A 45-year-old British bicyclist and bar owner set off from Thailand last week in an attempt to smash the around-the-world bicycling record by shaving more than two months off the current best time.
Alan Bate proposes to accomplish the 18,000-mile journey in 99 days, eclipsing the fastest time of 165 days set by Julian Sayarer, 23, just last year.
The feat requires that Bate ride his bicycle an average 180 miles a day, compared to the 109 miles a day ridden by Sayarer last year.
The past couple of years have seen many attacks on the bicycling record to circumnavigate the globe — all by British bicyclists.
World record
The standing Guinness World Record holder is still Scotland's Mark Beaumont, who completed the journey in 195 days in 2008. Two faster rides in 2009 by Sayarer (165 days) and James Bowthorpe (176 days) are still being validated by the Guinness organization.
Bate also is British, but now makes his permanent home in Bangkok, where he runs a bicycle museum and cycle-themed cafe and bar.
Team support
A major difference between Bate's attempt and the journeys completed by Beaumont, Bowthorpe and Sayarer is that Bate is taking a support team with him.
The other three accomplished their journeys solo, loading their bicycles down with all their gear and handling all the arrangements as they went along.
Not taking anything away from Bate — 180 miles a day is amazing — it seems that his attempt should be in a different category (supported) than the previous attempts (unsupported).
Bate's ride is bank-rolled to the tune of $230,000 by the Thailand-based Boonrawd brewery, according to an interview in the Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News, his former hometown newspaper in the UK. Bate has dedicated his ride to the king and queen of Thailand.
Since relocating to Thailand, he was set two long-distance endurance bicycling records in that country.
London-based Red Spokes Cycling Adventure Holidays also is sponsoring Bate's globe-girdling bike ride.
Rules
Guinness World Records sets strict rules for establishing an around-the-world bike record, but they don't specify supported or unsupported rides.
The bicyclist must ride at least 18,000 miles in an East-West or West-East direction and waver no more than 5 degrees off course. The route must pass two antipodal points (two points that line up through the Earth's center). The clock stops whenever the cyclist flies or takes a boat to cross water bodies or goes through customs as he crosses boundaries.
Meanwhile, another British cyclist, Vin Cox, is bicycling though Mayalsia after completing the seventh week of his attempt to break the around-the-world record. Bate also has entered Mayalsia on his around-the-world quest.
(April 6 update: Cox has reached Singapore and Bate is heading that way.)
Endurance world cyclists
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