BOOK REVIEW

Cycling The Earth: A Lifechanging Race Around The World by Sean Conway (Sportsbookofthemonth.com price: £12.08, saving £3.91 on rrp)

In 1984, The Guinness Book of Records decreed that cyclists wishing to be considered as having completed a world circumnavigation record must have cycled a minimum of 13,000 miles.

A man named Nick Saunders duly completed the route in an incredible 78 days.

In 2008, the publishers changed the rules: the distance was increased to 18,000 miles, which prompted Mark Beaumont to cycle it in 196 days.

Beaumont establish documented his efforts in a book called The Man Who Cycled The World which inspired hundreds of others to attempt the same journey.

In many respects, Cycling The Earth is a continuation of Beaumont’s original.

Neither falls into the category marked ‘great literature’ (and there are far too many spelling mistakes in Conway’s book), but in fairness, both men were in pursuit of a world record, so opportunities to embark on a series of literary diversions, a la Paul Theroux, were understandably limited.

Nonetheless, Conway does provide readers with his motives for tackling such a challenge, and it’s difficult not to empathise with the man for meeting it head-on.

He once dreamed of becoming a National Geographic photographer but ended up taking snaps of nursery-aged children. Then, on the eve of his 30th birthday, his girlfriend dumps him. What’s a man to do? Circumnavigate the world on two wheels of course.

As Conway’s life heads for the pits, he enters the World Cycle Race and with less than six months’ training, a steel bike made in Somerset and limited luggage, he sets off.

What follows is a catalogue of potholes, punctures, dehydration, bandits and accidents liberally with equal measures of beauty and danger.

Conway is no professional sportsman who can wax lyrical regarding his glittering career.

He’s an ordinary guy who embarked upon an extraordinary quest, characteristics that make Cycling the Earth so compelling.

Few of us will ever score the winner in a World Cup final or win Wimbledon, but sport, in this case cycling, has the ability to inspire us to do great things; for this reason alone, you should read this book, warts-and-all.

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