chriskmurray

So, what is everyone's thoughts on this? I neither have the time or energy to even consider it but it will be interesting to watch someone going for it.

UMCA announces a new record category: highest annual mileage | UltraCycling News

LWaB

A friend of mine is giving it a go and has a decent chance of doing it. Hopefully he'll have a better winter than Tommy Godwin.

Steven Abraham

chriskmurray

That will be fun to follow! I wish we were closer because I would love to volunteer as his mechanic!

LWaB

I have heard that a USA-ian bloke is tackling the record next year but don't know anything else. If so, it'll mirror the time between the wars when challengers competed for the record on opposite sides of the world.

There is a Brit aiming at the ladies record in 2015 as well but I don't think she has any background in long distance riding.

chriskmurray

Thanks! I will have to keep a look out. I searched but could not find anything on Ian but just because he is not blogging about it, does not mean he is not going for it. Actually, I have no idea how you could have the time/energy to do both the distance required and blog....

BamaBulldawg

That's amazing, reading the descriptions of what he needs volunteer support for put the size of this task into perspective.

"I will need to be washed, fed and put to bed in as short a time as possible.You’d be doing the work."

LWaB

My apologies, I think that one of my little foibles has been taken the wrong way. Italian, Australian, USAian. Perhaps the term American should refer to those living in a couple of continents, not just those in the USA? I have no idea what this bloke's name is but somebody does.

My partner tells me that the British lady has realised that a fair amount of riding would be involved to take the record and may not be making the attempt after all.

LWaB

I am hoping that means he doesn't want to stir the cooking pot or to do the washing up. I'm not planning on scrubbing behind his ears if he stays with us a few nights.

unterhausen

that's similar to riding over 20 crossings of the U.S. in a year, 300k per day. Okay....

rm -rf

A graphic from his site's "how far" pages. It's equivalent to 25 RAAM rides in one year. Two a month. (Well, he is going to avoid hills, so that will make it "easier".)

Or 820 miles (1300 km) every 4 days. That's like riding a continuous Paris-Brest-Paris for a year.

hamster

Being able to avoid hills is key. Accumulating sleep deficit is not an option, so he essentially needs to ride one 14-hour double century a day. Even if the guy is really strong VO2max wise, doing this on a course that's more than ~50'/mile is next to impossible.

Since the ideal route is flat, the challenge is biased in favor of recumbents. Faired recumbents are explicitly banned by the rules, but an unfaired recumbent should still have an advantage over an upright road bike.

Relative flatness of England is probably an advantage. Which is why both Tommy Godwin and the guy above are UK-based. The web site about Tommy Godwin describes one of the routes (Winchester to Canterbury), 120 miles which he managed at 20 mph average. Plotting it in RWGPS gives me 49'/mile, but I think it's an overestimate (most "hills" along the route are 20-40 foot high bumps at a gentle grade.)

DXchulo

What if he took a shuttle to the top of Haleakala 6 times a day and just did the descent? Would they count that?

hamster

Ha ha. Under current rules, I believe it would be counted. However, they insist on tracking all attempts in real time (to the point of having you carry a phone with a GPS tracker app), so that organizers can monitor your progress remotely. As soon as they see someone descending Haleakala 6 times a day, the rules would probably be promptly changed to exclude this.

chriskmurray

That is an interesting, and daunting way to put it....ouch

StephenH

I have mixed feelings about it.
Actually, right now, UMCA has the "year rounder" challenge, which I'm a part of. But what that means is that rides I'm doing anyway, I enter there. So it's not like I'm out going nuts trying to win this contest. Something like that for total miles would make sense to me, if people didn't take it too seriously.

One of the problems I see with RAAM is that there is an element of performance in it, but there is also an element of seeing who will do the most unreasonable things to themselves for recognition. It reminds me a lot of this cartoon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woH0Nhbc-fc
I'm be interested in doing RAAM if the record was, say, 30 days. If it involves riding 23 hours a day while you intake all the caffeine you can stand while hoping you don't nod off anyway, then, no thanks. And that was one of the reasons the old 6-day races went out of style, as they were contests to see who would abuse their body the worst with drugs or liquor or whatever it took to keep them going.

Well, this contest strikes me a lot in the same way, seeing who is willing to do the most unreasonable things to themselves to win whatever recognition it brings, so it's hard to get enthused about that. Certainly, it's an accomplishment, the question is just whether it is something that ought to be accomplished in the first place. Come to think of it, climbing Mt Everest sort of fits that category, too.

chriskmurray

I understand where you are coming from but I tend to disagree. I can't see how people would put themselves through so so much for recognition, if that recognition is only coming from a very very select few as ultra cycling is a niche inside of a niche.

Most people I know who do huge miles and ultra races are doing it simply because they love it and also love trying to find their personal limit. I know a lot of mountain bikers who after racing the Tour Divide instead of checking it off and never go back, end up trying to race it or similar events every year because they can't get enough of it.

Chris_W

It sounds like you might prefer the Trans Am Bike Race. It's unsupported and a bit longer than the RAAM route.

c.miller64

Kurt Searvogel- https://www.facebook.com/groups/RARa...5/?pnref=story

ThermionicScott 

I'll be interested to see what results from this. Didn't Guinness decide to stop recognizing the highest mileage after Tommy Godwin's run because they figured it was too dangerous?

StephenH

From the Wikipedia article: " The record is still open for challenge but not for entry in the Guinness Book of Records, whose editors say further attempts would be too dangerous." Not sure just what that means.

I can also see the same problems surfacing as noted here: Ken Webb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Specifically, on a shorter event, it is reasonable to have someone out there checking what is going on, but with a year-long event, it's going to be hard at the end to really know for sure who did what.

unterhausen

when I first heard of that race, I thought it was a bit goofy, but then following it on facebook I became a fan. Don't think I will do it though. I met one of the competitors who dropped out early. He had done the Tour Divide the year before.

Chris_W

Mike Hall's opinion (former holder of the round-the-world Guinness record, and winner of the Tour Divide and World Cycle Race) of Guinness is that: "I can categorically say Guinness don't know sweet FA about cycling records", which he wrote in response to this post on a Facebook Group discussion about this attempt. It seems that Guinness don't make a great governing body for cycling records.

LWaB

The problem with Ken Webb's claim was that he wasn't a fast enough rider to do the daily distances he was claiming, according to a couple of his contemporaries. Steve is planning on SPOT trackers, so could be observed by anybody who wants to join him on the road.

DXchulo

Wow, it's interesting where they draw the line between what's safe and what's not. Are you telling me something like this isn't dangerous?

Anybody seen Breaking and Entering? Part of it followed the guy who used to hold the trainer record and it sure didn't seem healthy what he was doing.

dual650c

What surprises me is that UCMA is charging $300 just to attempt this record.
I'm not sure why that is considered appropriate for any reason.