A Cycling Record for the Ages

 Midlands VTTA (incorporating VTTA National Champs)

Sport, for some of its devotees, can amount to no more than statistics like the number of goals or runs scored and whether the opposition scored more, the number of Manchester United players currently out of favour due to alleged misdemeanours or the fact that one would have won £3 had one staked £1 on the St. Leger winner. The batting and bowling averages, the league tables and the record books make for quite dreary reading for anybody who falls short of the obsession required to find them enjoyable. It is the stories behind the numbers or the moments of inspiration that make sport worthwhile. So what if some schoolkid scored 36 goals in the 1970/71 season, it would be much more interesting to have seen some of them.

At present the only news I can find on the internet regarding last Sunday's Midland Veteran's Time Trial Association 10 mile championship is the bare result, above, but there is a story hidden away near the bottom of it.

Ron Hallam's 35.44 is nearly two minutes ahead of the standard time for a rider of his age, which is how results in veteran races are calculated, and that doesn't make him anywhere near champion for 2023 or put him among the prizes but, at the age of 93, it adds to his extensive collection of age records for the fastest 10 mile ride by anyone of his age. With his birthday coming towards the end of the season, he would have had more opportunities to set new figures for a 93 year old if his birthday came a few months earlier but it's equally lucky that it comes just in time to catch the back end of this year and not have to wait until next. They are especially 'new figures' in that there hasn't previously been a record for a 93 year old because nobody of that age has ever ridden, or at least completed, a '10'. As long as he finished it was always going to be a record notwithstanding that being able to get on a bike at all is a considerable achievement, it seems to me, not having been on one since my early 50's and having ostensibly decided that enough was enough of preparing for and riding in competitive events at the age of 36.

Without any further details yet, it is possible to ascertain that Ron caught the tricycle rider who started a minute in front of him which might not be something that happens so often these days but would have been routine when sweeping up any number of victims from in front of him in something approaching 80 years of time trialling. While most of his palmares by now consists of age-related records, his collection of trophies and club titles is extensive, the highlight being when he was part of the 1959 National Championship Team with Nottingham Wheelers who, the book shows, were seen off in 1960 by a team including Woodburn and Engers representing Barnet CC, assuming that they returned to defend the title.

Like the test cricket records of Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson and those top run-scorers and wicket-takers, Ron's records have every chance of remaining unbroken. There isn't going to be enough test cricket for future generations to have the opportunity of emulating those who played in 183 matches, like Anderson so far has, and despite a bit of a boom in participation during the British cycling renaissance of recent years, time trials on ever increasingly busy roads have returned to their long trajectory of decline so that the window of opportunity where longevity, equipment and suitable courses to ride on - not to mention talent and dedication- might not present itself again. 

It is to be hoped that this time next year there is a new record for a 94 year old to go in the book.