Richmond bike mechanic Bruce Berkeley on track for seven-day cycling record

Some of cycling’s distance/speed records are forever out of reach, while others look attainable but keep defeating even the most determined efforts. One record that does look doable if you’re merely almost superhuman rather than an actual mutant is the record for the most distance covered in seven days, and that’s what Richmond bike mechanic Bruce Berkeley is currently taking a crack at.

Berkeley has been told by Guinness that he needs to crack the 2,800km mark to take the record (more of that in a moment) and after his first day he’s on track with 445km behind him. If he keeps that up he’ll smash it out of the park with 3,115km.

A former elite racer, Berkeley regularly manages to push out monster mileage weeks on the bike around his work as a bike mechanic. He’s built up something of a following on Strava and that’s given him the confidence to have a crack at some long-distance records. So putting work on hold for a week, the seven day distance record is the first attempt in a series of future record efforts.

He is going to have to keep up his current, tough pace to be sure of landing the record. The closest thing we can find to an official seven-day record is Pat Hawkins’ 1940 ride of 2,489.3km.

However, other riders can justly claim to have beaten that already. In breaking the record for Land’s End  to John O'Groats and back in 2010, Ben Rockett rode 1,880 miles (3,025km) in 141 hours, 8 minutes.

More recently, Mike Hall covered 1,888.81 miles (3,039.7km) in the first 6 days 23 hours 46 minutes of the Trans Am Bike Race - which is still underway.

But the daddies of covering stupendous distances in just over a week are the riders of Race Across America (RAAM). This year’s winner, Christophe Strasser, covered 4,860km in 7 days 15 hours 56 minutes and while we don’t have a breakdown of his times, he must have set a seven-day record on his way to smashing the RAAM record out of the park.

Guinness sets its own rules and has historically looked askance at records that involve long periods without sleep, as is the case in RAAM, so it might not consider Strasser’s ride meets its parameters.

Bruce Berkely is being supported by Canyon Bikes, Sportful, Continental, Noble Wheels, Northwave, i-Ride, Strava and G!ro Cafe. You can follow his progress on Strava, and on Twitter using the hashtag #GOBRUCE.