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news
Tommy Godwin, Year record holder (source Tommygodwin.com)Year Record: Steve Abraham passes 2k miles, storming start for Kurt Searvogel
After just 12 days of his attempt to beat Tommy Godwin's record for the most distance ridden in a year, Steve Abraham is 204.4 miles ahead of Godwin's 1939 schedule.
Since setting off on on January 1, Abraham has covered 2,198.4 miles, yesterday pounding out 182.4 miles from Milton Keynes to Fleet Hargate in Lincolnshire and back.
By January 12 1939, Tommy Godwin had ridden 1,994 miles, leading some of Abraham's followers on Strava to joke that he can now afford to take a day off.
His relentless pace has also inspired Chuck Norris-style jokes. Abraham doesn't have a resting heart rate, said one of his support team, because he's always riding his bike. When Steve rides, he stays still and the earth rotates, said another follower.
Two other riders are also having a crack at the Year Record under auspices of the UltraMarathon Cycling Association (UMCA). William 'IronOx' Pruett started on January 4 and is currently doing multiple short rides each day, with a plan of piling on the milage later in the year. With a total of 315 miles so far, he's not putting any pressure on Abraham yet.
The third contender for the record, Kurt 'Tarzan' Searvogel kicked off his attempt with a storming first day on January 10, clocking up 231 miles. After three days, his tally stands at 603 miles, well ahead of his plan to cover about 170 miles per day at the start of the record. As Field Marshall Helmuth Von Moltke said, no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
In 1939, Godwin also got off to a flying start with an opening day ride of 234 miles and a total of 623 miles in his first three days. By the end of January he had clocked up 4,773 miles, for a daily average of 154 miles.
If they carry on at their current rate, both Abraham and Searvogel should be well on track to break Godwin's record by the end of their first month.
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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17 comments
Steve "fruitcake" Abraham.
Well done Steve, but still a hell of a long way to go.
If anybody wants to follow and compare this challenge, the book "Unsurpassed" is a must, it is the only book that tells the story of Tommy Godwin, (currently) the world,s greatest distance cyclist.
Due to having to take a year off work (if you aren't already a pro rider) planning routes, food, mechanic support, medical assistance; you are either going for it or not. Is this Bruce independently wealthy? Real name Bruce Wayne perhaps?
Can we get a time shifted graph of day by day average progress?
There's a poster over on YACF who's producing just that. Still in beta (I think until he gets it playing nicely with iOS) so no link yet to the full thing, but there are trial outputs in some individual posts.
No-one started "late" it is a year round record, which means they have to cycle every day for 365 days in a row, doesn't matter what date you start.
If Steve gets the miles in, he can have the record on the 31st December, to have it beaten on 4th January by William, who could then lose it on 10th January to Kurt
Bruce Berkeley from Richmond is quietly knocking them off in his own unassuming way. He has done 2,540 miles for the year so far, that's 340 more than Steve since the 1st of Jan.
Although, annoyingly - he won't say whether he's going for the record or not...at least to the best of my knowledge anyway.
It's early doors yet, but I hope he can keep it up. I'd like to see them slog it out on Dec 31st 2015 for the record!
The UMCA requires 21 days notice before starting, and is only admitting to knowing about 3 riders, not including BB, so far.
Starting 4 days late and only done 315 miles? Old 'IronOx' must have some Dick Dastardly scheme in mind as he's going to have an awful lot of catch up to do.
I had my best year on the road last year since 1996, i covered 8500 miles, i was pleased to go over 8 for the first time since 96..my wife quickly pointed out that Tommy G covered 8583 in July of his record year, covering 14 triple centuries in the process..bubble burst..
Great start by Steve A, if he can stay healthy and safe he's got a great chance of taking it...and all on reynolds steel.
Be great if the end of the year saw the year and the hour record held by new names and both brits.
I'm doing well if I can cover 2000 miles by July.
Steve "How the hell does he ride so many km's every single day?" Abraham
And for anyone thinking "Teethgrinder" is just Oranj's joke - it's not. He's been known as Teethgrinder in audaxing circles for years and it's his handle on YACF.
Anyone know what bike he's riding?
Raleigh Sojourn. It's all on his website: oneyeartimetrial.org.uk
Steve "Teethgrinder" Abraham
I fear Steve Abraham may not be competitive enough if he doesn't get 'a catchy middle name'
Steve "Ironbum" Abraham?