The Great Bike Ride, Nick Sanders (1988)
An enjoyable and surprisingly undated account of a 13,000 mile round-the-world ride, over 80 days, ridden at a record-breaking average of 170 miles a day, undertaken in 1985
Ashford Press, 1 85253 096 0 Quarto 147pp £14
Who does not consider the pictures first in an illustrated book? So, before digesting the first sentence, it is impossible not to scan the dozen or so images of the author that illuminate this tome. Sanders is apparently tiny. Princess Anne (5′ 6″/1.69m), with a bouffant atop, towers over the waif-like cyclist as he presents her with a cheque in one shot.
But Sanders athletic prowess is genuinely remarkable, and he is not without plumage. His tonsorial arrangement might be describe as a ‘fluffed mullet’. Perhaps his hairdresser told him that he would appear leonine. The hairy confection, teamed with a white lycra outfit and a hosepipe torso, creates an effect is closer to that of a feather duster, alas.
Setting off on this narrative proper, then, I was expecting to spend 90,000 words in the company a cyclist with the sensibilities of a ‘hair rocker’. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Sanders feat was extraordinary. A former racing cyclist, he first circumnavigated the globe in 1981 at the age of 24. After a few more distance feats, he decided to encircle the planet on his bike at record speed. According to his narrative, he made arrangements for the attempt in consultation with the Guinness Book of World Records.
In the main he was unsupported and generally slept beside the road as he travelled. Given his daily distances, this is hardly surprising – having the time or energy for anything else would be difficult. It is surprising, nonetheless, that he did either seriously damage his health, nor was attacked or robbed.
His journey took him from London, through Europe, across Turkey and eventually into Jordan. Passage from here to Israel provides the book with one of its highlights. He was forced, in just four hours, to cross 80 miles of the country, during the hottest part of the day, to enable him to cross the Jordan river before the bridge was closed for the Jewish Sabbath. Physical exhaustion, bureaucratic obstruction and bad luck all conspire to upset his plans – but somehow he keeps to schedule.
From Israel, he flew to Bombay the cycled to Calcutta and continued through Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore. Then all he had to do was zip across Australia, traverse the United States, and he was home and dry, posing in front of New York’s World Trade Centre.
He writes well and has given his exploits inteligent consideation. At his hell-for-leather pace, there is not much time for history or culture – but he has the power to be both evocative and illuminating, when he has the energy. Here he is in New Zealand.
“This part of Aukland had fallen into disarray, grey tombstones with long faces turned on their sides, overgrown with green winter nightshade. Red, wrought iron railings, brittle and flaking, leant at an angle, stained with years of rain. Concrete pillars lay round about having settled heavily under the eves of an overpass. It was Sunday, and New Zealand was sheltering from the rain. So was I. As I wandered around the tombs I was quite alone. Spending so much time without company, as I cycled my 170 miles each day, I thought my desire for companionship would extend further than the maggoty remains of what I sensed were a forgotten crowd of corpses. But I too felt forgotten. So far away from home, the bonds of family and friends were stretching.”
It is by no means his only rumination on why he his riding so far into the unknown extremes of his mental and physical stamina. It is not a question to which he really finds an answer, but happily his considerations don’t weigh down the text. Indeed, the hair, and the cover graphics are among the only things that have really dated. Whether you are planning a circumnavigation, or seeking the experience without the sore thighs, Sanders’ account is worth seeking out.
As with any youthful testimony, on which the ink is 20 years dry, the book does throw up some interesting questions. What did Sanders do next, and where is he now? And what is the nature of this ‘record’ that has famously now been broken by the estimable Mark Beaumont – who encircled the globe in 194 days?
PS March 09