My Diary … and my first national record

Mr Gittins’ recollections of tandem racing prompted me, once again, to delve into my diaries to see what I wrote about my first ever national record ... Saturday 29 May 1976 ... Men’s Tandem 25 ... 50-58.
From what I remember we (Adrian Collard and I) saw the tandem outside a bike shop on Huntingdon Road, St Neots and went halves on it (can’t remember what we paid for it ... but it wouldn’t have been much as I was shovelling concrete into moulds at Atcost’s at the time and they didn’t pay that well!).
It was a dark metallic blue Dan Jenner, had 6 ½" Chater-Lea cranks and a couple of old saddles which Adrian swapped for two state of the art high-tech Brooks B17s he had in his garage. We got the wheels rebuilt at Les Young’s bike shop down Mill Road in Cambridge. They were large flange 32 / 40 Airlite hubs built into Fiamme sprint rims. Our choice of tubs were dimpled Barum G9 PBWs. We tried using gears once or twice but soon decided ‘fixed’ was the way to go (neither of us were brave enough to take our hands off the handlebars to change gear!).
Adrian was the 1973 National Junior 25-mile champion and was now riding the road for Olympia Sport - Simtech with a view to gaining selection for the Montreal Olympics. I was a 20 year old second category road man (soon to gain my fist cat licence though ... it was easy in those days) but with a 22 minute ‘10’ and 58 minute ‘25’ to my credit.
We had a few try outs before actually racing ... one I remember involved me trying to do a U turn on the B660 just south of Kimbolton (not recommended on a 94" fixed gear ... big heap in the middle of the road ... very funny at the time!). After that, and a few other trial runs it was agreed that it would probably be best if I stoked ... and Adrian steered.
The first time trial try-out was a St Neots club ‘10’ on the F1 starting in Little Paxton Lane. We did 20-16 on a gear of 50x14 (96.4").
A week later we tried again, but upped the gear to 50x13. This time we tried two tens, one after the other, without stopping. The first ‘10’ took 19-58 ... but we slowed over the second one to record 40-57 for the 20 miles ... still on schedule for the 25-mile record which stood at the time to Rennie Stirling and K R McDonald of the Gladys All Stars with a 51-38.
Four days later and it was the Century ‘25’ on the F1 ... the event we had targeted for the record. In those days the course started in Blunham Lane, joined the A1 and went straight up the A1 to turn (13.1 miles) at Brampton Hut. Adrian’s Dad, Frank, was going to give us time-checks (no Avocets, Cat-Eyes or Garmins in those days) with a view to us doing a 51 dead. It was a cross-tail wind (ok ... just a breeze) out to the turn and we passed the 10-mile marker in 18-35 (this was on 103.9" fixed ... on a tandem remember!). Comp Record was on!
The return trip was a bit of a slog and I remember thinking that the record was slowly slipping away from us. We rallied though ... and finished in 50-58 ... just 2 seconds off our schedule and 40 seconds inside the record. We were national record breakers!
To this day, the record is still listed in the CTT handbook (although well and truly updated ... several times over). To this day, it still reads A Collard / I Cammish VC Slough!!! (it should be A Collard Olympia Sport and I Cammish St Neots and District!).
The tandem was subsequently sold to a certain D Harrison of the Cheshire RC (I think!) who promptly went on the break the tandem RRA 25-mile record on it with JWP West with a 41-24 ... although it is believed they might have upped the gear a tad!!

1 January 2009