I know, we keep harping back to the 70’s.
But back then the 12 hour competition record being broken in the RTTC (now CTT) National 12 hour championships would have merited a front cover and a couple of pages in Cycling Weekly.
Now?
One column on page nine. And the full result? – forget it. Perhaps it’s because the magazine thinks that ‘stuff like that’ is ‘all on the net?’
Anyway…
Here at VeloVeritas we still get excited about competition records and this year have interviewed the current ‘10’ and ‘25’ record holder, big Polish flyer, Marcin Bialoblocki – who was recently second to former World Road Race Champion, Michal Kwiatkowski in the Polish National Time Trial Championship – and just the other day we had up an interview with 50 mile record holder, Paul Hart.
It’s only proper then that we should ‘have a word’ with 33 year-old Adam Duggleby (Vive le Velo), who last year broke the ‘100’ record with 3:16:51 and last weekend in the Farnborough & Camberley CC National 12 Hour Championship in Hampshire recorded 322 miles (the official distance not yet available), adding around four miles to Andy Wilkinson’s (Port Sunlight Wheelers) 2012 record of 317.97.
He’s also the reigning BBAR, something else Cycling Weekly has lost interest in despite the magazine’s role in initiating and chronicling the competition for many years.
Duggleby has been around a long time; he was GHS ‘10’ winner back in 2001 but lest you think he’s ‘just a tester,’ he’s been a National Champion in the team pursuit, team time trial and the 20 kilometres scratch race.
Oh! And he has the 10 mile trike record with 19:30, as well as being a champion at World and Olympic level in the Paralympic tandem.
An interesting man and worth a word? We thought so too.
Congratulations on the ‘12’ title and record, Adam, did you set out with the record in mind?
“Not really, I wasn’t even going to ride but wanted to win a CTT individual championship this year and I knew that with Marcin Bialoblocki riding all of the Nationals from 10 to 100 miles it was unlikely that I could win any of those events.”
What was your preparation for the race.
“As I said, I wasn’t going to ride so I didn’t do specific preparation but I do a lot of big mileage runs as part of my training – six, seven, eight hour runs; I find that the more miles I do, the better I go.
“I did do a few 80 and 100 mile runs running into the race and that coupled with club time trials was the basis for my ride.”
I believe you didn’t ride on power – that’s unusual these days?
“No, I don’t know what my limits are for a 12 hour race so I didn’t know what I could average.”
You rode the full TT rig with rear disc and all?
“Yes but with the saddle lowered a little to avoid numbness – the extension and ‘bars were all as per I’d ride a ‘10’ or ‘25’ with.”
What was the nutrition plan?
“Last year I experimented with cheese and ham and pickle sandwiches but that wasn’t a success, so this year I had gels and little jam sandwiches with the crusts cut off; I ate as many of those as I could – and Jelly Babies.”
How did you feel on Monday?
“Pretty sore, especially behind my knees – and by Tuesday I couldn’t walk down stairs – but by Wednesday I was feeling more like myself.”
And you won the GHS ‘10’ back in 2001?
“Yes, and the Junior ‘10’ Champs the next day, they were held Saturday/Sunday.”
You were a contemporary of riders like Mark Cavendish and Ed Clancy as a junior?
“Yeah, I rode with Matt Brammeier up until I was 18 and then I stopped and went to university.
“I saw a lot of guys come up through ‘the system’ but very few made it so I decided to go to university and get qualified – which I did, with a degree in accountancy.
“But I wasn’t looking after myself – eating and drinking too much – so I came back with the Shorter Rochford team and was in the squad which won the Team Time Trial Championship.”
You were National 20 Kilometre Champion in 2012, did you not consider going down the ‘track route’?
“I do like riding the track but by that time my age was against me – I was 27 years-old – for the national track team.”
How did you get into the Paralympic tandem?
“Folk had mentioned it to me as something I could get into but it was Jon Norfolk who was one of the coaches back in 2013 who approached me.”
Back to ‘testing’ – your ‘100’ last year was pretty special.
“It should have been a ‘14’ I blew up with 30 miles to go and lost two minutes – so that record is beatable, for sure.
“If Bialoblocki gets a good day he’ll beat it; even though he’s Polish he qualifies to be able to ride the CTT champs because he’s been resident in the UK for the prescribed amount of time.
“I’ll ride the ‘50’ and ‘100’ Nationals though.”
What about that trike record – 30 mph on a trike!
“I did that last year, just for a bit of a laugh, I only had the thing for a week before I broke the record.
“They’re difficult things to master, the first time I tried to ride it I ended up in a field!
“I may go for the ‘25’ trike record in future, we’ll see.”
You’re BBAR but the completion seems to have lost it’s gloss?
“It’s nice when you go to the CTT dinner and are feted as champion but as a national competition, not many are that interested.
“I only went for it as a challenge; my goal for 2016 was Rio and this year it was to win a CTT individual title.
“Last year I said to my sponsor, the Vive le Velo bike shop that if they supplied me with the bike and clothing then I’d make a serious bid for the BBAR – I like a challenge.”
You had massive success in the Rio Olympics on the tandem with Steve Bate, didn’t you?
“Yes we won the pursuit and road time trial and took bronze in the road race.”
And a rainbow jersey on the tandem, this year?
“That was nice, we won silver at the Worlds in 2017 in the time trial, just three seconds off gold – but that was with a broken chainring tooth and losing 20-odd seconds, so I suppose we were happy to come away with anything.
“But this year we won the pursuit – it was nice to be world champions, at last.
“The field was pretty strong with all the guys from Rio riding.
“It was an important win too because it helps towards qualification for Tokyo 2020.”
How the heck do you fit it all in?
“The tandem side of things is pretty sporadic, we race together but in between championships we do our own thing.
“I ask the coaches if it’s OK for me to ride the ‘100’ or the ‘12’ but as I said earlier, I find the more miles I do, the more my fitness improves.”
What’s still on the Duggleby ‘to do’ list?
“Well, for 2018 I’ve achieved my goal of winning a CTT individual title; I won the GHS and junior ‘10’ titles but never a senior title although I’ve been fourth in the ‘50’ champs twice.
“I’ll be riding the 50, 100 and 10 mile championships but winning the ‘12’ fulfils my goal for this year.”
Is a 24 hour a challenge you’d take up?
“No!
“A ‘12’ is long enough for me; when I got off the bike I couldn’t see properly for half-an-hour, like when you stand up too quickly – so 12 hours is far enough for me!”
With thanks to Adam for his time, a real ‘Renaissance Man’ of the bicycle.
