Halfmoon Bay's Bruce Gordon is currently cycling around the world in an attempt to beat the Guinness World Record for fastest solo global circumnavigation by bicycle.
If beating the record isn't enough, Gordon is also the first person from the Americas to attempt the circumnavigation, the first to choose to travel west and the first to use a recumbent bicycle.
The 48-year-old Sunshine Coaster found the most recent attempt for the world record on-line and thought to himself, "I could do that."
"I stumbled across the event on the Internet and couldn't let go of the idea of giving it a shot," he said. "Plotting the course and working out all the details has been so much fun. Now it's time to put all that planning and training to the test."
Guinness World Record rules state that the minimum distance travelled must be 28,970 km by bike and the total distance travelled should exceed the equator's length. Participants also need to pass through two approximate antipodal points during the attempt. Gordon's are New Zealand and Spain.
On April 8, Gordon put rubber to the road in an attempt to beat the world record, which is currently held by Vin Cox from the United Kingdom with a time of 163 days, six hours and 58 minutes.
Gordon thinks he can beat that by at least a dozen days.
"To beat the record, I have to maintain a daily average of 178 km, but I'm shooting for somewhere between 200 and 260 km a day," he said.
He's no stranger to epic rides, having pedalled hundreds of kilometres in various mountain bike and road races over the years. Most recently he has been training with 200-km-a-day rides to get a feel for what's ahead.
On April 8, Gordon biked from his home in Halfmoon Bay to Vancouver Airport, where he flew to New Zealand. From there he will pedal through Australia, Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, England, the United States and Canada, until he rolls in to his driveway again in Halfmoon Bay.
While the ride itself is epic and daunting, Gordon has taken on another challenge - to raise money for 2,500 Zambian children and their families.
"I am hoping to raise 56 cents per kilometre ridden for a charity event I have set up with World Vision," he said.
All money raised will go towards supporting an essential nutrition and health package project in three Zambian areas, Luumbo, Kalomo and Namuso, with a goal to improve the health of children under five.
"It includes improved dietary intake, improved access to essential health services and healthy environments, and help to strengthen the capacity of these communities and their institutions to implement programs to address malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and HIV/AIDS," Gordon said.
He has set up a website at www.globebent.org where you can find links to his World Vision charity as well as his blog, photos, email, Twitter and Facebook. All can be found alongside real time tracking of his trip through SPOT and Google maps. There is also delayed tracking on-line through Trackmytour.
