stapfam
I ride an offroad Tandem and as Such they are a bit rare in the UK. Even rarer are mountain tandems that actually get offroad and do some serious mud-plugging. Even though I know of 4 or 5 other mountain tandems in my area- most are owned by solo riders that occasionally take to the roughstuff on the tandems to enable their partners to stay with them on rides. Although I do ride solo occasionally- most of my rides are with Stuart-my pilot- and we try to get out twice a week, even over the winter, to keep up our fitness for our one BIG ride of the year. This is a 100mile offroad ride with 10,000ft of climbing. In 2003 we were the first tandem to complete this ride in the 6 years it had been run. Plenty of others had started, but we were the first to finish on one. Just to give you an idea- this is a tough ride, for us it takes 12 hours to do, and of the 400 odd starters, most of whom are accomplished riders, less than 50% finish the ride. Yes it is a tough ride and it is recognised as such by all mountain bikers in the UK.
I have my entry in again for this year, and fitness training is now getting serious. In my few moments of boredom- I decided to look on the internet tonight to find out any further details on this years Randonnee. I stumbled across this site and it advertises the Randonnee for last year. Now this is one of the better Mountain bike magazines, and this is the article they had to advertise last years ride. (Unfortunately Stuart had a medical problem just a few days before the ride, so the 100miler was out, so I did the 35miler with an unfit rider and found it hard).
This picture was taken at the finish in 2004 when 2 tandems entered, and although we did arrive at the finish together, we only caught them in the last 1/2 mile of downhill after losing 30 minutes early on in the ride.
It is unusual for Tandems to get a mention in UK magazines, so to see this picture in one of the better magazines has given me a shock. Perhaps they are trying to show how easy it is if the two tandems that entered, both finished. What has given me a bigger shock is that My co-rider- the tall one in white still has a smile on his face, because that ride was hard trying to catch the younger Team.
Click on site below to see the article
http://www.singletrackworld.co.uk/article.php?sid=1549
Click on site below to find our history of the ride
http://www.randonnee.org.uk/
I have my entry in again for this year, and fitness training is now getting serious. In my few moments of boredom- I decided to look on the internet tonight to find out any further details on this years Randonnee. I stumbled across this site and it advertises the Randonnee for last year. Now this is one of the better Mountain bike magazines, and this is the article they had to advertise last years ride. (Unfortunately Stuart had a medical problem just a few days before the ride, so the 100miler was out, so I did the 35miler with an unfit rider and found it hard).
This picture was taken at the finish in 2004 when 2 tandems entered, and although we did arrive at the finish together, we only caught them in the last 1/2 mile of downhill after losing 30 minutes early on in the ride.
It is unusual for Tandems to get a mention in UK magazines, so to see this picture in one of the better magazines has given me a shock. Perhaps they are trying to show how easy it is if the two tandems that entered, both finished. What has given me a bigger shock is that My co-rider- the tall one in white still has a smile on his face, because that ride was hard trying to catch the younger Team.
Click on site below to see the article
http://www.singletrackworld.co.uk/article.php?sid=1549
Click on site below to find our history of the ride
http://www.randonnee.org.uk/