100 comp record tumbles
Scorching pace matches the early summer weather in Cambridgeshire
He went off too hard and unshipped his chain in the last few miles, but it didn’t stop Paralympic track gold medallist Adam Duggleby (Vive le Velo) from setting a new national competition record over 100 miles in the Eastern Counties CA time trial in Cambridgeshire on Sunday.
The 32-year-old Yorkshireman covered the distance in 3:16.51, slicing 4.40 from Charles Taylor’s two-yearold mark.
And it was just one of several national records to be broken in the event near Six Mile Bottom, with Alice Lethbridge (drag2zero) beating Julia Shaw’s 2010 women’s record by 2.45 as she clocked 3:42.37.
Around eight minutes before Duggleby finished his ride, GS Metro’s Danny Grieves had beaten the old record with a 3:20.37, so will go into the record books. Three other riders also broke Taylor’s old mark, but as Duggleby had already crossed the line, their times won’t stand as records.
As well as breaking the solo record, Grieves led GS Metro to a new team competition record, beating Team Bottrill’s 2016 time by a whopping 16 minutes, with Carl Donaldson and Ben Lane completing the trio.
Several age group records were also reported to have been broken too.
Duggleby, who was 2.03 faster than runner-up Richard Bideau (Pendle Forest CC), while Peter Harrison (AS Test Team) was just four seconds further back in third, said: “I knew the record was beatable, but I didn’t know if it would be me or someone else.”
“Bideau beat the old record last season but it was a slightly short course, so I knew he was going well.”
But Duggleby, who beat Bideau by seven minutes in the Anfield BC 100 a fortnight ago, added: “It was a good day but my pace wasn’t great though; I went out a bit hard and suffered for the last 15-20 miles.
“And with three miles to go my chain came off so I had to stop to sort that. I probably lost about 20 seconds there, but thankfully I had already done enough.”
He will now ride the National 50 this weekend, and is also targeting the National 100 on July 9.