards and chips with curry sauce

- Amy Sedghi

Frost tips the blades of grass, while a cold mist hangs in the air over Herne Hill Velodrome in south-east London. Nearby residents are deep in slumber, cosy after their Christmas excess, but on the 450m outdoor track there’s a flurry of activity. Chair of the Herne Hill Velodrome Trust, Tim McInnes and head coach, Boru McCullagh are deep into their attempt to complete the Rapha Festive 500 – which each year challenges riders to clock up 500km between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve – in one go around Herne Hill Velodrome. That equates to 1,112 laps. As McInnes whizzes round yet again, he glances up at the soft light pushing through the darkness, heralding the morning. He has icicles in his beard, his bidon is frozen. He’s still got 150km to go.

McInnes and McCullagh are united in their aim: to raise badly needed funds for the velodrome. In 2019 the venue lost more than £33,000 and in 2020, five months of closures due to lockdown measures means revenue has been hit hard.

But the pair’s journey to this moment is decidedly different. McCullagh, a former youth track racer, came up through VC Londres (VCL) racing against the likes of Ineos Grenadiers’s Ethan Hayter and Bahrain Victorious’s Fred Wright. But at the age of 17 he simply lost his enjoyment of it. “I only knew riding as a means to get better at racing so that meant I stopped riding as well,” he says candidly. At the start of 2020, he made a New Year’s resolution to get out for a long ride at least once a month, and by July something magical had happened: he was enjoying riding again. “Doing this 500km seemed like an appropriate milestone.”