Support Chris Marris, the flying cyclist, as he sets out to break the Guinness World Record for the ‘Fastest time to cycle trans-Australia from Perth to Sydney (male)’ while raising money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The ride, scheduled for late August 2010, aims to raise over $15,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The current record, set in October 2006, stands at 8 days, 10 hours and 57 minutes, held by Australian, Richard Vollebregt.
Chris aims to make the crossing in under 8 days, about 10% faster than the current record.

The attempt will see Chris make the 4,000km journey across Australia on a road bicycle, calling on every muscle in his body and every ounce of determination in the process. He will be physically cycling for more than 20 hours per day, for up to eight days straight. Sleep will be a luxury for Chris, as he travels some 550km per day – the equivalent of Paris to Amsterdam or Perth to Coolgardie.

Safety stops attempt number one

It is with my greatest sadness that I advise that last night the decision was made to stop this world record attempt at the fastest time to cycle trans-Australia by bicycle.

 

The decision was made by the entire support crew and was unanimous, and was largely based on the attempts number one rule (as set by me) – that being that health and safety is our first goal (the attempts 115 page manual had just this written on the first page). Whilst obviously gutted by the outcome, I fully respect their decision.

As we were entering our 4th day of the attempt and soon the half way point, while still on world record time, we were faced with continued rainfall. It had already rained the first night, the second morning, and almost the entire third day. The forecast when we left had said a chance for showers. The forecast now suggests that we would have had rain for five or six days of the eight days of the attempt. Based on historical weather data we should have faced one or maybe two days of rain.

The problem with the rain, which yesterday was heavy and unrelenting, comes from the side effects of poor visibility, particularly at night while on the road, and the associated wall of water that can almost knock you off your bike when a road train goes flying past. The rain also led to increased chafing.

Chafing is unfortunately part and parcel of endurance cycling. While I had had some from the first three days of the attempt, it was not an issue until the ongoing rain accelerated it. With an inability to stay dry, despite multiple clothes changes, this was an issue that we would struggle to cope with.

Over the coming days and weeks I will be able to share some of the highs and lows of the attempt; of which there were plenty. A high, for example, was the riding down to Norseman, with a beautiful sunrise, knowing at that time that I was the fastest person ever to cycle to that point . A low, was collapsing on the second night and hitting my face on the scooter as I fell when my knee decided it didn’t want to play ball (still after a 90min sleep and a hot meal I was back out again).

It has been an amazing experience up until this point, and I am just deeply sorry to my friends, supporters and sponsors for not being able to achieve my goal in this instance. I still strongly believe that the record is breakable – the fact that we were able to get up to some 6 hours ahead of it when we got some fine weather is testament to this. For those of you who looked to me for some inspiration, please do not let this dampen it. To me, this attempt has reinforced the power of the body, mind and good spirit of people.

There is no question that I would like to make a second attempt at the record, but before any decision is made, I will need to speak with my soon to be wife, family and sponsors. This attempt, including the associated fund-raising, has taken some 2,000 hours of planning/training and a lot of money. Obviously a second attempt would require a little less work but would still be a large commitment and probably could not occur until next year due to all the planning that is required (and the physical recovery I now need from the past few days).

Moving forward, I would like to make a commitment to continue to fund-raise for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, whom we’ve raised some $14,000 for so far. I also commit to organise further rides through out the Wheatbelt/State over the coming year as was done with our trial rides.

So for now, as we try to sort out our next step, I say sorry for not being able to break that record for you this time, and a sincere thank you to everyone, particularly my support crew, that gave me the chance to try.

Chris Marris

Chris is past 1,100klms

Hi All have just spoken to the crew by sattalite phone made possible by Telstra Country Wide. Chris is going really well. Chris stopped at midnight for 3 hours to eat, shower and have his 90 minute sleep. He is having a bit of a problem with his knees but I am told nothing to worry about Chris can ride through it. They have also given Chris some extra padding on his seat and he has change to his normal road bike. The weather – it has just started raining and Chris has his wet weather gear on and there is a slight tail wind so all is going well, however I have been looking up the weather and it is not looking good, they are predicting  20-40 mm of rain today  and 10-20mm tomorrow with a strong head wind on Wednesday so lets hope their forecast is wrong or its going to get really tough for Chris and crew.

Chris has ridden 1130klms and is between Caiguna and Cocklebiddy.

See Chris’s progress here

Past the 800km mark

Update from support crew, at 2pm – Chris has past the 800km mark. This puts him around Frasers Range. He is looking good. Thank you for all the best wishes and encouragement.

View Chris’s Progress

This update made possible by Telstra Countrywide.