What Andy Wilkinson can teach us.

[mattc]

As for the bike, I believe he uses the same basic frame but swops bits around, which is nothing different to what most people do - my bike looked rather different for a club 10 than it did for a 600k audax the next week, but it was still the same bike.

Well it's the same frame but a different bike as in the sense of whether it's a touring bike or racing bike etc, IMHO.

I don't know what planet you have been on for 10 years, but the original point was that hardly any modern races are won with the same frame that gets used on a tour/commute etc. I'm sure you can see it is more economical to buy some aero wheels than a complete new TT bike. The 2ry point was that this may benefit Wilko's performance due to extra training on his "race bike".

What YOUR point is, I'm really struggling to tell, to be honest.  

This is verging on pedantry, but here goes:
Some odd use of language in the recent posts. Why shouldn't we compare Audax with pro racing? I'll have a  go:

Audax is generally much slower than pro racing, done with more luggage, and always less well paid.

[Hot Flatus]

andy can teach us cycling is fun,he always seems happy and he is a really nice bloke who always time for a chat,unlike many audax riders!!

<snort>

 

[Rainmaker]

Why can't some people just accept that this was a sensational ride by a guy who enjoys all facets of cycling.   If you think you could do such a ride, as the man says, it's still possible to enter the Mersey Roads 24!

[recumbentim]

To ride a fully faired recumbent if you want to go fast. Not on the 24 mind there banned?

[teethgrinder]

I don't think he was.  It may be your interpretation but it's not mine and it's certainly not what the OP says.

Mmm...

Andy's achievement smashes through the barrier of awe which surrounds rides like the Tour de France. Next time someone mentions Tour riders riding over 100 miles in a day, you can slip 541 miles into the conversation, and point out that the Tour was designed to be a spectator friendly, easy, version of PBP.

Perfectly correct. PBP was originally a very long single stage race. It's older than the Tour.

And I believe that it was also ridden by professionals.

I think it is true that 24 hour TTers are comparable with those that ride a 600k Audax. After all, they are sometimes the very same person. It's just that the likes of John Warnock, who gets on the podium for a 24 hour, will be in bed at home with his cup of Horlicks after his 600, while the last few riders are still finishing the ride, whereas in the 24 hour, he'll have ridden 200+ miles further than the slowest riders.

[teethgrinder]

Out of interest, does he stop or just eat, drink and "everything else" on the go?

He pretty well does everything on the go. I did catch up with Wilco in the night after he passed me. I allready had my suspisions when I saw that he'd slown down and that I was catching him. Then I saw a trail of wet in the road. He wasn't pedalling.

Never mind all that. Does he know where the best pubs and tea stops are?

He almost certainly does, by all accounts. A very sociable rider, very club spirited and a very keen cycletourist. A real nice bloke too.
Maybe you could invite him on a WARTY?

[AndyH]

Well put TG. Therein lies the beauty of the 24 Hr TT in my eyes, the fact that someone like me, who can put in a half decent 600, can enter it without fear of embarrassment.

Have a look at last year's Mersey Roads results. Quite a few AUK members in there, some doing (as TG says) 200 miles less than JW, but there to be counted none the less.

And back to the OP. The guy does not have an N+1, he has a bike that he's obviously honed to perfection (for him) through years of experience. Chapeau to him for an outstanding achievement, I'd like to meet him one day.

[Ian H]

Perfectly correct. PBP was originally a very long single stage race. It's older than the Tour.

And I believe that it was also ridden by professionals.

[/quote]

Yup. It died as a race because the pros found it too hard.

[thesloth]

The quality of his genetics, training, preparation, equipment & support aside, the thing that most impressed me is how he looked in that video coming off the bike at the end.

For sure when I finished I was very tired and very sore, but I can't say I felt close to how he looked.
It looked as if he'd successfully managed to squeeze out every last drop of effort.

I be very happy if I could train my brain to push my body like that.
(For a competitive TT that is, I definitely think it's important to still be able to walk at the end of an audax!)

[Mr Larrington]

I have a vivid recollection of doing about 55 mph down the hill on the A68 into West Auckland when Wilko, inside a fully-faired Windcheetah, passed me like unto the late Ayrton Senna doing the biz to a Minardi.

Probably the same machine he used to take the recumbent end-to-end record.

It was indeed.  Also used for successful Liverpool-Edinburgh and IOM Mountain Circuit records.  The latter about five minutes faster than some bloke called Boardman, whom I understand used to be quite handy against the clock.  Apparently Sturmey-Archer drums brakes don't work that over 75 mph.

But how did you know it was him?

I saw him in it at the start, I chatted to him in the pub at the finish, and there was no other bugger around who could have gone that quickly   ~50 km, distinctly lumpy, 61 minutes and a few seconds.  Second place was about six minutes down

[Exit Stage Left]

From the Cycling Time Trials official write-up.
edit, thanks for the link simonb.

John Warnock was “astounded by Wilkinson’s performance.” “Our paths crossed after around eight hours and I thought Andy looked terrible,” Warnock said.

“I preferred the Merseyside course, I’ve ridden it so often that I look on it as my local course. Today was very tough, like an Audax event, the conditions were OK, a bit windy yesterday (Saturday) warm overnight and mist early today (Sunday). It was good enough to ride all the time in short sleeves and shorts,” Warnock said, looking the least marked of the top three, at least he was able to walk unassisted.

   Cycling Time Trials > Home


I think we are justified in trying to learn something from Andy and John.

It's nice to see the phrasing echoing what we've been saying here.

I do like this quote.

We leave the final words to Bronwen Ewing (Rye & District Wheelers), first of the women with 405.72 miles and riding her first `24`.

“I don’t know why I entered, never again, maybe I was drunk at the time,” Ewing laughed. “But there is a good chance I’ll have a drink tonight.”

That’s something all the finishers deserved.

[GrahamG]

Awesome. Thanks for starting the thread up - I'm now just trying to find out how a clubmate got on so waiting for the full results!

[mattc]

Do you have any piccies of Wilko's 525 ride? I vaguely recalled he had a less hi-tech bike then.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Photo gallery

[Exit Stage Left]

He rode a Giant MCR in 1997, he told me that they'd been road racing on it, when that was legal, and it was adapted for time trialling. http://www.thaimtb.com/webboard/12/06013-35.jpg
Andy rides with his knees virtually touching, which is why you never see him on a bike with a level top tube. The monocoque MCR was designed by Mike Burrows. Mike worked a lot with Wilko and we owe the modern compact frame to that collaboration.

[mattc]

Thanks guys.

So - based on Dave's link - it looks like he had a much fancier frame then, but more 'basic' wheels*. (He's upgraded his bars too, but that's probably the smallest of the differences.)

[Karla]

You can see a bigger pic of Wilko's 1997 frame in the Comic's writeup of that race.

[Ian H]

Thanks guys.

So - based on Dave's link - it looks like he had a much fancier frame then, but more 'basic' wheels*. (He's upgraded his bars too, but that's probably the smallest of the differences.)

I'm not sure that disc wheels were allowed then, the bike looks pretty much state of the art for its time. His current frame is probably just as 'fancy', being  built entirely to his specification.

[trumpet]

Thanks guys.

So - based on Dave's link - it looks like he had a much fancier frame then, but more 'basic' wheels*. (He's upgraded his bars too, but that's probably the smallest of the differences.)

I'm not sure that disc wheels were allowed then, the bike looks pretty much state of the art for its time. His current frame is probably just as 'fancy', being  built entirely to his specification.

Disc wheels were legal for TT before tribars...maybe late 1980's?

[Jules]

Photo gallery

.. and check out the young man two pictures below AW