Congratulations to Martin Mansell, who set the new WUCA record for the Circumnavigation of England in these categories: solo, Male 18-49, Upright bike
Martin Mansell – 2000 mile loop of England
The record attempt was to cycle the perimeter of England, which is a 2000 mile route, starting at the Humber Bridge in East Yorkshire, heading south along the coastline through Lincolnshire, Norfolk, SuDolk, Essex, over the Dartford Bridge (via transport due to it being a motorway), then continuing along the Kent coast to the south east point of England which is Dover.
From Dover, then along the full length of the south coast through Sussex, Dorset and into Devon, following as closely as possible by paved road around the South West through Cornwall passing Landsend (the most south west point of England), back along the north of Cornwall and Devon into Somerset and then starting to head north.
Crossing the Severn Bridge across to the Welsh border and then following the Welsh border as close as possible following paved roads north to Chester, around the Mersey coast and into Liverpool to then continue north around the Lancashire coast, Cumbria coast (Lake district) and around the top to Carlisle, then crossing Northumberland along the English/Scottish border to Berwick upon Tweed (the final and most northerly town of England before Scotland).
Then turning south along the north East coastline following the Northumberland coastal road eventually through Teeside and returning back into North Yorkshire following the Yorkshire coastline back to the finish point at the Humber Bridge.
The actual start and finish point was selected as the Premier Inn car park adjacent to the Humber Bridge.
The route ended up as planned a little over 2000 miles at 2007 miles. The start date was the 25th June, at 4.08am
The exact start point was the Premier Inn West Hull car park, which is very close to the Humber Bridge, at the start of the Humber Bridge which is near the entrance to the Humber Bridge Country Park.
The Humber Bridge Country Park is closed to vehicles between midnight and 5am, and the cycle path up on to the bridge is also closed at these times, we had a special permission to use it before 5am and had to confirm details to the security guard to access it.
On day 1 the conditions were very good at the start to the afternoon, dry and blue sky. By the early afternoon the headwind picked up and became very strong making the afternoon and evening more diDicult. The headwind stayed quite strong for several days, and on day 2 we say the hottest day in England every recorded in June, reaching 42 degrees C coming through Essex. This significantly slowed me down.
Coming along the south coast also continued with a head wind, and a little rain.
Devon and Cornwall it was head wind for the first half to Landsend, and a gentle tail wind coming back along the top. Devon and Corwall are extremely tough riding through the extreme steep and constant hills.
I wanted to do a solo record because this was year 3 of a trilogy of big bike rides getting bigger each year, so the final year needed to be the icing on the cake. The biggest, toughest and most adventurous. It definitely ticked those boxes.
I rode my S-Works SL8 bike in black, with an identical spare in white. Recorded the ride on both my Garmin Enduro 3 watch and Garmin 1040 solar device.
In terms of eating and drinking, I found it diDicult to eat enough, due to the amount of time on the bike trying to catch back up after the heat wave, lack of sleep, food variety wasn’t at it’s best. I ate lots of flapjack, Soreen, bacon sandwiches, pasta, lack of food variety was something we planned to focus on, but it was very diDicult.
Drinking, I used Maurten energy, which definitely works, and lots of electrolyte, which I came to hate into the second half of the ride. I also drank cream soda cordial to give some flavour to the fluids I needed to keep hydrated. I would say hydration went OK, but food was very tough. I avoided any gels until the final 40 hours push.
The best parts were getting back on the bike after completing the gruelling Devon and Cornwall days, knowing that the toughest riding was done and flatter days lay ahead, as well as coming north around the lake district thanks to the first strong tail wind pushing me to Carlise and amazing scenery. Landsend was a real motivating landmark, as well as arriving back in the north of England, and the biggest most emotional parts seeing the transporter Bridge in the distance, which still brings an emotional tear to my eye knowing then I was definitely going to make it and for the first time I knew exactly where I was (the transporter bridge is a famous landmark connecting Middlesbrough to Stockton-on-Tees – where my mother and father were born, and I was too), then knowing exactly where I was for the final 120+ miles of the ride, and finally arriving in North Yorkshire was an epic emotional feeling, now back in my home county, cycling through the last 100 miles of homeland towards the record and finish line, that was immense and overwhelming.
The hardest parts were a) the tiredness from 20+ hours on the bike and lack of sleep, b) getting back on the bike at 4am with another 20 hours riding ahead, c) the climbing around Devon and Cornwall and d) the extremely tiredness when the energy crashed from not enough calorie intake, or from complete energy drain. At these points I regularly could have quit but it’s amazing how quickly energy/calorie intake kicks in.
The most extreme example was the early hours on the 1st July, I had completed Devon, but had nothing left, it was around 2am, following 17k feet of climbing in 170 miles, I was at real risk on the road and could not continue. However after a few hours sleep and big breakfast, I felt able to get back on the bike and continue going.
Something unusual was I met an amazing bloke riding in between Teesside and North Yorkshire who had been following my challenge on Strava and social media and wanted to ride with me (alongside) for a bit, he had suDered an incredible tragedy in his life and his story and courage really inspired me and from that point I seemed to recover an incredible amount of energy for a while, we stopped for some food and he was also a Rubik’s cube expert showing us some tricks.
The exact finish location was the entrance to the car park at the Premier Inn West Hull The exact finish time was 1.12am on the 7th July.