OC’s Nat MacAleese and Angus Young came back to deliver this term’s Tom Avery Lecture on Thursday 28th February.
Having participated in various adventures based on bicycles built for one, two and even three, Nat and Angus, together with two other university friends decided to challenge an established Canadian team to a quad tandem stage-race down the west coast of America. Due to the limited number of quad tandem teams in existence, it became clear that this was in effect the World Championships and would attract a lot of publicity, and therefore attention for their fundraising goals supporting mental health: To Write Love On Her Arms and Mental Health Research UK.
Their engaging talk set the scene, introduced us to the teams and ran through the saga of actually obtaining a four seater bike suitable for the challenge. The race itself was fraught with mechanical tribulations, but in the end the British Team crossed the Golden Gate first and were declared the outright winners, if only by the narrowest of margins.
This was a fun, informal, talk illustrated by their trusty steed (feeling a little sorry for itself, having had to be cut in two for the return journey), numerous photos and some exhilarating video clips.
Challenges have come in from other teams, so good luck in the future and may the title remain British.
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