Mark Beaumont Interview

"Fortune Favors the Brave"

At 26, Mark Beaumont has just smashed the record for cycling around the globe. From the heat of the deserts to the cold of the Mountains, Mark cycled an incredible 18,297 miles in just 194 days and 17 Hours.

Mark was good enough to take the time to speak to EnduranceSource about his experience, the training he did, the lessons he learned and what is next...

The challenge of trying to break the world record for cycling around the world, is just about as huge a task as anybody could take on. When did you first decide that this was something you wanted to do?

I was half way through University when the idea first occured to me. Coming back from an internship in America I realised I did not want to be in an office for my twenties. Since the age of 12 I had taken on gradually bigger cycles, however at that point had never cycled more than 1300 miles. The world was the biggest cycle I could think of and through researching what had been done before, found that the Guinness World Record was set at a level which seemed beatable. This surprised me. However, the scale of the expedition and the final margin of 81 days which I broke the old record by is far greater than the original idea.

- What were the hardest things to arrange and get done in preparation for your journey?

The hardest part of the whole expedition was getting the major capital sponsorship. Leaving University I had never ridden a race in any sport. I was an Economics graduate with a proposal to break a circumnavigation world record by over two months - a pretty hard sell! It took eight months to get the first sponsor, which was just £500. This allowed me to give up work and dedicate myself full time to the project. Three weeks later I had over £30,000 and the rest soon came once the BBC documentary was commissioned.

- Can you paint us a picture of the type of cycling experience you had previous to beginning the challenge?

As mentioned I was not a racer although had done a fair amount of touring. When I was 11 I wanted to cycle from John O'Groats to Lands End after reading an article in the local paper about someone doing the ride. This was the start but it was too big a dream for someone who had never really cycled outside the farm which I grew up on. However, to Mums credit she supported me to cycle across Scotland instead. A few years later I did my first solo on LE JOG and went on to criss cross Europe a number of times during holidays from school and University. However, I had never ridden 100 miles a day for even a week, so claiming I could hold this average for over half a year was a bold claim and was a big step up in training!

- If you had a fondest memory of the entire trip, what do you think it might be?

You are right, an almost impossible question. My fondest memories are some of the people who I met. However, in terms of riding, the greatest joy was getting through the hardest parts like coming out of the Outback in Australia or through the Baluchistan desert on the Afghan/Pakistan border. One incredible day was after this section, I had been sleeping in police cells and desert riding for five days under armed escort. Coming out of this I went from the city of Quetta, high on the Afghan border down to Jacacobad at the foot of the Indus Valley. It was all downhill, and I followed a washed out, broken road through the arid mountains surrounded by elaboratly painted trucks. I would not have hit my 160km target if it had not been all down as I was so tired and sore after the desert. I was free from the escort - an amazing sense of freedom.

- Can you tell us a bit about the kind of training you did, to prepare yourself for the long road ahead?

Training was really stepped up leaving University and I trained consistently for 13 months before leaving. However, the last five months involved the greatest intensity with a lot of cross training (gym, running, circuits) to built up the small muscle balances. It was important to not over train on the bike and I never rode 100 miles in a single ride in training. It was all shorter distances at a much higher intensity. This training was led by Glasgow University sports department where I did a lot of testing throughout to maximise efficiency.

- Having followed your journey, it is very apparent that your Mother Una was an amazing support and asset to you. Can you tell us a bit about her role in helping you and the type of challenges she faced when managing your journey from the UK?

There was a team of about 15 people back in Scotland for advice but Mum was the key coordinator for everything. She became known as 'Base Camp'. Before leaving the UK I interviewed a few people for the job but could not find anyone who I trusted to do this key job properly. I therefore turned to Mum, who already had a full time career. This was a big ask and I literally handed her a few lever arches and my laptop when I left and tried to hand over a years planning. Mum did an incredible job and no doubt had an amazing parallel journey. The job included online blogging, negotiating with Embassys and a huge global network to keep bike and body in one piece, charity fundraising, and many more. The hardest part which I really respect is her ability to take rational decisions when many mums would have taken the emotional, risk averse one. The decision to carry on, against the British Embassy's advice through southern Pakistan is a good example.

Endurance: The ability or strength to continue or last, despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina