Simon Greenland riding yesterday the ECCA 12 hour event in the Newmarket area broke one of the Club's oldest records, the 1953 12 hour record held by Den Hutton. Simon covered  253.91 miles to break the old record by over 9 miles. He also finished 6th in the event. Fantastic ride Simon!

 We hope to have more on this story direct from Simon later. We also hope to get a response from Den Hutton, now retired but still riding, from his home in New Zealand.

Simon's Record Breaking Ride In His Own Words

Up at 3.30am car loaded and on the road at 4.10am, arrive at 5.25am in the pouring rain at Great Chesterford near Newmarket ready for a 6.17am start near the back of the field. With my helper Martin got the bike together loaded the bike with liquid, set the back light going and greased the undercarriage by which time the rain had stopped and we were away. On this course you have to make the most of the A11 so first 50miles including a wee stop done in 2.06 and the 100 including 1 lap of the 2nd circuit in 4.19. After that it was a case of getting the next 50 done without going too far below the 23mph plus I had managed after the first 100 miles. The 3rd circuit did not have a good road surface but luckily I was directed to the finishing circuit after 3 laps and once I was down to the last 50miles I had to maintain the speed at 21.7 to have much chance of getting to the 21mph that I wanted to achieve, which I did as the average came down slowly. One bad lap at about 1hr 45mins to go meant I had to stop for more food as I realised I was getting close to bonk mode. Once I set off again I worked out what I had to do and was back to 24-26mph on parts of the finishing circuit. The last 2 laps went well and once I had my PB of 140.3 miles beaten, then the club record beaten, I was flying for the last 20minutes. Prize presentation and chat with other riders and back home at 9.15pm, a great day out.