“CYCLING” CENTURY
COMPETITION
Start: Highbury (Arsenal’s home), North London; 1911-09-09-00:10
Finish: Brighton, Sussex, on the South Coast
Rider, Frank G. Thomas |
|
Date & Time |
Place |
Kms |
Signature |
Witness |
|
09-09-06:15 |
Buckden, Cambs |
101 |
FGT |
NRT |
|
09-09-08:50 |
Stilton, Cambs |
123 |
FGT |
Postman |
|
09-09-13:00 |
Welwyn, Herts |
193 |
FGT |
? |
|
09-09-18:00 |
Gatwick*(Povey X) |
293 |
FGT |
Hagarty |
|
09-09-21:10 |
Brighton, Sussex |
342 |
FGT |
Langland |
A historic card that suddenly came to light
is, I think, worth copying.
I find it strange that CYCLING (aka "The Comic") would
set up this Century Challenge scheme and not include space for
distances.
A control card, or whatever it was known as in 1911, filled in
by pencil, is obviously going to be difficult to read, so I have
converted to kms and added assessed distances.
The real 293km "control" was at Povey Cross, long since
buried under Gatwick. "Tommy" was apparently doing
a 200 mile ride by going north from London up the Great North
Road and turning round at that cheesy place, Stilton. From there
he rode south through London and on to the "seaside"
resort, Brighton. I was relying on "bikely" for distances
and with all the modern road development, it is hard to confirm
accuracy. But, up to his death in 1951, at an age of about 63,
he was known to do a regular 200 mile ride every week I think,
so the 342 kms would be about right.
April 19, 2010 |
