SiPie

For anyone with a passing interest in cycling (although not even necessary), watched this series when it was shown earlier this year on BBC1 Scotland and it really shouldn't be missed

A decent guy whose determination and the scale of his achievement is amazing IMHO, truly inspirational

what would scooby do

It's easier and faster to fly

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Amazing achievement, but it always amazes me how these people get the time and money to do stuff like this.

dpb

Mate o mine helped paddle round the world

- tookum 14 years

SiPie

bttt

paulr

Just watched it, cant wait till tomorrow. Some people just want an easy life, others want to do something worthwhile.

RS Grant

I went to secondary school with Mark, it was brilliant to watch him doing it... and I'm not missing this series either. Extremely proud and astounded at his achievement. He's a bloody nice guy too.


Cheers,
Grant

SiPie

Yeah, seemed to come across really well. His mental strength (especially through Indonesia and Australia IIRC) is something else.

Pedalling Around - Start » End of the Road!

austinwrx

I've done some massive cycling trips, with camping gear on and I can tell you its no mean feat to do 100 miles with all that gear laden on.

but day after day for 8 months !!!!!! esp in 3rd world countries like Pakistan etc- maximum respect to the man.

Leslie

I think it is an outstanding achievement, how he could average that number of miles each day for such a distance is truly amazing.

Les

j4ckos mate

it was on again amazing

austinwrx

even more impressive again last night- full respect to him. tonights episode looks a tough leg of the route too.

SiPie

The headwinds and the sheer monotony of Australia really do give him a challenge.....it is a great episode tonight

shamrock

The thought of deadly spiders would make me cycle faster

dpb

Well he makes those over-hyped pubic skooled playboys who biked halfway thro Africa look like a couple of mincers

imlach

Awesome. Great comparison he made though when cycling through the outback in Oz. It's the equivalent of cycling end-to-end in the UK, with about 10 petrol stations along the route, and nothing else!!

As someone else stated, it makes Ewan McGregor's "acheivement" look tame. While still a challenge, they did seem to have a large backup team in Land Rover's etc, as well as a few ££££ to throw at it. Not in the same league at all.

....In the outback in Oz, to be 150km from the next water stop in 40C heat, and then not making it there that day is tough when you're on your own with only a few deadly spiders for company. Some of could probably do the physical part.....it's the sheer mental toughness you'd need to stop yourself from either a) giving up, or b) not going loopy.

Great achievement. Nice guy.

LG John

Wow, imlach! A blast from the past!

I'm really loving this program and Mark seems like a great guy. There is something about his positivity that just washes over you. Looking forward to tonight's episode - seems he gets mugged and knocked off his bike and they briefly showed the wheel badly buckled.

dpb

I dont know *how* much water youd lose over 10 hours cycling in 40 degrees, i guess the breeze helped a bit ( even tho it was in the wrong direction)

unclebuck

Just catching up with this. What an extraordinary feat!!

Makes The Long Way Round look like a stroll in the park. I'm amazed.

Thing is though, he aims to beat the record by 80 days. That's a large margin so surely he could have been a little easier on himself at times?

RS Grant

I think the problem Mark said was that he never really knew what was round the corner... so when things were working as they should be, he had to make the best time he could, because as you saw at the beginning of the journey in Europe the un-expected problems surfaced and really dented his daily distance target.


Cheers,
Grant

j4ckos mate

Amazing, he should be getting an obe or something,
i am surprised the soiltaryness didnt send him loopy.

rb5_336

I watched the last 30 mins, awesome achievement. Bet he won't be going back to Louisiana anytime soon

mykp

I think the keyword to this acheivement is "Unsupported"

An astonishing feat of endurance cycling, maximum respect to the bloke.