The Hounslow Hour Record

 
Once started Rob rode like clockwork – it almost was literally clockwork because he had a cadence meter and knew that with his 86.4” gear (52 x 16) he had to keep his rate just above 100 rpm. It was hard for the spectators to know whether the rider was stressing himself, but to judge by the lap sheet with its small variations in lap times it seemed that fatigue was not a factor at any point during the hour.
 

 
One point about the lap sheet which should be explained is the times shown in black print represent Stagg’s average speed for each lap, while the handwritten figures are Gilmour’s actual times. So we can see that at the start of the eighty seventh lap, which would include the passing of the twenty five mile point, Gilmour’s advantage was just under 42 seconds.
 
This margin was enough to give Rob Gilmour the record with a new distance of 25.073 miles.
 

 
After the finish Rob seemed in surprising good condition, and his statement that he was now going to round off the day by going on the Tuesday night chain gang did seem just about credible (although we didn’t actually believe him).
 
It’s interesting to note that both Rob and Nic started their careers with the Clarence Wheelers and so came under the influence of Alf Whiteway. Alf was both dedicated and dictatorial – his main enthusiasm was for low fixed gears. Rob tells me that his first under the hour 25 was done on 82” fixed, naturally without the aid of anything aero.
 
Alf’s greatest claim to fame was Tony Doyle’s professional pursuit world title in 1980, won, incidentally, on Alf’s own 24 spoke Airlites, which were already antiques even then. Even now, at this length of time since his departure from the scene, his ‘foals’ still keep cropping up in the results.
 
In today’s world where a long 59 may put you at the very end of a big field in a fast 25 it’s hard to know how to evaluate these rides. It was clear that Rob had set out to break the existing record rather than to go as far as he possibly could, and judging by his condition after the ride he almost certainly could have gone further. It must not be forgotten that Rob did have good conditions for his hour, although it’s not possible to assess how much difference this made.
 
I believe that the most striking feature of this latest record is that the rider is sixty two years of age, and yet still capable of putting in a performance which makes no concession to his years. Talk about sixty being the new forty.
 
Rob’s parting shot was “You know how I can do this? It’s because I’ve been practising consistently for the past thirty years.”
 
Hounslow and District Wheelers