The Kent Cycling Association hold an annual 12 hour time trial on the roads of Kent. The winner being the person who covers the greatest distance over the set course in 12 hours. A list of winners can be found here.

Why provide an archive of a single cycling event? The '12' has become an institution for Kent cyclists. It provides an excuse each year to meet up with old friends. It is also apparent that across the country the '12' hour event has lost popularity. Fewer are run each year, and the KCA is one of the last in the country, and is, indeed, the only 12 hour time trial run south of the Thames.

We hope you find the site interesting, and informative whether you are just perusing or looking for some specific information. If you want to be mentioned on these pages simply ride the KCA 12 hour. Details of this year's event can be found on the KCA 12 Hour site .

Previous visitors will notice that this is the first update of the site for over a year. This has been due to the huge amount of information provided during 2007. We have added 14 more events as well as over 600 more riders details (52 events and nearly 2400 riders). We are just missing 12 post war events (1950, '51, '59, '60, '63, '64, '79, '80, '81, '86 and 1987). I have a special interest in 1981 as it was the year I rode the '12'. Although there are results for the events shown, there are still a significant number of the actual result and start sheets to be added to the site. Scanning and cleaning these up for the site takes a considerable amount of time and now the majority of the information is on the site this work should progress more quickly. For any events shown we should have the result sheet, so if you want to see the actual result sheet or start sheet please e-mail us and we will send you an electronic copy (these are large files) or send a stamped addressed envelope to Tim (address below) and he will post a photocopy.

While you are looking through the archive we would be grateful if you could highlight any errors. We know for instance that the list of winners details does not agree in every instance with the result sheet we have obtained (1954 has different winners between the result sheet and list of winners; 1989 has Mark Vowells completing over 240 miles, while the result sheet only shows 236). These discrepancies have been left as a reminder that they need to be resolved.

Thanks

We are indebted to Geoff Bray for providing a substantial amount of the information contained within this site. We are also extremely grateful to cyclists across the globe for providing information. John Palmer, now living in Canada, provided the 1961 result sheet. Dave Richards sent in the 1965 result all the way from South Australia. George Rogers provided 1962. Dave Saffrey managed to fill some gaps in the 90's and provided the 1949 result. Ron Difelice (Scotland) provided a great pile of 12 hour related material covering the 1970s and Bob Burden came up with result sheets from the 1950s.

The Archive

The Archive covers a seventy year period from 1932 to the present day. There are several events for each decade.

The Archive is divided into 5 sections:

Event includes details of the riders and the distances covered, and provides links to the Start and Result sheets, Course details (including Maps) and a Photograph Album (where these are available).

Riders is a list in alphabetical order of all the Riders and the year that they rode.

Clubs is a list of Riders grouped by their Club.

Distance is a list of distances covered.

Officials, which is a list of the organizers, timekeepers and helpers. This has still to be updated with the new information currently available.

What Next?

We will continue to track down the remaining result and start sheets, course details and photographs. In the meantime we have to

- digitise the start and result sheet we have and upload them onto the site.
- collate the list of Officials, and
- prepare for the 2008 event.

How Can you Help?

If you have any start sheets, result sheets, course details, pictures or other records of the events then we would like to add them to the Archive. All material will be returned if necessary. Material can be e-mailed to:

kca12archive@freeuk.com

or posted to:

Tim Carpenter, 8 Breer Street, London SW6 3HD