Not sure if this is relevant to this forum or not, sorry if a waste of pixels etc.

This Saturday, 18th February a round-the-world race starts at 9:00am at Greenwich. Rules are you have to travel in one direction, pedal 18,000+ miles, and travel 24,900+ miles which is the length of the equator.

Mike Hall who was 10th in Tour Divide and won SiTS and Strathpuffer last year is one of the 10 riders.

The riders are self supported so carrying everything on the bike they need. Mike claims his complete bike weighs less than his TD attempt last year!

I am planning to go down to the start.

Read all about it here:

http://worldcycleracing.com/

On Twitter at @Worldcyclerace

I read "The man who cycled the world" a while ago, an amazing feat and what determination that man has, certainly not for me, I need time to take things in, enjoy the scenery etc. Takes all sorts i suppose. Good luck to them all.

Currently reading Alastair Humphrey's 'Moods of Future Joys' about his 4 year rtw trip. Enjoying the leisurely pace.

Yep I'll be following Mike's progress with interest. Quite an undertaking!

Mike hall takes an early lead.
Hopefully black hound grabbed some pictures at the start of the bike setups


World cycle race start by numplumz, on Flickr

Tracker page here
http://trackleaders.com/worldcyclerace

Oops take that back. Michael Hutchinson is at Dover which has got to be quicker for getting going again, Mike is going to be sat at Newhaven for a while, and on the ferry longer. Interesting choices already.

I've just found some photos of the start on another forum far far away (not my pictures, I wasn't there).

https://picasaweb.google.com/zigzag510/ ... 4uu_b3B9QE#

There's certainly a wide selection of bikes there. Mike Hall's bike make's me think it would be very fast for something like a LEJOG record attempt, but is it going to last 18000 miles?

There's also some jaunty angles to kit lashed on the back of some of the bikes. I know I CBA to rebuild that day after day.

Good luck to all of them.

These are my pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12617230@N ... 373225051/

Rules state that when you stop for a flight or ferry the clock stops. Mike Hall made it to Newhaven (58.5 miles in 3h23m) and is resting up for a 11pm ferry to Dieppe.

One rider from Newcastle, Jason Woodhouse, has a mechanical already. The chain tensioner on his Alfine 11 set up has failed(?) and he is stuck in a hotel in Hook, Hampshire.

Interesting to everyones take on bike, kit, etc. Good luck to all those taking part ... I have to say, I hope non will be relying on the 'Quick Energy' stuff, seeing as it only contains 5 calories

I'm pretty sure at the end of a long days ridng I'd loose an eye unhooking all those elastic bungies

Good luck to them all.

BTW Blackhound did you get the pm regarding the sleeping bag?

Blackhound wrote: Rules state that when you stop for a flight or ferry the clock stops. Mike Hall made it to Newhaven (58.5 miles in 3h23m) and is resting up for a 11pm ferry to Dieppe.

Sounds like he's tactically planning well then. thats going to make working out who's leading quite difficult for us then.

Would not fancy being one of the majority of riders heading into the westerly wind today, tough.

Look like the excitement of yesterday has exhausted everyone - no movement at all so far today..

.......but it is Sunday.

Best of British to all

Not sure if I'm being stupid here ... if you follow the rules regarding waiting time, then it might be possible to factor in some decent rest breaks, not be the first home and still win?

Suspect that once out of 'Europe', strategy on that basis will go out of the window. That said, will be fascinating to see just how much 'precision planning' can actually be done in the real world, or whether the 'suck it & see' approach will win out.

Watching with interest (and not a little envy)..

Mike hall is sending twitter updates back , he's normally_human on there.
One guy has flown to Spain already, so he gets a nice warm ride through Africa to start, sounds like a good a good plan. Interesting ready the record rules on Wikipedia, you have to ride through opposing places on the planet and cover 18000 miles at least.

Clever move... Malaga: 18deg. 43% humidity, Wind from the SW 11kph

Quetion. Mike Hall seems to be travelling, essentially, N > S.. Isn't that a bit self defeating if the record direction is W>E or E>W?

......I'm sure someone more knowledgeable about these things will be along to explain in due course

according to Wiki
"The record criteria requires the rider to cover 28,970 kilometers by bike, in an East to West or West to East direction, wavering no more than 5 degrees off course.The total journey distance must be a minimum of 40,075 kilometers, to include all transit by flight or sea. The ride must start and finish in the same place and must pass at least two antipodal points(This is two points that line up through the earth's center)."

I'm no expert but I'd say its impossible to meet that 5 deg criteria. and i've looked at some of the entrants routes and some are treating it as a bit of a tour not missing the chances to visit countries in a once in a lifetime experience fashion. Quite a few are doing rides the full length of new Zealand for example, and i guess it would be quite difficult to land their and ride to another airport and still maintain a W-E direction.

It also states
"Any considerable distance travelled opposite to the direction of the attempt must be discounted from any calculations of the overall distance travelled"

Just spotted Sean Conway (heading for Gibralter) is down as a westbound rider on the tracker, so where is he going to fly west from, great fun watching it unfold [edit just seen this http://www.cyclingtheearth.co.uk/my-route/]

Mikes powering through France, South of Tours as I type.

Couldn't find the wiki page, but looked here instead: http://worldcycleracing.com/about/rules-guidelines/

The 5 degree rule (rule 9) refers strictly to permissible variation between the two antipodal points.

Can't believe how far Mike is through France...

Edit: poor use of the search facility on Wiki - found it now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the ... ing_record
Alan Bates' quote does seem at odds slightly with the WCR website, and/or is just badly worded.

Ian wrote:Can't believe how far Mike is through France...

he's heading my way!

wonder how close he'll get?

he's heading my way!

Best get kettle on

s8tannorm wrote:Best get kettle on

yeah, he's only a few hundred miles away - at his current rate he'll be here in a hour!

doesn't he need any rest???

Anthony, just sent you a PM, hadn't spotted I had one.

Mike's route is here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=2 ... 2c60&msa=0

The trans USA route seems to have disappeared! He is flying to Vancouver then South and zig-zaging up to Salt Lake City, back down South before heading North and East to New York before flying to Canada.

He has previously ridden in India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA and Iceland, besides Europe. So he knows what he is up against.

Mikes away again today after not much sleep last night. South coast of France by the end of the day?

also, 4000'th post in this forum. whoot.

That's great seeing mikes route. Boy that ride across Oz is going to be a mind melter. I have 3 ex pat biking buddies in Adelaide, will try and get them to ride out and meet him if possible nearer the time.

Mike's route is here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=2 ... 2c60&msa=0

The trans USA route seems to have disappeared! He is flying to Vancouver then South and zig-zaging up to Salt Lake City, back down South before heading North and East to New York before flying to Canada

By totting up the distances of the Google Map page, he needs to cover at least 6193 miles in the US to get over 18,000 miles.