Cycling 450 miles in 48 hours is a challenge for both mind and body
“My hope is to not really stop at all. If I need to I’ll have a 40 minute power nap”
At around noon tomorrow, all being well, an exhausted Richard Rothwell will cycle into the village Shieldaig in Wester Ross, having ridden there from Greenock (via a lap of the Mull of Kintyre) in just 48 hours – a journey of 450 miles. He will be met by another endurance cyclist, Edinburgh’s Naomi Freireich, and as Rothwell hobbles away to take a well-earned rest, she will set off to ride another 450 miles – again, in just 48 hours. Freireich’s journey will take her all the way along the north coast of Scotland and down the east coast as far as Inverness. Once there, she will meet up with Zara Mair, who will start pedalling south, kicking off her own 450-mile journey to Blyth in Northumberland.
Rothwell, Freireich and Mair are members of a ten-strong team of elite long-distance cyclists attempting to complete a non-stop, 4,500mile lap of Great Britain in just 20 days. Dubbed Lap of My Mind, and deliberately timed to coincide with some of the darkest days of winter, the purpose of the challenge is to raise money for the mental health charities Mind and Calm.
The first cyclist in the relay, Ian Walker, set off from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, a recognised suicide blackspot, on 1 December, and Matt Jones is due to complete the final 450-mile leg from Falmouth back to Bristol on 21 December, the darkest day of the year.
Freireich, an IT project manager, is under no illusions about how difficult her leg will be, but, as winner of the elite category in this year’s European 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championships, she is also wellequipped to deal with its mental and physical challenges. She’s also grateful to have ended up with one of the most scenic legs of the circuit.
“I get the pretty bit,” she laughs, “I’m really lucky. I’ll be going from Shieldaig round to Inverness
following the North Coast 500 and it’s renowned for being stunning, so if the weather behaves I should have some really good views. I think there’s bound to be wind at some point, but hopefully it will be westerly and I’ll get some kind of help.”
“The bit up the west coast is quite hilly,” she continues, “in fact I think the whole of the North Coast 500 up until you get to John O’groats is quite undulating, but once I’m past there it will be a relief for my legs, if not for my eyes. Then it’s just the A9 I’ve got to contend with. There are concerns about safety, but we are being quite careful about it – we’ve got a vehicle following all of the riders and we’ve got really bright lights on the bikes as well, which should make us a bit more visible.”
Freireich didn’t develop her passion for endurance cycling until after she’d had a family, but in the last few years she has been busy making up for lost time. In 2016 she finished first in the solo female category of the Strathpuffer, the 24-hour mountain bike race held every year in Strathpeffer near Dingwall. She came first in the British 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championships in 2017 and this year she won both the British and European 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championships, also finishing fourth in the World 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championships.
“I think that in part my fitness had been built up by dragging my kids around in a trailer,” she says. “When I first started cycling my first child was maybe three or four and not really into cycling herself, so I pulled her along in a trailer. She was quite a large child, so pulling her up hills definitely made me a good hill-climber.
“The first event I entered, which I did as part of a pair, we ended up winning. I thought that could’ve been down to my partner, and I was never quite 100 per cent convinced that it wasn’t, so it was nice when I finally got around to entering a race on my own, the Strathpuffer in 2016, and to come away and win it.”
For all her success in 24-hour races, however, Freireich knows that a 48-hour ride will involve extra challenges, not least figuring out if and when to rest, and for how long.
“I’m quite used to riding for 24hrs non-stop,” she says, “so my plan is to at least do that, but my hope is to not really stop at all. If I need to I’ll have a 40 minute power nap and I’ve got a camper van that’s trailing me, so there will be somewhere to rest. It’ll depend on how I’m getting on.”
Once she’s recovered from her Lap of My Mind ride, Freireich’s next goal is another shot at the World 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championships. “I’m hoping to go and do them again,” she says, “although they’re in Brazil next year, and it’s in the middle of the summer so I expect it will be baking hot, and I don’t do great in heat. I’ve also got a secret challenge ride planned – hopefully for sometime next year – and I’m hoping that it will be a world first ride. I would tell you more, but I don’t want anybody else stealing my idea.”