Weekend starts with a World Record...!

Busy bank holiday weekend.... The World Record

Last weekend there was a lot on for me. Once you have read this you will probably not agree but for someone who is work shy and generally lazy it was a busy three days!

So Saturday was a big day, not really for me, but for Matt Richardson and his HUGE hour record. The day started with an early with a nice 2hr ride with Laurence round Henley. We then opened up Athlete Service ready for business and the usual Saturday rush of weekend warriors due in from 10am onwards all looking for their caffeine hit from the best coffee in town.

The shop was good and busy, before I knew it I was due to leave to ride over to Palmer Park and watch the hour record. Dealing with all the empty cups and plates of cake my work was done, I kitted up again and started riding the 10 miles to Readings outdoor velodrome. I was slightly behind schedule so this was quite a tough 30min ride!

Me and Tony arrived 10min before time, as Matt was warming up I could feel the air of tension building up. I could see he was not his usual chilled and relaxed self, he was really focused and I was feeling nerves for him. He was using a bike which started its life in 1969, I just wanted the bike to last the full hour so he got the result he deserved. I knew how he was feeling, the need and want for the event to just start, with an hour type test, you KNOW it is going to hurt at some stage and it is usually earlier than you want it to as well. The waiting is the worse part.

He wandered off for a last minute toilet trip and on his was back to his “steed” he gave the crowd a little fist pump, the crowd reacted appropriately with a gentle cheer and shouts of encouragement! He got to the Raleigh Chopper flicked up the stand and sat ready to go. He friend and timer then gave him the countdown and BANG he was off. He had quite a wobbly start as the bike certainly is not build to full power starts but 100m in and we was down on the seat and then got into his “aero” position.

He looked fast and like he was working hard for the first 30min, you could see his arms and hands were gripping very hard as his muscles were very defined! Such is the Chopper so difficult to steer and keep control of. Soon the people in the know were telling us he was a massive 2 laps ahead of schedule, I thought pre event I had heard of his ambition for get 17mph average but being 2 laps up this was WAY ahead of that schedule, I was hoping he was not going too fast (and too deep) too early. I knew he was fully capable of destroying himself as I had watched some of his training so thought he knew what he was doing! :)

So we approached the last 15 minutes I knew some of the pain he was feeling and there was a permanent grimace on his face now. The track has a big grandstand on the home straight with all the supporters in, but it was empty on the back straight so I told Pete I was going on the back straight to try and keep him going. A few others had the same idea and eventually Matt had people yelling at him every 30m round the track! We entered the last lap with the rules that you have to finish the last full lap and it was over, what an epic effort from the man. From memory he did 19.8mph. Truly immense.

If you want to support his charity the link is here....

https://leukaemialymphomaresearch.org.uk/CHOPPER-Vs-The-HOUR-FIREFLIES

I will continue my weekend in my next blog.... hopefully in a few hours...!