A team of Burnham-On-Sea cyclists has set a new world record by cycling 874 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End in less than two days.
The team comprising of Tim Clark, Karl Burkett, Andy Cross and Ollie Taylor has completed the marathon cycle ride from Scotland to Cornwall.
They were attempting to beat their own record time, 52 hours and 12 minutes, which, was set a year ago – and they succeeded by completing the ride in a time of 43 hours, 46 minutes and 49 seconds.
They rode the route as a relay team on an individual basis – so the first man will ride an 80km leg, then the second will ride the same and so on, and there is only ever one rider on the road at any one time.
Speaking to Burnham-On-Sea.com this week, the team says they are “over the moon” to have completed the feat – which came despite changeable weather.
Karl told us how the ride unfolded: “Upon waking up at John O’Groats last Friday, we were faced with almost perfect conditions with sun and a 2mph tail wind, and dry weather.”
“We set off with spirits high and were flying. Things were going really well and we progressed onto Perth where we encountered the complete opposite.”
“There were hail storms, heavy rain and a temperature of 0 degrees, which went on for around three hours!”
“Once night came, the weather settled down again, which allowed us to increase the pace.”
“We went through Kendal during early Saturday morning, well on target, and then pushed on and got through the towns pretty quickly, except Wigan, where there was so much traffic that we lost around 20 minutes due to logistics.”
“But we knew we could gain this back and we hit the A49, which was a new section to the route to avoid going through the Midlands. It paid off – it was fast, and low on traffic.”
“Before we knew it, we were over the Severn Bridge, and soon coming through Highbridge.”
“We had a rider change at Highbridge and several members of our family and friends came out to cheer us on before we left on our way to Exeter, then onto the A30.”
“We battled through the early hours, holding a good average pace and although we knew 40 hours was gone, we were still in with a fighting chance to set the fastest time ever.”
“The last rider went from Penzance, and we found that we had around 35 minutes to cross the line to be the fastest ever. We were all on the line waiting for the rider and support car to come in, our hearts were pounding, the clock was ticking down.”
“We’d put put in our hearts, souls, and every ounce of aggression to be the fastest. With 21 minutes to spare, we saw the headlights around half a mile away, and the flashing strobe light of the support car! The last rider to cross the line was Tim Clark, who rode his heart out to come in under the old record time of 44 hours and 5 minutes.”
“We set an all-new world record time of 43 hours, 46 minutes and 49 seconds – we did it!”
“It was the fastest recorded time in history and it’s just great to be able to bring this record to Burnham-On-Sea.”
Karl added the team’s thanks to Burnham Lions Club for their suppoort, and Calleva Nutrition, which played a big role in fuelling the riders to their record.
