David Saunders
David
joined the Northwood Wheelers in 1949 at the age of 14 and remained
an active member of the club until 1957. He then moved to Scotland,
but is still an enthusiastic cyclist over 50 years later. In the
Northwood Wheelers he took part in all aspects of cycling, and served
as Touring and Time Trials secretaries. In time trials he achieved
the following performamces for 10, 25, 50 and 100 miles, and for 12
hours:
25.37; 1.05.25; 2.16.56; 4.50.08 and 225.94 miles.
These
times bear no comparison to present day standards (see below) but
were considered to be average for a junior clubman half a century
ago. They were also sufficient for club championships at 100 miles
and 12 hours, and for
the club record at the half-day event. This
website is based, to a large extent, on diaries kept by David
Saunders during the early to middle 1950s, a period considered by
many to be a "golden age of cycling".
Robert Saunders
Robert gained a love of cycling largely as a result of hearing the tales of his father's exploits with the Northwood Wheelers. However, just at the point of getting serious about cycling and joining a club, he went to University, acquired a whole set of vices and didn't take up cycling again until moving to Dundee in 1990, where around 1993 he joined the Dundee Wheelers. Born-again cyclists are clearly the most obsessive, and in 2000 he moved to Milton Keynes (because of work), and joined the North Bucks Road Club. By this time his bicycle collection had grown to an obsession. He currently races as a veteran and has the following personal best times.
10 miles: 20:51; 25 miles: 53:48; 50 miles: 1:54:16; 100 miles: 4:02:36 and 12 hrs 247.18 miles.