SCOTS cyclist Mark Beaumont is on track to achieve his superhuman goal of cycling round the world in 80 days.
As he nears the halfway mark this week, Beaumont has already completed nearly 9000 miles of the 18,000 mile epic journey, cycling at an astonishing 240 miles per day on average.
The current record is 123 days set by New Zealander Andrew Nicholson in 2015.
Beaumont is now in South Australia and is still going strong although weather conditions at the moment are poor with a fair amount of rain.
However, Beaumont said his trip had been brightened by meeting unicyclist Ed Pratt — who is 2.5 years into his journey around the world on a unicycle.
He added that the first stages of his epic journey had been challenging with a few bumps along the road, “quite literally in Russia”. Day nine saw Beaumont suffering a bad fall when a pothole that looked like sitting water caused his bike to stop immediately, dropping from 15mph to zero in the space of a second and sending him over the handlebars, hitting the road with his face and left hand and arm.
Despite a heavy hit and a badly damaged tooth, Beaumont went on to ride 228 miles although he said later that Russia’s bumpy roads were “tough miles” and he felt as if he had been in Russia “forever”.
“But so far, so good. We’re very much proving this is possible and I look forward to celebrating the next milestone, half way round!”
Previously Beaumont has cycled alone on his ground-breaking adventures but this time he has a back-up team. Performance manager Laura Penhaul said his body was extremely resilient to withstanding the repetitive nature and high volume of riding because he had been attempting lengthy cycle rides from a young age, crossing Scotland when he was just 12-years-old.
“His body has been conditioned to cycle and therefore adapted to be as efficient as possible,” she said.
In 2008, Beaumont broke the previous world record for cycling round the world, doing it easily in 195 days. He said he had dreamed of his current attempt for years.
“This is the culmination of the past two decades, since I was a 12-year-old boy cycling across Scotland,” he said. “I would love for this journey to give people the confidence to take on what they are capable of, for young people in particular to stop and to think: ‘What’s my 80 days?’”
After Australia and New Zealand Beaumont will go on to cycle from Anchorage in the US to Halifax in Canada before completing his journey by cycling from Lisbon to Paris. He will spend 16 hours in the saddle each day. “Physically it’s a step into the unknown,” he said. “I’ve never pushed over 200 miles a day back to back to back over two months. Mentally it’s going to take all the strength and experience I’ve got from riding my bike for the last 20 years.”
Beaumont said he had been inspired by stories like Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days.
“I grew up with those great Victorian adventure stories. That story is known around the globe and still fires the imagination.”
The 34-year-old is raising money for Orkidstudio which works to benefit communities worldwide through innovative architecture and construction. The journey is being tracked through Twinkl, a global educational platform for schools.
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