Mike Hall, Rickshaw Run and Mongol Rally veteran has started the first ever round the world bike race

In The Adventurists’ world of fashion and adventuring attire, lycra acts like a warning siren alerting everyone in the vicinity to one of two scary outcomes:

Either something potentially boring, serious or downright strange is about to take place, like figure skating (really, that’s a sport?), or someone has just turned up to a finish line party in a Borat-esque mankini, and nothing else.

A few days ago, however, nine men wearing a worrying amount of the shiny spandex stuff gathered together for a race of gargantuan proportions that is definitely not going to be boring.

At 9am on Saturday morning, they launched from Greenwich Park, London to race head to head around the world on push bikes, dressed head to toe in lycra. Plenty of people have cycled around the world before, but this is the first time that a group has ever come together to simultaneously race and have a crack at the world record for the fastest circumnavigation.

They are riding on their own, without back up teams or on the road support, and must cycle at least 18,000 miles in one direction, passing through two antipodal points (opposite points on the planet) along the way. The current record stands at 106 days, though there are suggestions online that the record holder had a fair bit of back up on the road.  

Mike Hall, a veteran of the first Rickshaw Run back in 2006 and the Mongol Rally 2009, is one of the lycra-clad riders taking part in the race.

He is up against a Scotsman, who combined his spandex with a kilt, an interesting choice for the launch of a cycling race, a South African, an Irishman and six other Englishmen. 

There is no set route, each rider is meeting the criteria for the world record attempt via different routes, making it a tactical and strategic battle. Do you go for gold and do a genuine and adventurous circumnavigation crossing as many continents as possible, or do you clock up the miles on a couple of continents on easy terrain - not exactly a proper circumnavigation according to popular opinion but still within the rules... technically speaking.

The Adventurists are supporting these round the world racers by sponsoring the Live Tracker - to follow their antics, and see how our chum Mike Hall is getting on head to the World Cycle Racing website.

The chaps at Quick Energy arranged a cracking send off on Saturday morning, and a hefty crowd came along to see them off. I was tasked with finding out a bit more about these brave chaps. Of all the questions about planetary strategy, route choice, the dangers and the physical feat they are undertaking, I started with the most obvious question I could think of:

You’re about to cycle 18,000 miles, are you worried about getting a sore arse?

Simon Hutchinson, from Ireland said: “Ha, no my arse is fairly tough at this stage! Of course there’ll be bumps and knocks all over the place but I’ll just to take those as they come.”

Mike Hall - I forgot to ask Mike but there’s a comment on his website from one of his friends saying that Mike is actually ‘99% titanium and 1% human' so we presume in the sore-arse department he’ll be fine.

Sean Conway, from South Africa and a favourite to win the race, was wearing his media-savvy sponsorship hat and replied: “Ha, no, I’ve got the old Brooks saddle man I'll be fine!”

Finally it was Steve Phillips who offered up a good old fashioned dose of brutally honest detail about his plan for the dealing with the dangers of sore buttocks during 18,000 miles of cycling: “Haha. Several changes of well padded shorts, sudocrem and talcum powder should hopefully stop that!”

You’re about to set off on what is quite a ridiculous race, what are you concerned about or least looking forward to?

Simon Hutchinson said: “The Cold. The Wet. Lack of food. There’s so many things, I could write a whole list, but to be honest I’m not really worried, because I’m not looking at things that way.”

Martin Walker was asked if he had any major concerns and replied: “Not really, I’m quite confident in what I’ve done.”

Adventurist veteran Mike Hall said: “Probably getting my bike nicked, that would be terrible.”

South African Sean Conway agreed saying: “Getting my bike nicked! That would be a little annoying if my bike got nicked but other than that I’m ready to go I think.”

Photos of the launch: 

The kind of packing we applaud from Martin Walker, simple, relatively lo-tech and effective:

Sean Conway from South Africa, one of the favourites to win the race:

On the start line ready to launch: 

We’ll be posting updates on the race here on The Adventurists blog, and you can follow the race on the official website:

World Cycle Racing - Grand Tour Live Tracker

Latest WCR News

To see all the photos taken on launch day, or download them for use on your website see the set on The Adventurists set on Flickr - World Cycle Race 2012 - The Launch

The launch of the World Cycle Race was sponsored by Quick Energy, and they're also guilty of providing Mike Hall with a whole lot of branded lycra, which we'll forgive if it makes him go fast. We're not biased in our coverage, as long as Mike wins. 

Written by Dan Wedgwood