Friday, January 20, 2012
THE first thing people ask Simon Hutchinson is if he’s mad.
He’s usually cycling away from questions however, so it’s hard to take any notice.
The 24-year-old from Bailieborough, Co Cavan plans to take part in the new, Global Bicycle Race — a ‘monster’ 18,000-mile, solo time trial around the planet, starting next month.
On 18 February, he’ll line up with the rest of the participants in Greenwich, like spandex-clad Phileas Fogg, carrying all his equipment, tent, food, whatever.
Then they’ll all head in the same general direction for a bit.
There’s no predetermined route — the only stipulation set by the race founder is that riders must pass through two antipodal points (places which are diametrically opposite each other on the globe, like Spain and New Zealand). In Hutchinson’s case, his impressive route which takes in eastern Europe, the Far East, Australia and America will click through the exotic checkpoints of northern Peru and southern Thailand.
"I’m a carpenter by trade but when the recession hit, I kind of looked into doing a couple of other things," says Hutchinson, when I ask him to rewind a bit on this tale.
"One of them was going across to England and tried my hand at a kitchen manufacturing company in Wolverhampton. And when that didn’t really work out I came back home and finished off my final phase of carpentry. After that I was kind of at a loose end and I came across a website that had been put up by a guy called Vin Cox.
"Now, Vin Cox did hold the record for the quickest cycling circumnavigation of the globe – he’s actually been beaten a couple of times since — but he set up this website, he declared to all that he was creating a global bicycle race.
"Everyone and anyone could take part in this, you didn’t have to be a professional or anything. So, I saw this and I was humming and hawing about it and thinking to myself: this is some opportunity here. I’d seen the documentary about [adventurer] Mark Beaumont when he actually broke the record himself and it captivated me – it really grabbed me. It was a like... it was like a cold shower – it just woke me up. And it made me think Jesus, if he can do it, maybe I can do it.
"I started to think about it and secretly planned about it, until finally I came out to my mum and dad. And they said ‘well how long have you got?’
"And I said I have about a year to plan, and they said well, I don’t know if that’s enough time. And eventually I swung them around to my way of thinking – if I had any more time than a year, I wouldn’t end up doing it."
After some tears and lots of talk his girlfriend Nicola fell in behind the effort too – "she’s 100% on board and a massive help now," he says – while his family too got to work. But if he’d known then...
"I started planning for it, training for it, publicising, the whole shebang. I didn’t really realise. I was innocent – I didn’t realise how much had to be done. For me, it was a case of getting on a bike, booking flights and going. But Jesus, there was another cold shower waiting for me. But I’ve heard a whole lot and I’m all the more thankful for it.
"Training and planning is now going very well. I’m ahead of schedule which is really weird. But I’ve been very hard on myself. I go to bed thinking about it and I wake up catching the ends of dreams about it."
Hutchinson reckons the trip will cost him 15 to 20 grand and he wants to raise another €20k for epilepsy charity Brainwave.
"I can tell you – I’m not a rich man and I’m throwing everything I can into this at the same time. So yes, donations certainly help me," he admits quietly. But you get the feeling he’ll meet those targets too.
As we finish a conversation in which I earned some understanding of the level of obsession which drives his pedals every day – I have to ask him – are you crazy? "Yeah, that’s what they say," he laughs. "You’re a mad hoor. You’re cracked. Have you lost it? Rather you than me.
"And I just think: ah sure, you have to be a bit cracked to do something like this. But, I don’t know. It’s natural to me. It’s something that I have to do."
Then he climbs on his bike and cycles, from Dublin, the five-hour spin back to Cavan.
* For more information, visit http://www.simonsepiccycle.com/
* adrianjrussell@gmail.com Twitter: @adrianrussell
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