Hi Danny! Yes, he made it - behind schedule for a while (loads of dense mist around dawn, so had problems on Butser Hill - fancy descending that blind?) but pushed hard and ended up under 24 hours (time to follow). The killer heat laid him out flat for a while at the end.
Two other riders - Peter Hutson and Roger Easterbrook - also rode both ways. They completed it too, startiing one or two hours before Richard but with a slower schedule of 28 to 30 hours, so he overtook them during the night. Then all 3 of them registered for the BHF randonee, turned their bikes around and rode back for charity!
There was a light wind from the west all day, and it was brutally hot on the climbs. Lots of the BHF riders were really suffering in the sort of conditions that fried Rob Lee on his run. Rode up Truleigh Hill with a couple of them, I have never sweated so much in my life. Chatted with one guy who was supervet-class, out of water (something wrong with the tap at Botolphs, he said) , and riding with a gashed arm from a fall. Fortunately the tap at the YHA was working!
Seeing all those riders push themselves so hard both one and two ways, the reward being not a record but simply riding for a good cause, fair brought a tear to my eye!
Posted: 28/06/2009 07:40
