Women's tandem pairing Hannah Fawcett and Ede Harrison have romped to a brand new record for the UK's Land's End to John o' Groats 'End to End' ride, arriving at their destination this evening in 66hr 49min 52sec.
With no previously established record on the books, pilot Fawcett and stoker Harrison (pictured above, right and left, on a Land's End to Liverpool recce ride) took aim at an 84-hour 'standard' time set by the Road Records Association (RRA), and beat it by more than 23 hours – subject to ratification by the RRA.
The comradely world of road record breaking gathered behind the pair, with women's LEJOG holder Christina Mackenzie out on the course in Scotland to cheer them on, and men's holder Michael Broadwith posting updates on the attempt on X, as well as a graph showing their schedule against their actual ride.
They left Land's End on their fluoro yellow Dolan tandem at 6am on Sunday, with favourable winds behind them. They had factored possible attempts on the 12 and 24-hour records in the application put into the RRA, but the extra-strong tailwind needed for that did not materialise, so the pair were some way short.
Fawcett is a doctor, working as a kidney consultant, and the pair are using the ride to raise money for kidney care UK. At the time they completed the attempt, they had raised £2,628 – more than twice their £1,000 target.
The pair had set a baseline schedule for 72 hours – a 12-hour beating of the benchmark – but Fawcett and Harrison, who was the fastest woman in the 2018 Transcontinental race, were already an hour up on that by the time they reached Launceston, still in Cornwall, at 79 miles.
They were not afraid to conserve energy by stopping, with Broadwith's graphs showing a five-hour stop near Newcastle under Lyme at around 330 miles during the first night.
Waiting in Milnathort for the tandem, giving them a cheer up the road 👏🏴 pic.twitter.com/DyzjoD3Ay8September 17, 2024
They crested the key climb of Shap Fell in the Cumbria still 85 minutes up, and although the dipped back down to their planned schedule after another five-hour pause on night two, they quickly accelerated back up to put themselves well ahead, staying there right to the end.
The men's tandem record of 1day 21hr 11min (45hr 11min) was set in 2015, with pilot Dominic Irvine and stoker Charlie Mitchell beating a record that had stood since 1966 – more than 50 years – by more than five hours.
