James Bowthorpe

2009 the year of Lance Armstrong's comeback, Wiggo's emergence as a Tour rider, mucho love for cyclists in the Daily Mail (or something like that) Mayor Boris everywhere… Team Sky, golly it was one memorable moment after another, but here's my most memorable bits of the past year… 

Another contender for the round-the-world cycling record has pedalled forward in a bid to outdo Julian Emre Sayarer and road.cc favourite James Bowthorpe, who both set global benchmarks in 2009.

Between now and the New Year various members of the road.cc team are picking their most memorable moments from the vast amount of news, review, blogs and features that have appeared on road.cc in the last 12 months. On Boxing Day TR dragged himself away from the turkey leftovers to give us his list and today it's Big Dave Atkinson's turn. Over to you Dave…

Julian Emre Sayarer's return to Rouen Cathedral followed by his attack on former record holder Mark Beaumont certainly put the cat among the pigeons and got people talking here on road.cc. But did he get the record? Julian certainly seems to think so, but it's far from a done deal as far as we're concerned.

The year 1066 has gone down as in history as the one in which three kings – Edward The Confessor, Harold and William The Conqueror – sat on the English throne. But for Britain’s long-distance cyclists, 2009 will be remembered as a year when three cyclists from these shores each held the round-the-world cycling record.

It’s less than ten weeks since James Bowthorpe pedalled into Hyde Park to smash the round-the-world cycling record, but a 23-year-old former bike courier from London is looking to beat his 175-day mark for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bike. But it could be close.

Julian Emre Sayarer, who was born in London and grew up in Leicestershire, is 158 days into his journey and averaging 107 miles a day against James Bowthorpe’s 103.

It's more than a month since round-the-world cyclist James Bowthorpe rolled into Hyde Park to complete his record-breaking circumnavigation, but he’s keeping himself busy spreading the word about Globecycle, including appearing on a TV cookery show and lining up a potential book deal about his epic 18,000-mile journey.

Kevin Shannon finally has a leaving date for his Zero Emissions Expedition to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle – and he has a few words of advice from someone in the know to take with him as well.

Kevin will leave on Sunday, March 28, and he will be cycling approximately 36,000 miles across five continents and sailing across two oceans, and arriving back on his doorstep around three years later.

We bumped into current round-the-world record holder James Bowthorpe at the Cycle Show, and he'd brought his bike along for everyone to have a gander. In case you weren't aware it's a pretty special machine: a Santos Travelmaster 2.8 sporting a Gates Carbon belt drive and a Rohloff Speedhub. Riding the Santos, James knocked three weeks off Briton Mark Beaumont's time.

James Bowthorpe Santos bike - grip