LOCAL HEROES

BRIDGET & IAN BOON

Making (and keeping) time for a resurgent arm of the sport

Long-distance riding is in the blood for Ian and Bridget Boon. Long-distance Audaxes, a couple of goes at Paris-Brest-Paris, Cycling Time Trials (CTT) events of 12 or 24 hours, you name it, and if they weren’t riding then they were wrapped up on the roadside with a stopwatch and a flask of tea. Even their first date was a 200km ride on a tandem. But it’s as recent stalwarts of the Road Records Association (RR A) that the husband and wife pairing have won Cycling Weekly’s Local Hero award for 2022.

The pair used to keep track of attempts on the record for Land’s End to John o’ Groats, the iconic 874-mile Endto-End, because riders would take the A38 outside Bristol and pass a few miles from the Boons’ front door. They then stuck their names down on the list of official timekeepers and observers for the RR A, the arbiter of official attempts. In 2018 Mike Broadwith asked if they would officiate his attempt on the UK’s most prestigious distance record.

That first experience was one to remember. Ian recalls watching Broadwith, a maths teacher, ride through horrendous rain and wind on the stretch from Edinburgh to Inverness. Despite being in an aero tuck, he could barely hold 12mph and stay upright.

“He stopped on a deckchair for 10 minutes just outside Inverness,” adds Bridget. “He said, ‘Right, I want honest answers. How far have I got to go and what time have I got left?’ So we told him. It was something like 118 miles and seven and a half hours, you could see him working it out, and he said, ‘I should be able to do that.’ He just stood up, got on his bike, and went.”

The Boons followed through the night and were there to clock Broadwith in with a new record time of one day, 19 hours, 25 minutes and 13 seconds. Before they knew it, the Boons were picking up another pasty in Cornwall, another discount salad at the Marks and Spencer outside Gloucester (usually passed by an End-to-End attempt towards the end of the first day just as discounts are applied to fresh produce), and taking part in another five attempts. In 2021 they officiated another success – Christina Mackenzie’s women’s solo record of two days, three hours, five minutes and 27 seconds.

No map required

“ You’re seeing people at their best and their most tired,” says Ian of End-to-Ends. “Not everyone has had the happy experiences we’ve had but people are trying to achieve something, their friends are helping them, you’re invited to document the experience and put your weight behind it.”

“We could almost do it without a map now,” says Bridget. “We know where we’re going provided they go the same way, which they almost always do.”

In just four years the Boons have officiated at 15 RR Arecord attempts, 10 of them successful.

“It’s not rocket