SIR - Congratulations to Elsie Green on her 101st birthday (Worcester News, May 31). Although some 30 years younger, like Elsie, I made the "tedious journey on the A38" to Weston-super-Mare prior to the building of the M5. However, this was by bicycle.
The Beacon Road Club organised a 200-mile reliability trial from Rubery to Weston and back. It was held in February and started at midnight. It wasn't a race but there was a time standard of 15 hours. Riders from Worcester were allowed to start at 11pm, from a check-point in the Tything and ride north to join the main group. It was back through Worcester, a checkpoint at Filton and another on the front at Weston, then then the return to Worcester where we finished while the others continued to the outskirts of Birmingham.
I rode it on two consecutive years in the mid-1950s. On the first occasion there was continuous rain and the second time it was extremely cold and drinking bottles froze. My wife and I remain keen cyclists - but would now find 200 miles on the A38 rather daunting.
ERIC AUSTIN, Hallow, Worcester.
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