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news
Kurt Searvogel (Kurt Searvogel:Facebook)Year Record US contender Kurt Searvogel smashes out biggest day yet
Kurt 'Tarzan' Searvogel, the American contender in the race to break Tommy Godwin's record for the most miles ridden in a year, gave himself a special Valentine's Day present on Saturday when he logged the longest day of the challengers so far, with a 263-mile ride.
On February 14, Searvogel took part in the Bike Sebring 12-Hourat Florida's Sebring International Raceway, taking just over 12 hours to bring his year-to-date total to 7219.2 miles. He banged out another 200 the following day and is aiming for the same today.
But it's not all relentless miles. Searvogel took a rest day on February 13 and only rode 120 miles. Only. Hands up everyone who's already ridden a century this year? Yeah, not many.
Meanwhile Britain's Steve 'Teethgrinder' Abraham has continued to punch out steady 170-200 miles days in recent weeks and now sits at 8617.3 miles. He has a ten-day head start on Searvogel making comparisons between the two tricky, but Searvogel is now well ahead of Abraham's pace. After 37 days the American has ridden over 500 miles more than the Briton did in the same period.
Of course, Searvogel is currently blessed with mild Florida 'winter' weather (it's 23 °C in Miami at the time of writing) while Abraham has had to battle wind, rain, cold and even a little snow in the last six weeks.
Who knows how things will unfold during the summer?
The Year Record
The recognised mark for the greatest distance ridden in a year was set in 1939 by Tommy Godwin. He went on to set a record for the shortest time to cover 100,000 miles and after learning how to walk again joined the RAF.
The Year Record is now run under auspices of the Ultramarathon Cycling Association and there are two serious contenders taking a stab at Godwin's record.
Steve Abraham is a star of the UK Audax long-distance riding scene and started on January 1. You can follow Steve through his website, on Strava and via Twitter.
Kurt Searvogel holds an age-group record for the Race Across America and started on January 10. You can follow him through his website, via Strava or on Facebook
For those who love a good spreadsheet (and who doesn't, really?) Abraham's crew chief Chris Hopkinson Abraham's and Searvogel's progress against Godwin's record.
Trackleaders has live tracking of Abraham and Searvogel, and there's a Strava club where you can join to express your support as well as tracking their milage.
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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21 comments
Steve's riding a simular Raleigh to the one ridden by Tom. All be it with a modern drive chain.
Incidently I was reading about steve's riding history recently. A few years ago he clocked 28000 miles on a fixie in a year. It makes my 10000 last year look like nothing
Sorry Mr Godwin, if it’s not on Strava then it doesn’t count…
I wonder what Steve would say if you asked him whether he thought Kurt "has it easy"- I'd hope he'd dimisss this sort of snark...
Both these riders are doing an incredible job. Those complaining that Kurt 'has it easy' are really not grasping the scale of this task, or what he is doing. They are both riding further, every day, than most of us have ever done in one day's ride ever in our lives. And they do it over and over again. Right now, Kurt has the advantage of the mild Floridian winter. In summer, if he chooses to stay in Florida, the weather will not be so kind. Steve is riding to a different schedule that recognises and adapts to the conditions he faces - and he'll be riding several Audaxes and (I believe) one or two 12 or 24-hour TTs himself. The fact that their kit is better than Tommy Godwin's is neither here nor there - all athletic records, of any kind, are broken with the benefit of better equipment and training. Get over it.
Anyone know what bike Tommy Godwin rode? I'm guessing it would have been a teeny bit heavier...!
Assuming one or both of Steve and Tarzan break the record, I think Godwin's mark will still be the bigger achievement - though I say that slightly concerned I'm doing a disservice to the insane riding these two are doing. There's just something rather more beguiling about a chap in pre-war Britain slugging alone on his wrought iron bike, wooden tires and spike for a saddle
Which is why it should be referred to as 'Godwin's record' not the 1YTT.
Why stick in the past?
They're pushing the limits of human endurance the same way he Godwin did, with the equipment available at the time.
I hosted Steve Abraham in January so I had the "pleasure" of heaving his bike+baggage into my house. I can confirm that what Steve is riding is f***ing heavy...
I'd be curious to know how many people have attempted the record over the years since Godwin.
He's just ridden 273 miles...hardly the easy way out!
Complaining about weather? Lets see Steve ride in Florida during the summer, where it reaches 37 degrees and 90%+ humidity, and seems to rain just about every single day when afternoon showers roll in from ocean. Things will even out.
Presumably Tarzan could find better conditions elsewhere in the States? I thought his plan was to ride events all over the country?
Well done all, But I'm Team Steve
Isn't Florida rather flat...
I was wondering about this myself. If Strava can provide a 'grade adjusted pace' for a running activity surely there's something can be calculated using total ascent to give an equivalent (but approximate) amount of extra miles that's 'worth' (for want of a better word).
Steve is doing it fair and square in my opinion. The weather has been awful at times. I've only managed 2-3 hours then run home to put the kettle on. Steve has consistently put in day after day of ~200 mile rides.... this guy's a legend.
Sunshine and mates helping out, lapping on a track.... somehow it's not in the spirit of the challenge is it?
Good weather, replacement of broken bikes, intermittent riding of a recumbent and like a true triathlete drafting behind a team on the road, not sour grapes, the guy is phenomenal, good luck to him, rather him than me. Steve is to me a true Corinthian battling through the winter with sheer guts.
how do they find the time to do it !
They are retired?
Steve gave up work and is living on savings to do this. If you can afford a few quid to make sure he keeps his house and can eat that's always appreciated
http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/Donate
So is riding on a track allowed? I thought this was a road challenge?
Also, I thought tommy godwins record was for the most amount of miles ridden in a year, not how many miles ridden during any 365 consecutive days?