Cycle Trainer attracts the crowds at Donkey Derby

 

 

The 2014 Donkey Derby run by The Hayling Lions proved another very successful community event for Cycle Hayling.

Robert Sebley and his team of volunteers (Cycle Hayling supporters who stepped in to help at the last minute) ran a very busy and popular joint Cycle Hayling/Portsmouth CTC stall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main attraction, as usual, was the “cycle trainer” challenge, a competition to cover the fastest distance in one minute on a fixed cycle. There are two cycles (one for adults, one for children) and the competition is fierce to reach the top of the “leader board”: each competitor has their distance flagged on a vertical scale, with four separate scales for men, women, boys and girls.

Several men managed to cycle almost 1000 metres in the timed minute: an incredible speed approaching 60 km per hour. As these cycle trainers feel like you’re cycling up an ever steeper hill, that’s an impressive achievement of nearly 40 mph uphill!

It was great to see so many children queuing to have their turn (and turn again!). The fastest child clocked up a fantastic distance of just short of 700 metres. In all we had nearly 100 competitors. The full results for each category are listed below.

Thanks to the popularity of the cycle trainer, Cycle Hayling had the chance to talk to visitors about cycling on the island, distribute more cycle maps and encourage many to get out on their bikes. We also recruited several new supporters.

Thank you to everyone who helped on the stall, and to Hayling Lions for their continued support and letting us run our stall for free at the Donkey Derby.

 Cycle Trainer results in full:

Category	Number of entries	Longest distance (in metres)
Men	26	930
Women	7	765
Boys	37	695
Girls	26	597