Mark Beaumont Around the World 80 days

greasedscotsman

Looks like he's going to finish a day early!

http://www.artemisworldcycle.com/

haydenm

Following it now, a heroic effort

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Massive accomplishment!

Silly Old Hector

Absolutely stunning achievement..

greasedscotsman

When I first heard about this on GCN, thought he had no chance. Thought it's far too optimistic. No way can someone do that many miles for that many days. Thought something is bound to go wrong. They'll get stuck at the border in China. Or he'll have a crash (which I think he had several). Or he'll just fail though fatigue.

But he did 18,032 miles in 78 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes. Amazing!

davesnothere

Unbelievable, hats off to him

ugo.santalucia

Extraordinary feat.

From an environmental point of view (and to cut the budget required), it would be better if this challenge included fewer flights, so in essence cutting off Australia. One flight between the far east and Alaska should be plenty... basically what Ewan Mc Gregor and Charlie Boorman did in the Long Way round.

Start in Lisbon, end in New York

Thick Mike

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Extraordinary feat.

From an environmental point of view (and to cut the budget required), it would be better if this challenge included fewer flights, so in essence cutting off Australia. One flight between the far east and Alaska should be plenty... basically what Ewan Mc Gregor and Charlie Boorman did in the Long Way round.

Start in Lisbon, end in New York

I heard that the route needed to be at least 18,000 miles to count as a world record, maybe he needed the extra miles from Australia and NZ? They also took into account cyclable roads...that's why they avoided the UK.

ugo.santalucia

Thick Mike wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Extraordinary feat.

From an environmental point of view (and to cut the budget required), it would be better if this challenge included fewer flights, so in essence cutting off Australia. One flight between the far east and Alaska should be plenty... basically what Ewan Mc Gregor and Charlie Boorman did in the Long Way round.

Start in Lisbon, end in New York

I heard that the route needed to be at least 18,000 miles to count as a world record, maybe he needed the extra miles from Australia and NZ? They also took into account cyclable roads...that's why they avoided the UK.

Thought the route was somewhat fixed. Fair enough, risky strategy, you never know what's going to happen when you board a bike on a plane

cgfw201

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Thick Mike wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Extraordinary feat.

From an environmental point of view (and to cut the budget required), it would be better if this challenge included fewer flights, so in essence cutting off Australia. One flight between the far east and Alaska should be plenty... basically what Ewan Mc Gregor and Charlie Boorman did in the Long Way round.

Start in Lisbon, end in New York

I heard that the route needed to be at least 18,000 miles to count as a world record, maybe he needed the extra miles from Australia and NZ? They also took into account cyclable roads...that's why they avoided the UK.

Thought the route was somewhat fixed. Fair enough, risky strategy, you never know what's going to happen when you board a bike on a plane

Menzies were one of his partners/sponsors who did all the bike transfers in airports which i guess helps a fair bit.

Phenomenal effort, incredible how lucid he was in all the daily videos. Machine.

greasedscotsman

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Thought the route was somewhat fixed. Fair enough, risky strategy, you never know what's going to happen when you board a bike on a plane

But it's a record attempt. Guinness World Records set what a round the world cycle ride is, Beaumont and his team come up with the fastest way of doing it.

ugo.santalucia

greasedscotsman wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Thought the route was somewhat fixed. Fair enough, risky strategy, you never know what's going to happen when you board a bike on a plane

But it's a record attempt. Guinness World Records set what a round the world cycle ride is, Beaumont and his team come up with the fastest way of doing it.

OK, so it needs to include Australia... bizzarre :roll:

twotyred

His route had to include two antipodal points, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere. The ones he chose were Madrid and Auckland. Its not easy picking antipodal points as most of the southern hemisphere is water. So I guess if you are in the S Hemisphere you may as well cycle Australia.

Absolutely incredible achievement of endurance. Have a look at the GCN video where Simon Richardson cycles the first leg out of Paris with him. Although a superfit ex pro Richardson was totally boll*xed after just one 240 mile day

Mapaputsi

cgfw201 wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Thick Mike wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Extraordinary feat.

From an environmental point of view (and to cut the budget required), it would be better if this challenge included fewer flights, so in essence cutting off Australia. One flight between the far east and Alaska should be plenty... basically what Ewan Mc Gregor and Charlie Boorman did in the Long Way round.

Start in Lisbon, end in New York

I heard that the route needed to be at least 18,000 miles to count as a world record, maybe he needed the extra miles from Australia and NZ? They also took into account cyclable roads...that's why they avoided the UK.

Thought the route was somewhat fixed. Fair enough, risky strategy, you never know what's going to happen when you board a bike on a plane

Menzies were one of his partners/sponsors who did all the bike transfers in airports which i guess helps a fair bit.

Phenomenal effort, incredible how lucid he was in all the daily videos. Machine.

This is what always got me, I just kept up to speed with him on Strava but he would pop up on the GCN weekly show every now and then and he was so calm and remained so positive.

Great effort!

ugo.santalucia

twotyred wrote:

His route had to include two antipodal points, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere. The ones he chose were Madrid and Auckland. Its not easy picking antipodal points as most of the southern hemisphere is water. So I guess if you are in the S Hemisphere you may as well cycle Australia.

Absolutely incredible achievement of endurance. Have a look at the GCN video where Simon Richardson cycles the first leg out of Paris with him. Although a superfit ex pro Richardson was totally boll*xed after just one 240 mile day

I see.

In an age when bicycle is coming back strongly with great environmental credentials, the challenge has missed a trick and could be designed better, to take full advantage. I was a bit disappointed to see how many "carbon miles" were wasted jetting around the world. I did like the way McGregor and Boorman went around the world, with minimal use of planes... although of course they had petrol engines. A challenge designed to minimise the use of petrol would be very welcome... at least I would welcome it... :roll:

Fantastic effort nonetheless

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Coming up next, cycling the world, using pedal power to cross oceans!

buckmulligan

I've been following it on their YouTube channel almost every day and it has been a truly amazing feat. As you say, he's just been like a machine, always very measured and consistent despite what must have been a gruelling schedule and 3-5 hours sleep most nights.

twotyred wrote:

His route had to include two antipodal points, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere. The ones he chose were Madrid and Auckland. Its not easy picking antipodal points as most of the southern hemisphere is water. So I guess if you are in the S Hemisphere you may as well cycle Australia.

Indeed, when I heard this I wondered how much tolerance is allowed here, because it must be quite difficult to find two points on opposite sides of the earth that are both actually on roads and not stuck in the middle of a field somewhere! I'm guessing they're allowed a certain amount of leeway and must have had their plan signed off by Guinness before they even left.

Aus and NZ are basically the only options though when it comes to the southern hemisphere; the alternatives are basically S. America or Southern Africa, neither of which are going to be amenable to clocking in hundreds of miles every day, either in terms of roads or climate and that's before you even consider the rest of the logistics.

Come on Ugo, you can't even enjoy this unbelievable feat without picking holes in it?!

ugo.santalucia

BuckMulligan wrote:

Come on Ugo, you can't even enjoy this unbelievable feat without picking holes in it?!

Enjoyed the feat in terms of ultra-cycling, but the challenge itself is not hitting the spot for me.

Look how far around the world you can go on a bike... except you need to fly a distance which is probably not far off the 18,000 miles cycled.
Wouldn't it be "cooler" if the course was set by Guinness so that you are only allowed to fly no more than X miles instead, just to prove a point that you can (almost) circumnavigate the globe solely relying on pedal power?

haydenm

You would just do it as close to one of the poles surely? Or are you suggesting he should have ridden round the equator? The reason they specify two points is to make sure it's 'around the world'

ugo.santalucia

HaydenM wrote:

You would just do it as close to one of the poles surely? Or are you suggesting he should have ridden round the equator? The reason they specify two points is to make sure it's 'around the world'

I get the rationale... but they also specify a minimum mileage... which is all you need really, you don't need to jet to Australia... it's more pointless than it would be going up and down mainland Europe to build up the miles.

Say Lisbon to New York going east (LINY) or New York to Lisbon going west(NYLI)... 18K miles minimum... one flight only allowed of no more than X miles... no Atlantic crossings

That's it, all you need

jgsi

ugo.santalucia wrote:

twotyred wrote:

His route had to include two antipodal points, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere. The ones he chose were Madrid and Auckland. Its not easy picking antipodal points as most of the southern hemisphere is water. So I guess if you are in the S Hemisphere you may as well cycle Australia.

Absolutely incredible achievement of endurance. Have a look at the GCN video where Simon Richardson cycles the first leg out of Paris with him. Although a superfit ex pro Richardson was totally boll*xed after just one 240 mile day

I see.

In an age when bicycle is coming back strongly with great environmental credentials, the challenge has missed a trick and could be designed better, to take full advantage. I was a bit disappointed to see how many "carbon miles" were wasted jetting around the world. I did like the way McGregor and Boorman went around the world, with minimal use of planes... although of course they had petrol engines. A challenge designed to minimise the use of petrol would be very welcome... at least I would welcome it... :roll:

Fantastic effort nonetheless

I mentioned 'carbon miles' aka jet fuel/pollution in terms of jetting people to attend e-sports events.... people sat at consoles/turbo trainers
I was shot down because apparently professional sports/world tour is how it is done.
No doubting how hard the effort was to achieve, but also no doubt that this was a professional athlete carrying out a record in an ultra professional manner.
It has left me also a bit cold and less of an adventure of those who ride into the wilderness and have less YouTube fame.

haydenm

ugo.santalucia wrote:

HaydenM wrote:

You would just do it as close to one of the poles surely? Or are you suggesting he should have ridden round the equator? The reason they specify two points is to make sure it's 'around the world'

I get the rationale... but they also specify a minimum mileage... which is all you need really, you don't need to jet to Australia... it's more pointless than it would be going up and down mainland Europe to build up the miles.

Say Lisbon to New York going east (LINY) or New York to Lisbon going west(NYLI)... 18K miles minimum... one flight only allowed of no more than X miles... no Atlantic crossings

That's it, all you need

That would certainly be an amazing ride, much more in line with what I would do if I was planning my own mega tour anyway

ugo.santalucia

I like the ethos and the self sufficiency behind events like the Transcontinental race a lot more

haydenm

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I like the ethos and the self sufficiency behind events like the Transcontinental race a lot more

Think of the aero drag if Sean Conway's beard though...

buckmulligan

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I get the rationale... but they also specify a minimum mileage... which is all you need really, you don't need to jet to Australia... it's more pointless than it would be going up and down mainland Europe to build up the miles.

Say Lisbon to New York going east (LINY) or New York to Lisbon going west(NYLI)... 18K miles minimum... one flight only allowed of no more than X miles... no Atlantic crossings

That's it, all you need

And then you're just venturing into the territory of HAMR and the like; you'll get some bore like Amanda Croker doing lap after lap after lap of a local park in the easiest possible fashion until they've clocked up the 18,000 miles and call it done. That's hardly romantic is it! This was a world record for cycling around the world, which naturally implies you reach the opposite side of the world and come back again.

Whilst The Transcontinental and the like are fantastic events in their own right, how do you think people get back from those?! They don't ride back, that's for sure. Same goes for your plan to cycle from Lisbon to NY, you're still going to get a plane across the Atlantic to get back home again!

ugo.santalucia

BuckMulligan wrote:

Whilst The Transcontinental and the like are fantastic events in their own right, how do you think people get back from those?! They don't ride back, that's for sure. Same goes for your plan to cycle from Lisbon to NY, you're still going to get a plane across the Atlantic to get back home again!

It's still a lot less flying than MB did. The way I see it is that the bit in Australia is completely pointless, for the sake of ticking the opposite side of the world rule, which is ridiculous and un-necessary.

I didn't do the maths, but it seems to me the air mileage is at least comparable to the terrestrial mileage, which leaves me a bit cold. Technically it would be possible (if very hard) not to fly at all from Lisbon to New York. I wouldn't go that far, but...

DavidJB

Oh give it a rest.

bompington

Gosh there's some pathetic "not impressed"-ism here.

Go away and come back when you've done a better circumnavigation.

sheffsimon

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I like the ethos and the self sufficiency behind events like the Transcontinental race a lot more

Mark Beaumont's Cairo to Cape Town ride/book is worth a look at. All overland (apart from a ferry ride) and unsupported.

greasedscotsman

6 Strava KOMs along the way!

(on his round the world ride...)

ugo.santalucia

bompington wrote:

Gosh there's some pathetic "not impressed"-ism here.

Go away and come back when you've done a better circumnavigation.

The problem is, Bompington, that at the moment there is an explosion in the Ultra cycling world. At any one time there are 2 or 3 attempting some kind of long distance record... all of them averaging 200-250 miles a day for a given amount of time.

Does Beaumont feat stand out in this overcrowded long distance market? I don't know, maybe it does, but my problem is not with his feat but with the challenge per se. Around the world is a very romantic concept and as mentioned above, I really sympathise with the "going into the wild" approach. Less so with the jetting + cycling approach.

Admittedly, I haven't followed this attempt too much and I suspect the route had some inherent challenges, seeing as he went through Mongolia, as I understand. However, having seen the bike he used, it's not probably the wild Mongolia I picture in my head.

How does this feat compare with Steve Abraham's daily loops in Lincolnshire of a similar distance? Is there more challenge in going to exotic places with a solid and professional backup or is there more challenge in being 100 miles away from home with zero support, doing so on a shoestring, trying to save the penny every day?

The answer is I don't know... I appreciate the mileage is great, I don't understand the scale of the challenge. I think it was well summed up earlier on

"A professional athlete and done in a professional way"