Long Rides History in the UK - Summary Chart
Information from "Fifty Years of Road Riding, A history of the North Road Cycling Club, Ltd 1885-1935".
Published by Diemer and Reynolds in Bedford, UK.
Chart assembled by Harold Bridge, January 2008

Year	No. of rides	Details
1874	1	100 miles. The 1st Bath to Hounslow (think Heathrow) on a 65 lb machine
1875	1	100 miles No details
1876	5	100 miles Including 2 rides of 204 miles each (328kms)
1877	14	100 miles
1878	37	Including one 24 hour ride of 220 miles from Hyde Pk Cnr to Bath & back
1879	54	100 miles
1880	136	100 miles
1880	2	The first Land’s End-John O’Groats ride took “under 13 days”
1881	1	A solo “LE-JOG” brought the time down to 12 days for about 1,000 miles.
1882	1	Another solo “LE-JOG”- 12 days, 23 hours, 15 minutes
1882	17	The first 24 hour race – winner did 214.5 miles from Fleet St to Bath & back
1883	15 entries	Bad weather and 204 miles won the Speedwell’s 24 hour race
1883	34 starters	221.25 miles in 24 hours from NW London to Birmingham and back
1883	67 starters	London Tricycle Club’s 24 hour event won with 218.75 miles
1883	?	24 hour event won with 221.5 miles
1883	1	A 24 hour solo record attempt, not a race, produced 260.25 miles
1884	1	Another rider beat that record with a ride of 266.25 miles
1885	?	24 hour event won with 259 miles
1886	26 starters	The first North Road “24”.Bad weather, 13 finishers. Winner did 227 miles
1887	37 starters	NR 24. Winner did 270.5 miles. A “Penny Farthing” rider did 237.25 miles
1888	55 starters	NR 24. Winner did 266.5 miles in very bad weather
1889	35 starters	NR 24. Winner did 324 miles on solid tyres in good weather
1890	43 starters	NR 24. Winner did 336.5 miles.
1891	25 starters	The first NR “York Run”. What today would be a 300km Audax ride
1891 (May)		The first Bordeaux-Paris race. First 4 places filled by the riders who had previously been riding and winning the NR 24
The current unpaced 24 hour road time trial record is 525 miles. (845 kms) The current 874 mile (1407kms) LE-JOG records are; Men: 44hours, 4mins, 20secs Women: 52 hours, 45mins, 11secs

Some additional note from Harold Bridge: There is a hole in French cycling history in that I have never heard of any action between 1869 & 1891. This is largely due to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 in which the French were soundly beaten. They took a couple of decades to recover. But I have a well documented history from UK. Many of the early races were promoted by bicycle manufactures and were only for riders of the promoters’ cycles. I will cut out the blurb & just tabulate the bare information.