Ben Saunders - Polar Explorer, Motivational Speaker

Floyd Landis

Quote for the day, spotted in an interview with Tour of Georgia winner and Tour de France hopeful Floyd Landis in this month's Pro Cycling magazine:

"The reason I am a pro cyclist is that I have been doing things my whole life that people have told me I shouldn't or couldn't do."

{ Filed under Cycling on April 26th, 2006 | 2 Comments }

London Marathon

Finished in 2:55:18. Happy happy.

The first 20 miles were easy and the last 6.2 were hellish. I was four minutes up on my splits (i.e. heading for a 2:51 finish) until mile 21 or thereabouts, when my hamstrings started cramping up and things became a touch painful. Luckily the crowds start going bonkers at mile 23 or 24 and I surfed the wave of noise all the way to the finish.

Most inspirational t-shirt slogan: "Never give up. Never surrender."

Least helpful advice from a crowd member: "Keep breathing!"

The results are up already (is this the best organised race in the world or what?) although confusingly I'm listed as "Ben Saunder" (runner no. 32500). I'll write more once I've had a bath and stuffed my face.

{ Filed under Training on April 23rd, 2006 | 13 Comments }

Four days in April

On 14 April 2003, on his way to skiing solo from Canada to the North Pole, Pen Hadow reported the temperature that day to be -26°C.

On 14 April 2004, during my solo North Pole expedition, the temperature was -19°C. (at an almost identical latitude).

On 14 April 2005, Tom Avery's Ultimate North dog sled team reported a daily temperature reading of -17°C.

On 14 April 2006, David de Rothschild's Adventure Ecology expedition (from 88 degrees North) noted it was -6°C.

I'll leave you to do the calculations.

{ Filed under Climate Change, Other expeditions on April 18th, 2006 | 4 Comments }

Hell on Wheels

I've just got back from watching Hell on Wheels, a stunning feature-length documentary about the 2003 Tour de France, at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Apparently the director, Pepe Danquart, knew nothing of professional cycling before making this film but he lucked out with the 2003 Tour, which proved by far the most nail-biting I can remember. The cinematography is breathtaking at times (trailer here, in RealPlayer format) and the film sneaks behind the scenes (interviews as riders are shaving their legs in the bath, sweaty debriefings on the team bus, hanging with the Lanterne Rouge in the Alps) to give a compelling insight into one of the most arduous sporting events imagineable.

Speaking of bikes, my beautiful Cannondale F1000 mountain bike has been stolen. I found out this evening - there were two D-locks and a motorbike chain securing it in the (usually locked) garage below my flat, so I'm wondering if it was stolen to order. It was too valuable to be listed on my contents insurance so, as with my Apple PowerBook a few days ago, it's back to square one. Still, if I can get all of my bad luck out of the way before Antarctica, that's fine by me.

As of tomorrow morning, I'm looking for a bike sponsor.

{ Filed under Cycling, Inspiration and motivation on April 11th, 2006 | 13 Comments }

The Haggis Bus

'You've never even heard of the Haggis Bus!' The American looked at me in amazement, as if I had not grasped some self-evident truth. I confessed I hadn't, apologising for being so ignorant. I imagined a bus shaped like a sheep's intestines full of bland people with checklists of tourist sites on some cultural orienteering course. It occured to me that many here indulged in the usual pitfalls and cliches of modern travel; comparing Edinburgh to Venice, Loch Lomond to Lake Geneva, the Highlands to the Alps, exchange rates, prices, places to stay. It was 'comparative' travel, hackneyed territory dredged up from standard guides and superficial visits. An overdose of countries and cultures, it leaves us dulled, like an over-long visit to an art gallery, and undermines our capacity to be moved and slightly changed by the places we visit and the people we encounter. I turned in thinking that perhaps real journeys only really exist in the imagination.

From Mike Cawthorne's 'Hell of a Journey'.

{ Filed under Inspiration and motivation on April 10th, 2006 | No Comments }