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
