1 hour, 4 minutes and 50 second.
That the overall time of the 3 laps challenge at Richmond Park covering a smug over 20 miles.
The challenge is very much an unofficial challenge mated by the fact that’s apparently illegal for even bicyclists to go over the 20mph limit (such rules are applied to motorised vehicles), it’s a popular time trial challenge in London with a good distance, right amount of ascent/descent, some long flat and of course the cafe by the roundabout make a good checkpoint.
There’s a reason to why I’ve done that on the most unacceptable bicycle to do the challenge in; simply as a challenge, the Brompton is a folding bicycle designed for.. well, transportation, it flex like a mother, the tribar made it even more unstable until I pass the 15mph barrier, the saddle is too low as the seatpost as it’s maximum insertation point, and of course the gearing is pretty high married by the small wheel which make climbing not quite a joy to work on.
I am the sort of person whom strongly believe it all to be in my mind, not my body, Jill Homer, a personal heroine of me, described it perfectly in her recent blog;
…I started to wonder if I had dug a hole I wouldn’t be able to crawl out of before Nepal, but in the same breath, I wasn’t really that concerned. There was no acute strain, and no pain — just peaceful, almost blissful fatigue. Evolution gave us all the ability to walk for five days straight, and modern culture gave us the ability to choose not to. The more I experiment with endurance sports, the more I believe endurance is a matter of choices more than physical abilities or exceptional talent.
I rode the Brompton knowing it won’t be as comfortable, easy or even trustworthy as my old 12 speed road bike, but it made me push harder to overcome that limitation, my estimation was 1 hour, 10 minutes, and I managed to shave 5 minutes off that time.
I correlation the data of my stopwatch and the phone gps tracker that give me the time, let see how I flare on a normal bicycle next time.
