Congratulations to Matt Stevens who set the Cardiff-to-London Capital to Capital Record in the Male 18-49 age-group record on a standard bike.

  • Record attempt

Capital to Capital – Cardiff to London

  • Start date and exact start time

Saturday 3rd September 2022, at 09:30hrs

  • Exact start location 

Main gate outside of Cardiff Castle, Castle Street, Cardiff

  • What were conditions like?

Conditions were generally good. Just over 20 degrees celsius, and light winds from the south. A short rain spell which made everything a bit damp but dried up pretty quick! 

  • Why did you want to do a record?

I have held 3 previous records, so felt it was time for another challenge!

  • What equipment did you use? Anything special?

I used my tried-and-trusted Ribble Time Trial bike. In hindsight, the route was a bit hillier than expected for the first 1/2, which may have been more suited to a standard road bike with bigger gears, but probably didn’t make a whole lot of difference.

  • What did you eat & drink?

I don’t deal with solid foods when riding that well, so I consumed approx 5L of high carb cycling drinks (ok, plus a couple of sweets my crew handed me and I couldn’t refuse!!)

  • What was the best part?

Without a shadow of doubt, being given special permission for me and my crew car to ride together down Constitution Hill and to the main gates at Buckingham Palace. What a stunning place to finish an event!

  • What was the hardest part?

Both the best, and hardest parts were in central London! The traffic as we entered London was incredibly heavy, meaning me and my support car got stuck, unable to move, for a significant amount of time. Being within a couple of miles of the finish but unable to ride was incredibly frustrating, and probably lost me 20-30mins of time.

  • Did anything particularly unusual happen?

Thankfully, nothing particularly unusual or expected happened! Other than the aforementioned heavy traffic, it was relatively smooth-going! 

  • Exact finish location described so that someone else could find the same spot

The finish was outside of the main gates at Buckingham Palace, London

  • Exact finish time  

Finish was at 19:28hrs, with a (provisional) finish time of 9hrs 59mins