An attempt to break the record for a tandem ride from Land's End to John O'Groats has been abandoned after one of the riders, Glenn Longland, collapsed in Cumbria.
Writing on Twitter, this morning, his partner in the attempt, Dominic Irvine, said: "Sorry to say we've had to abandon the ride this morning. Glenn collapsed - he's ok but on way to Carlisle Hospital to get checked out."
Earlier, photographer Joolze Diamond, who was accompanying the pair on their record attempt, tweeted a photograph of them riding through the mist on the ascent to Shap Summit.
Climbing out of the mist on Shap. Boys are tired but battling on! #tandemchallenge @OrbitTandems @heartresearchuk pic.twitter.com/sE2BMMddWG
— Joolze Dymond (@Joolzephoto) May 5, 2014
The current record of two days, two hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds has stood for almost half a century and was set by Pete Swinden and John Withers in 1966.
Yesterday evening, Swinden was out supporting Irvine and Longland on their ride.
Honoured that current record holder and #legend Pete Swinden came out to support the #tandemchallenge tonight! pic.twitter.com/29XOqGfIX2
— Dominic Irvine (@DomIrvine) May 5, 2014
It's the second time that Irvine has been thwarted in an attempt to beat the record. In 2012, riding with Ian Rodd, Irvine fell ill early on in the ride. They completed the trip non-stop, but missed out on the record by more than eight hours.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.