Cyclist Hopes To Circle The Globe In Under 100 Days!

I wrote about this story over at Gadling yesterday, but the Wend Blog reminded me that I hadn't posted about it here too. British professional cyclist Alan Bate is hoping to set a new world record for circumnavigating the globe by bike, but he isn't just content with breaking the old record, he wants to completely annihilate it.

The current round-the-world record by bike is held by another Brit, Julian Emre Sayarer, who circled the globe in 165 days, ending this past December. If successful in his ride, Bate hopes to lower that mark down to just 99 days, which means he'll have to average approximately 182 miles per day over the entire course of the 18,000 mile journey. Riding 182 miles per day for 3+ months sounds like a pretty grueling schedule to me.

Alan sets off today from Bangkok, Thailand, and his route will now take him south into Malaysia and Australia. He'll ride across Australia and New Zealand before heading to North America, where he'll ride across the U.S., before hopping a flight to South America, for a leg that begins in Uruguay. From there, it is back to Europe, where he'll peddle from Portugal to the U.K., then back across the Channel to cross Europe and Asia on his way back to Thailand, where he started.

You can follow Alan's attempt at the record on his website, WorldCyclingRecord.com, which promises regular updates once he hits the road. It should be an amazing adventure to follow, and it will be very impressive if he actually manages to set the new mark.