How many of us would do this now..

[David B]

Secondly, he mentioned a 12 hr endurance ride. Yep, 12 hrs in the saddle :shock: It was a set route, the final part being a loop. A "control" rider paired up with you in this stage and stopped you at exactly 12 hrs. He crashed out towards the end, and only managed 218 miles. The winner got to around 245mls. No feeding stations, carry your own water, and Mars bars.

Anything like this now? Any takers for a re-enactment?

Puts me to shame....

Such events still exist, run along similar lines with a looped section for the closing stages; there is a national 12-hour and also a 24-hour championship run by Cycling Time Trials. I know someone who rode the '24' championship a few years ago, and spent the next 3 days recovering!

David

 

[pigman]

Ive heard such stories first hand too. But lets get real, races in those days were often based on hard distances, whereas these days its about outright speed. These days people get dropped cos its too fast or they cant manage the intensity. In those days people dropped out cos of the distance, there werent many 30 mile road races and a small bunch on non-eliminators sprinted it out at the end. I'm a member of a racing club and the lads today base their training on 30 mile chaingangs (and we have some 2nd cats) The guys I know in their 60's and 70's had evening training runs from sheffield, round to newark and back, prob 80 miles. the point is, they were used to the distances, but had the "luxury" of riding at a steadier pace than today. The 2 eras dont compare.
It certainly wasnt easier then, they were hard men, but at the same time I'd wager that they'd have difficulty adapting to todays competition.

Anyway, my hard man claim to fame is sheffield to cleethorpes and back last year, 160 miles topped off by a gallon of ale in sheffield city centre. The regular punters couldnt believe it as we all rolled in on bikes for a post ride swifty

 

[Piperdave]

Anyway, my hard man claim to fame is sheffield to cleethorpes and back last year, 160 miles topped off by a gallon of ale in sheffield city centre. The regular punters couldnt believe it as we all rolled in on bikes for a post ride swifty

Respect

 

[FMJ]

I used to ride 15k to/from our club 40k TT every Wednesday night back in the 80s. Good warm up/cool down. It was different back then though. Less traffic.......and I was 25 years younger. Would probably take the car there now and do a shorter warm up.

 

[Dr S]

Nayfinesse used to ride from Nottingham (or was it Derby?) to Manchester every friday night when he was doing his teacher training. He would then cycle back on the sunday afternoon. Every weekend. On a bloody mountain bike.
Thats around 80 miles each way with the Peak District slap bang in the middle.

Man of Steel!

 

[JamesM]

A few years ago I rode the Exmoor Bike Marathon, 100km with >10,000 ft of ascent, in really muddy conditions. The following morning
I got up and ran the Bristol half marathon and only 2 mins slower than my PB. Then I cycled to work for the next five days, 27 miles a day. I had the following Saturday off. On Sunday I ran 8 miles, on Monday I drove to work and gave blood, Tuesday and Wednesday I rode to work. Thursday I did the 5 mile prom race (running) and on Friday I rode a 100 mile round trip to Yeovil to watch the end of one of the Tour of Britian stages. I won the 'who can cycle 5 miles on an excersise bike the quickest' comepetition whilst I was there too I was one of only two people that did that distance, everyone else did the 2.5 miles. I beat the other person, who'm ever it may have been, by 3 minutes and won a nice bag thing

 

[drystonepaul]

Probably mentioned this before, but I've cycled from the north of England to Switzerland twice to compete in a mountain marathon.

We averaged about 90 miles a day for 11 days with panniers and camping gear on mountain bikes, albeit fitted with rigid forks and slicks. The route didn't exactly avoid the hills either.
2 days to rest up and then run 26 miles uphill from Interlaken to Kleine Scheidegg looking up to the north face of the Eiger.

I would have loved to have cycled back home again but time constraints have always meant that I haven't.

To be honest your body quickly adapts to the distances as long as you keep to a nice steady pace. The worst problems I've always had were saddle sores and numb hands.

Unfortunately nowadays that sort of behaviour is rare due to everyone's over reliance on the convenience of cars.

 

[Tazio]

A friend once arranged for someone from London to come to Edinburgh for a job interview, asked the lad if he had travel receipts and was shocked to hear he had cycled up for the interview. He then asked if he had any plans for that night and was told that the guy was riding to Glasgow to meet some friends after the interview.

Though in my opinion that's a bit mental.