Putting The Record Straight

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Last Updated: Nov 6th, 2007 - 21:54:27

Putting The Record Straight
By Kevin Woods, (Isabel's son)
Nov 4, 2007,

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It was recently reported that the ladies “ End to End “ cycling record from Mizen Head in Cork to Fairhead in Antrim had been broken.

It had been held by Mrs Isabel Woods (Clements) of the Belfast Cycling Club since 1955 a distance of 386 miles in 23hrs 2mins.

The woman who has beaten it by 1hr 22mins is Miss Rose Leith from Zimbabwe South Africa who has been living in Dublin recently.

A very important and relevant detail was omitted in the reporting, that her route was almost 20 miles shorter.
The course that Isabel followed was set by her predecessors and was -

Mizzen - Cork - Cashel - Dundalk - Antrim - Ballycastle - Fairhead, 386 miles.

Rose took a more westerly route from Mizzen - Bantry - Dunmanway - Athlone - Monaghan - Dungannon - Portglenone - Ballycastle - Fairhead, a distance of 367 miles. A much shorter route which half a century ago probably would not have been possible due to the condition of the roads. Road improvements, bypasses,lighter bicycles, multi gears, (Isabel had five) scientific foods consisting of gels etc to counteract muscle fatigue are all advantages for the present day cyclists. Isabel was at Fairhead to congratulate Rose knowing that her time was bound to be beaten due to the shorter distance. My aim has been to point out that this defeat as reported did not cover all the facts. To put it into perspective !

Isabel still holds seven more cycling records, three “all Ireland” and four Northern Ireland.

The Irish Records :-
1953 – Belfast to Dublin 103miles in 4hrs 56mins.
1954 – Belfast to Dublin and back 206miles in 11hrs 47mins.
1956 – Dublin to Derry 147.5miles in 7hrs 24mins.

Northern Irish Records :-
1953 – Belfast to Enniskillen 86.4miles in 4hrs 2mins.
1954 – Belfast to Enniskillen and back 172.8miles in 9hrs 42mins.
1954 – 100 mile cycle in 4hrs 48mins.
1956 – 24 hour cycle for a distance of 378miles.

-------------------

Response by Joe Barr (7 Nov)

Hi IrishCycling.com

Just to follow up on Kevin Woods letter on November 3 re Isobel Woods record getting bettered considering the route was much shorter.

I also lost the mens record due to a shorter route being used earlier this year.

The fact is that any route between the two points can be used considering that all road traffic rules are followed. This option was open to us all when we made our effort. I personally chose to use Morris Fosters route as I wanted to minimalise any advantage of road improvements, by passes etc,etc and although available I opted not to use tri-bars and rode a conventional a bike as possible.This was for my own personal sense of self achievement if I were to break the record. As I reduced the recored by just over one hour it has to be said considering the roads I rode on I cannot imagine how bad they must have been for Morris and just how good his ride actually was.

The point for me is that anyone, male or female who has held the end to end record is pretty special. All good riders know that there will always be someone better but I believe in reference to this particular event that the Governing body should nominate a dedicated route, therefore give the breaking of any previous record real creditability where only the riders effort is measured against each other and not what distance was covered.

At the moment the effort is lost in the debate of the route, as for me my recored was not beaten as the route was shortened ????, do I still get to keep my record. And the debate goes on.

Joe Barr

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