THEMAN HIMSELF

I met Mike Hall as a bike-mad teenage engineer, who worked for me as an intern on a mountain bike magazine I edited at the time. For most people, it was his incredible and inspiring epic self-supported ride palmarès that put him on the map. Starting with wins in 24-hour mountain bike racing, he won the 18,000-mile circumnavigation of the World Cycle Race in 91 days and 18 hours. He won the off-road Canada to Mexico Tour Divide race in 2013 and reset the official record with his 2016 win. He won the TransAm Bicycle Race in 2014 and, with fellow racer Juliana Buhring, was the focus for the film, Inspired to Ride.

Mike set up the Transcontinental Race Across Europe in 2013, from London, through various iconic cultural and cycling checkpoints, to Istanbul. The race continues this year thanks to his family and friends. Mike supported the Newborns Vietnam charity for several years until his death on March 31, 2017, aged just 35, but his legacy lives on.