John and Kristen are at it again. This time on a tandem. In the air of some controversy, they joined forces on a tandem and crushed the Mt. Washington Hill Climb tandem record. In addition to breaking the record by 6 minutes, they also finished 11th overall.
To top it off, John and Kristen even led overall winner (and record holder) Tom Danielson up the mountain. Tom declared them both insane when they spoke at the top.
While Danielson just missed matching the record he set in his first ride up Mt. Washington, the team of John Bayley and Kristen Gohr smashed the existing record for tandem bicycles. Bayley, 41, originally from Dublin, Ireland, but now living in Watertown, Mass., and Gohr, 33, from Reading, Mass., shot forward with the leaders at the starting cannon – they actually led Danielson at one point — and rode an impressively strong and steady race, finishing in 1:06:32. That time was nearly six minutes faster than the old tandem record of 1:12:20, set by Dave Lamb and Freemont Matthew in 1997, and it was good enough to place them 11th among all finishers.
“That was the one thing that surprised me in the race,” said Danielson, smiling. “Those guys who passed me on the tandem!”
“We just thought we’d show Tom how it’s done, y’know?” Bayley quipped. “And actually, it put some pep in our step.”
Check out the full article at the Mount Washington Auto Road website
