You Inspire me!

A real uphill struggle

Team Five, Team five, Team five. What is team five? It is simply the task of asking people from around the world to ride five miles/8kms with me; Thus forming a team of nationals from countries around the world. That was the idea and many countless hours of my time and effort have been poured into it. Nearly every 'rest' day has been spent on the internet contacting cycle groups and teams from whichever country I happen to be in. When really I should have been out exploring the place I had just put in a lot of effort to ride to.

Over something as basic as a five miles/8km cycle. Simple surly? When I thought of this idea way back in the early planning stages I certainly never foresaw the amount of effort that would be involved with this part of challenge. After all everywhere in the world ride bikes!  

Asking and having people join along the way has well been very, very difficult. The real infuriating part about it all is that the idea is fine. It is the implementation of it that is flawed. Countless people have said they would like to ride with me and be part of the world team only for me to be in a different town, country or even continent. All I have is word of mouth to spread what I am doing. Unfortunately I ride faster than people are talking about the challenge. Social media has seen a very slow uptake with less than a few hundred following from around the world. So this has offered very little benefits towards achieving this goal. Even though I have been successful in getting into various forms of press all across the world now; have met with the top guys at the Commonwealth Games and even met with heads of countries. This has rarely shown any rewards to the Team 5 task.
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Vikki proudly showing me her country

Don't get me wrong I have had people join in three continents now from 7 different countries all with very diverse and different cultures and faiths. Yet they have been united in the task of cycling a distance with me. Boys from Bangladesh from a hugely different economic background have achieved the same goal as riders from first world nations such as Australia. The disadvantages that some countries have compared to others have been removed. In a sense the playing field has been levelled.

I think this is the advantage of the bicycle. I don't think any other sporting activity could be used to unite people from around the world in such a unique but simple goal. The bicycle doesn't discriminate. Any age, race, faith, and gender can ride a bike.

For me, when people ride with me have been the most inspiring moments of the trip. When people with out a common language, culture or a very busy life style ride up and declare there intentions to become part of the ride around the world really motivate me.

So it is the implementation that is flowed. If you wanted to join and I missed you, well now is your chance. Having to actually be where I am to join is the problem. So here is the proposed solution to this conundrum. You can join from where ever you are and this is open to anyone from anywhere in the world. Ride your five miles/8km on the commute to work, on a training ride, in the gym, flying down the side of a mountain or just a ride in the park.  All you have to do is ensure that you have covered 5 miles/8kms in one go.

Big Challenge

From there, to make it count simple go here on the challenge website here and fill in some details to have your effort counted towards the overall goal. Each person that joins will add 5miles/8km to the distance that will be plotted onto a map following my route as shown on the tracker. So as a team you will also ride the world.

My role will be simply to be the stop watch. When the yellow line that I am drawing on the planets reaches Glasgow, this will signal the end of  the task. I will still be asking people to join me as I go. But this is essentially the last roll of the dice to achieve this task.

This is not going to be easy. So please do take part, invite your friend and family out for a ride. Tell who ever you can. Who knows what we might be able to achieve together!

So come on and inspire me and lets see what we can do together!