World record attempt, almost there...

[Yellow7]

Thought i'd post this in case any of you guys n girls were not aware, the Guniness record for circumnavigating the globe is presently being rode by this guy, Julian Emre Sayarer. He's almost done & certainly in for smashing the present record set by James Bowthorpe a few months back (who'd beat Mark Beaumont)

http://www.thisisnotforcharity.com/index.html

 

[Banjo]

It seems incredible that anyone could maintain that pace for so long.The guy must be superhuman.

 

[Brains]

Call me a cynic, but cycling through only 3 or the worlds 8 continents, and doing an extended loop through the (easy) USA, added to a NZ end to end just to get the bit of cycling required south of the Equator may be 'around the world' by the 'rules' of the game, but it is not 'a cycle around the world' in the real sense.

If he swapped the USA loop for a trans Australia then I'd have a bit more respect.

I believe the current rules say you have to do 18,000 miles and cross the equator, so 72 circuits of the M25 followed by a flight to Sydney for a few circles of their orbital motorway and back via the USA (get in any extra miles needed) should qualify as a 'cycle around the word"

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

yeah i kinda agree. whilst i totally respect the mileage and effort, i was suprised by how much of the world is missed out whilst doing a 'round the world' record. i much prefer reading the guys on sites like crazyguyonabike. people are actually cycling, living and working their way around the world. i did feel sorry for james tho, all that effort and came desperately short of his estimated charity figure.

 

[Randochap]

Still pretty impressive though. Our own (ex-pat Brit) John Hathaway did a transglobal ride in 1974, covering 80,000 kilometres in 100 weeks. More on him on VeloWeb's Touring hub page.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

please don't misunderstand me, absolute respect. sleeping rough solo in some pretty dodgy places, eating iffy food. all whilst no doubt being totally depressed due the mileage (surely over training symptoms would kick in) but still pressing on must take an unbelievable effort in the morings.

i was just stating that when i started to follow james, i was surprised at how much of the world is missed out.

 

[Yellow7]

Brains. I'm affraid your 72 circuits of the M25 followed by a flight to Sydney for a few circles of their orbital motorway and back via the USA (get in any extra miles needed) would not qualify. Guinness rules are that you continue in the same direction you set out from, either east to west, or west to east for the 18000 miles & pass through two antipodal points (two points that would line up through the centre of the earth).

He selected his route to minimise border crossings & hence delays, a man with his mind set on a goal uses common sense. The rules DO NOT state you have to choose the most difficult route.
By the way, this chap IS NOT James Bowthorpe, his name is Julian Sayarer, on his way to 'take the crown' from James.
Oh how easy it is to knock some ones attempts from the comfort of your arm chair.

 

[rich p]

Brains. I'm affraid your 72 circuits of the M25 followed by a flight to Sydney for a few circles of their orbital motorway and back via the USA (get in any extra miles needed) would not qualify. Guinness rules are that you continue in the same direction you set out from, either east to west, or west to east for the 18000 miles & pass through two antipodal points (two points that would line up through the centre of the earth).
.[/I]

I thought I'd read that in Mark Beaumont's report but this bloke went west from Shanghai to Bangkok(?) which seemed to violate the rules.
Good luck to him but the 3rd bloke to do it in quick succession means it matters less to Joe Public, I think.

The routes are obviously contrived but I do think missing out on Australia demeans his attempt to an extent.

 

[dpiper]

Dont knock it til you've tried it. My attempt isnt even in one go, but at a similar pace (110 miles per day) - its taken me 5 years and I'm only halfway.
www.tra-velo-gue.co.uk

 

[HelenD123]

I had this e-mail from BikeFix earlier. Thought I'd post it in case any of you are interested in meeting him

"Julian Sayerer - our good friend and a great athlete, is on course to break the world record for a human powered circumnavigation. He is due to arrive in Rouen on Friday 4th December and I plan to be there to greet him. You can follow his progress and read his blog here...
http://www.thisisnotforcharity.com/index.html

Come and meet him and celebrate his achievement in the shop on the evening of Friday 11th December. There will be food, drink and hopefully live music. All welcome.

Bike designer Mike Burrows will also be there showing some of his latest projects. You can also hear him talking about bicycles, sport and laid back cycling, and playing his favourite records on Radio Norfolk here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00558xr/Matthew_Gudgin_24_11_2009/"

 

[Garz]

Anyone who achieves a round-the-world cycle gets respect from me as its not an easy achievement. Regarding his particular effort though I agree with rich that all these recent attempts are overlapping and not so remarkable once the public are exposed to it the first time round.

One major thing to note is regular people who don't cycle will not really guage how much of an effort it really is till they say complete a 100-miler or a c2c experience.

Lastly although I was really intrigued by this when Beaumont got air time not long back, his programs fell short in the actual content it provided and ended up just documenting a few whinges and unpleasantries in three very short episodes.

 

[dpiper]

I was following his tracker yesterday.

At 07.20 = 17277 miles
At 12.56 = 17396 miles
At 16.50 = 17452 miles
At 18.12 = 17462 miles

That's 185 miles in 11 hours, which would mean riding nonstop at 17mph.

Its now 06.00 the next day and he's showing 17563, that's 286 miles in less than 24 hours.

The weather, winds, terrain and daylight are not in his favour.

I am assuming his tracker gives a reliable live feed to his website.

Comments anyone?

 

[jitensha]

I think Julian Emre Sayarer is going to run into two problems with this attempt:

1. His route covers the same latitude in central China and SE Asia. Therefore he hasn't travelled in one direction continuously.
2. June 10th (his start date) until December 4th (his probable finish date) is 178 days.

The GWR rules are somewhat unclear in that they state that time not ridden/cycled should be deducted from the overall time taken for the cycle. HOWEVER in the case of both Mark Beaumont and James Bowthorpe this did not apply.

Beaumont: August 5th 2007 - February 15th 2008 = 195 days
Bowthorpe: March 29th - September 19th 2009 = 175 days

I'll be very surprised if GWR sign off on this. All the best to him though. It's certainly impressive regardless and is beyond the ability of most people

 

[jay clock]

Re the latititude issue, it is not 100% clear. He arrived in Shanghai, then flew to Thailand area and did a ride that was all to the West of Shanghai. That does look like a problem

re the time deducted for non cycling time, that is not what it says on his site. It says "When the rider and bicycle reach a port of transit, be it for a flight or a boat, the clock stops until rider and bicycle arrive together at the destination from which the circumnavigation continues. ". So it is only flights or ferries that are not included in the time. That does seem mad, as you could take a very slow ferry/plane route to maximise the "rest" you would get

 

[Greenbank]

By the way he's paraphrased the rules he may be thinking that he "and bicycle reach a port of transit, be it for a flight or a boat, the clock stops until rider and bicycle arrive together at the destination from which the circumnavigation continues."

So, arrive at airport in Conneticut for planned flight 4 days early. Clock stops. Sleep in airport or even the luxury of an airport hotel for 4 days. Get on flight. Clock starts when he and his bike is off the 'plane the other end in Lisbon.

The full details of the rules (which I haven't been able to find on t'Internet) will make it more obvious what is and isn't allowed. Without finding and reading them it's just idle speculation.

As for the route, I doubt he'll be in trouble on that as it was his planned route which he would have got the agreement from GWR in advance. There's a fair amount of work that goes in with GWR before an attempt like this can take place, it's not one you can claim after the fact without giving them notification of your intentions.