Round the world adventurer run off the road in Devon

You may remember Kevin Shannon from the pages of road.cc - he's the guy that's recently set off on a 40,000 mile, three year zero emissions tour around the globe to raise £1m for the ex-servicemen charity Combat Stress. Well he's on his way, having started his epic journey on the 28th March at the Outdoors Show at the NEC, and he's already been run off the road.

There's plenty of peril awaiting Kevin in the farthest reaches of the globe but for now it seems the biggest risk is the Devon traffic. His bike trailer was hit on 11 April as he was riding on the outskirts of Paignton, sending him flying and causing £300 of damage to his bike and trailer.

“One moment I was cycling down the road and the next I was picking myself up out of the grass verge", said Kevin of the incident. "I didn’t actually know what had happened until a couple that had seen the accident filled me on the details. I think I’m quite lucky that it wasn’t more serious.” He suffered a strained ligament in his left leg, as well as cuts and bruises, and has been forced off the bike for a couple of weeks to recover.

In spite of the inauspicious start, Kevin is still upbeat about his trip and the fundraising he'll be doing for Combat Stress, the leading UK charity specialising in the care of Veterans' mental health. His route will take him from the UK, through western Europe, eastern Europe and into Russia and across to Siberia, then through Mongolia crossing the Gobi Desert and 
into China and Southeast Asia, and then crossing over to Australia. Then he will travel to South America and head north following the west coast until the US. From there he plans to head towards the east coast of Canada and then back to England.

The expedition is still seeking a financial sponsor and any interested parties can make contact with Kevin via his website, www.becauseitisthere.co.uk, which will also be displaying real-time updates from the trip via mapping technology and a tracking device provided by vehicle tracking firm Masternaut.