John Woodburn, oldest man to set Land's End-John O'Groats record, dies at age 80

John Woodburn, who held the record for the fastest ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats from 1982 to 1990, has died at the age of 80.

Born in Birmingham, Woodburn was working as a telephone engineer in Berkshire at the time of the record attempt, which he undertook in the colours of Manchester Wheelers.

After waiting for a favourable southwesterly wind, he set off on the morning of Friday 13 August 1982 - he was not the kind of man to worry about superstition - and knocked 96 minutes off the existing record, set the previous year by Mick Coupe.

Woodburn covered the 848 miles from Cornwall the northeast Scotland in 45 hours, 3 minutes and 16 seconds.

His exploits were captured in Ray Pascoe’s film, 2 Days and 2 Nights, still available on DVD.

Aged 45 at the time, he remains the oldest man ever to have set the record, and did so more than two decades after becoming national 25-mile time trial champion in 1961.

He still holds a national age group records including for 10 miles and 50 miles.

His Land’s End to John O’Groats record stood until 1990 when it was beaten by just 57 seconds by Andy Wilkinson.

It’s testament to both men, and to the difficulty of the challenge, that the record would not be broken again until 2001, when Gethin Butler rode the end-to-end in 44 hours, 4 minutes and 20 seconds - a record that still stands to this day.