‘Hairpin from hell’ and winds scupper ultra-cycling records
HIGH WINDS and the hairpin bend on Guernsey’s karting
track foiled an ultra-cyclist’s
bid to break his over-50 world records.
Starting at 7.30am on Monday, Chris Hopkinson, 51, attempted to rewrite his age-group 100k, 100-mile, 200k, six-hour, 300k, 200-mile and 12-hour records in the first endurance challenge of its kind on Sarnian soil.
He came up short in his personal bests, missing out on his 12-hour outdoor record – his main target – of 248.8-miles by 10.9 miles.
‘Possibly the toughest 12 hours I have ever spent on a bike,’ the recently-arrived music service teacher said afterwards.
‘25mph winds, 971 laps with the hairpin from hell each lap. With it not being banked, I bottomed out and nearly went into the wall at least two dozen times.’
He hoped his attempt would trigger more attempts at records on the track.
The Evo2Max semi-pro, who started cycling in 1998, moved to Guernsey in the summer to work for the music service.
His world record attempts, which will still count towards world titles at various long-distances, have also doubled up as fundraisers to support music students on a trip to Canada next summer.
‘We just moved here at the end of August and have fallen in love with the place,’ said his fiancee, Jenny Bonham. ‘On top of the cycling, it’s nice to raise money for the music service.’
Ms Bonham and local DJ Andre de Carteret, who completed a 24-hour cycling challenge in aid of the Sarah Groves Foundation earlier this year, were Mr Hopkinson’s support crew throughout the day.
Their job was to inform him of lap times, help motivate him and keep a supply of liquids, gels and bananas on-hand.
‘He needs to do an average of 42.52 seconds per lap [for over 1,000 laps],’ said his fiancee earlier in the day.
‘He does really well with picking a pace and holding that pace. For him, 12 hours is quite a short time.’