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Britain's Ben Rockett becomes first person to ride across Baffin Island in Canadian Arctic

Rider who in 2010 set LEJOGLE record spent almost a fortnight riding in sub-zero temperatures in latest adventure

A cyclist from Bath has become the first person ever to ride a bike across Canada's Baffin Island, which lies inside the Arctic Circle and has an annual average temperature of -10 degrees Celsius.

Ben Rockett, who in 2010 set a record of 5 days 21 hours for riding from Land's End to John O'Groat's and back, took less than a fortnight to complete his latest adventure, reports the Bath Chronicle.

The 26-year-old undertook the 200-mile ride on a bespoke titanium snow bike made by Qoroz, with components produced and modified by Hope Technology, wheels from Strada and tungsten studded tyres by SupaTracks.

Prior to heading to Baffin Island in late March, Rockett sought advice on how to deal with the harsh conditions from polar explorer David Hempleman-Adams, who provided advice on training and co-ordinated the logistics of the expedition.

THe ride was undertaken to raise money for the charity Action for Children, and donations on Just Giving currently total £1,042.15.

Upon completing his ride last Tuesday, Rockett tweeted::

You can find out more background on the ride and on Rockett's other activities, including that LEJOGLE ride in which he averaged more than 300 miles a day, on his website.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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4 comments

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RobD | 10 years ago
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I love the ludicrous sense of adventure some people have, good on him. Makes the goals I'm working for this year seem a bit pathetic by comparison, I think I might need to do something a little tougher while I'm able to do it.

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themartincox replied to RobD | 10 years ago
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RobD wrote:

I love the ludicrous sense of adventure some people have, good on him. Makes the goals I'm working for this year seem a bit pathetic by comparison, I think I might need to do something a little tougher while I'm able to do it.

YES! Do it!!!

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chadders | 10 years ago
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Well done to Ben, I believe he was asked about taking part in next years New forest sportive but has said its far too dangerous!!

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themartincox | 10 years ago
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Well done Ben, another excellent adventure!

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