We wrote at the start of April about an amazing attempt by Mark Beaumont to set another cycling record, after having held the record for fastest trip around the world between 14th February 2008 and October 2010, when it was beaten by Vin Cox.
A record of 70 days, 3 hours and 50 minutes was held by Robert Knol from April 2011 until March 2015 when Keegan Longueira beat him and set a new record of 59 days 8 hours.
Keegan’s record remained unbroken for just two months, and Mark has now set a new record of 41 days, 10 hours and 22 minutes. (Note, 26/5: this originally said 42 days, 10 hours and 22 minutes but Mark posted an update on his Facebook explaining the shortened time!).
Of the ride, Mark has said:
“It has been the toughest ride of my life by far. There have been some incredibly hard hours and days.”
“It is hard to describe the amount of pain you go through on a trip like that.”
“I have thought about getting to this point hundreds and hundreds of times.”
Passing through eight countries (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa), and clocking in at 6,762 miles / 190,355 feet elevation, Cairo to Cape Town a truly fearsome undertaking.
In April we wrote the following:
We’d love to get a look at the elevation profile and see how many Everest’s worth of climbing he’s doing. Or should that be Kilimanjaro’s?
Thanks to Mark’s announcement of the ride’s elevation, now we can:
Fancy it?
A phenomenal effort, well done Mark. We hope you have a well-earned rest!
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