Circumnavigating the World by Bicycle An interview with the 'Revolution Cycle' team

Circumnavigating the planet by bicycle is a venture which requires a huge investment of time, & fitness and is not without it’s element of risk. To date there are only a handful of people in the world who have completed this mammoth challenge and no Irish man has ever been in this exclusive club. Until now..

This November, Simon Evans and Fearghal O'Nuallain will begin the first Irish circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle. Their unsupported expedition will cover over 30,000km, passing through 30 countries and some of the highest, lowest, driest, coldest, warmest and loneliest places on earth. In doing so, they will be promoting the positive contribution that cycling can make to mental health and the environment, raising €100,000 for Aware and highlighting climate change.

Their cycle will cover over 30,000km and pass through 30 countries in four continents. With the miracle of modern technology, satellite tracking will plot their location so we can keep up to date on their progress.

Fearghal and Simon were good enough to take some time out of their preparations, to speak with EnduranceSource about their upcoming adventure.

What was it that inspired you both to undertake such a mammoth venture?

Fearghal: Life's too short to turn down an adventure!
As kids we always talked about going on a big adventure. It started out with bike rides around the green, then farther a field. Later adventures took us to the jungles of Malaysia, the Atlas mountains of Morroco and the desert of Egypt.

The plan to cycle around the world was hatched over a few too many pints of Guinness in the Stags Head one night. We'd both been away and when we'd finished catching up, the talk turned to adventure. When the hangover cleared the next day I realised I'd made a plan to cycle around the world! Then once we'd told a few people, there was no going back.

  - Previous to this expedition what is the kind of cycling experience you both have had?

Simon: I've been mainly into mountain biking and BMX jumping but since a cycle from Malin to Mizen Head I've been dying to do more cycle touring. I toured in Morocco and last year both Ferg and I did a 1000km training cycle in Egypt from Aswan to Alexandria.

Fearghal: I got the touring bug in OZ about 5 years ago. A friend had just finished cycling from Perth to Sydney and was looking for someone to buy his bike. I bought it on a whim and cycled from Melbourne to Sydney a week after. After that I was hooked and have been on several tours since, most notably from Dublin to St Petersburg in 2005.

  - The venture is obviously one that is going to take quite a while. Can you paint a picture for us of the type of training you have been doing?

Simon: As this expedition is going to take about 18 months we'll generally get fit along the way. That said, we did a training cycle in Egypt last year through the Arabian Desert to see how we fair skin Irish lads got on with 40+ degree heat.

In January this year we did the Tough Guy Challenge which is an assault course that the English SAS use to train. Over the course of the 2 hours, they electrocute you, make you jump fire, crawl through muddy pits and wade through freezing cold water. You come out of it with uncontrollable shivering, lots of cuts and bruises and a great big smile on your face.

In September we're heading to the French Alps with the aim of climbing Mt Blanc which should give us an idea of whether we're prone to altitude sickness, in advance of cycling up to around 4000m in the Bolivian Andes. Our nutritionist has instructed us to gain weight, this we've taken very very seriously, digging into pork chops, steaks and pretty much anything we can get our hands on.

  - Cycling around the globe you are going to be encountering different types of weather and terrain. What kind of kit will you be bringing along and what kind of weather will you be preparing for?

Simon: In terms of clothing, we'll be bringing waterproof and down jackets along with plenty of thermal and wicking layers so we can regulate our body temperature effectively. We've been working closely with Patagonia who are our clothing sponsors to ensure that we have the right kit for a wide range of environments. In the deserts of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, we're expecting temperatures of 45 degrees while in the Bolivian Antiplano the temperature is likely to drop to around -20 degrees. So it’s important that we are prepared for lots of different climates.

Have you decided to use a particular type of bike?

Simon: We're going to use mountain bikes as we're both quite familiar with their setup and feel, having used them since we were nippers. Many of the roads we'll be on will be little more than rocky tracks, with this in mind we opted for mountain bikes over traditional tourers as they are designed to be ridden over rough terrain and can take a good deal of punishment. A hardtail is the order of the day here, with suspension forks up front, lots of gears and powerful hydraulic disc brakes.
As we're currently in talks with a high end bike manufacturer at the moment, we can't give away any more details I'm afraid.