John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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15 comments
If the record is for the fastest time from start to finish (as the new rules state) then Juliana can rest easy knowing that her time has not been beaten. The world of sport is full of hard luck stories, crashes can ruin a record attempt after 30 seconds, 30 mins or 30 days; the way a true sportsman deals with the failures is as much a measure of them as how they claim the victories.
Call me old school, but having a support crew following you, carrying all your gear, a vehicle you can draft and a place of rest and respite is frankly cheating. The RTW race should be done solo and unsupported with a tracker to record progress. And taking 8 months off for what ever reason should mean you go back to the start.
Obviously not But the distance can be made up elsewhere. Instead of flying over India and the middle east how is it with cycling across Africa?
I follow Juliana Buhring on fb, and her response to this claim of a "record" was to say "I am flattered it took a former Olympic athlete who trained for 3 years, with a support crew, campervan and a wealth of resources to beat a woman who had never cycled, travelling alone with her bags...by just a week." Not to discount the fact that Giannotti skipped India and posted pics drafting behind her campervan. Her total time was over 8 months, since the clock no longer stops according to the Guinness rules. How was this "smashing" a record? What a joke.
This makes no sense to me, if the circumference of the earth is 24,900 miles why is the minimum distance to be cycled only 18,000?
Can you cycle over water?
I was on a PB for a 100 2 years ago but did a Jonny Hoogerland (and yes the barbed wire fence did come of best). After I crossed the line if I'd have asked the event organiser to remove the 22 lost minutes (while I had been patched up, given spare unripped kit to wear and my bike repaired) from my time I reckon the answer would have been.....you guessed it. I would have to re-visit my attempt when recovered and start from....you guessed it again, the start line, so called because that is where you start from. Good effort though Paolo, it must have been heart breaking to injure yourself and have to pull out, but, when all's said and done, you know what you should have done, start again...from the start.
Yes, top effort particularly given that she had to recover from such a nasty injury and presumably the gap meant she would have lost some riding fitness too.
It does seem bizarre though that the record makes no distinction between supported and unsupported attempts - having backup must take a hell of a lot of stress out of the whole thing and also significantly lighten your bike.
That reminds me. What happened to that lot who were doing it supported. I recall one bloke selecting Zipp carbon wheels and 23c for the trip. Or something like that....
I think it's very reasonable. But is it within the rules?
I think having recovery time because you've broken your back is reasonable - most people would have given up.
I disagree. It would have been more reasonable to start again.
These Juventus fans get everywhere
Bit confusing. Wiki states that the "old rule" whereby you discounted time spent flying etc doesn't count anymore, so, by extension, it does seem weird that you can stop the clock while you recover.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the_world_cycling_record
Still, top effort mind.
Does that mean for the next "Hour" Record attempt that it can be done in 2x30 Minute sessions over a period of months too?