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Gloucester's Lee Fancourt sets off on Land's End-John O'Groats and back record attempt on Monday

Ultracyclist on quest to break Guinness World Records takes on his toughest challenge yet

Gloucester cyclist Lee Fancourt, who is on a quest to break as many Guinness World Records related to cycling as he can will on Monday set off on what he believes may be the toughest of the lot – riding from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back again in the shortest possible time.

In the past six weeks, the 38-year-old has broken five records, starting with the fastest crossing of Europe by bike from north to south. Since then, he has broken three more for the longest distances covered off-road on a mountain bike over 12, 24 and 48 hours.

- Gloucester cyclist sets new World Record for fastest crossing of Europe from north to south

His latest was set on Monday when he rode through seven European countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia – in just 24 hours. The ride took in the most countries visited by someone on a bike within that time, and saw Fancourt cover 323 miles.

Last year, Fancourt was disqualified from the World Cycle Race after failing to resume his ride at the point in India where he broke it to take a taxi to ensure his support team had food and water.

He completed the circumnavigation in 104 days, well inside Alan Bate’s record of 125 days, but as well as being disqualified from the race was also ineligible for the Guinness World Record.

He plans to attempt that again, and is also waiting for Guinness World Records to approve three other efforts – but it is the ride the length of Great Britain and back, nicknamed LEJOGLE, that he believes may be the hardest.

The current record of 5 days 21 hours 8 minutes was set by Ben Rockett in August 2010.

In April 2013, Chris ‘Hoppo’ Hopkinson, the first Briton to officially complete the Race Across America solo, set off to try and break the record.

However, having battled a headwind on his way up towards John O’Groats, he gave up his attempt 80 miles short of the Scottish town as it became apparent that with the wind swinging around 180 degrees, he’d be battling it on the way back to Cornwall too.

– Elements - and thoughts of RAAM - force Chris Hopkinson to abandon LEJOGLE record attempt

The most recent attempt came just this week, when Bruce Berkeley had to pull out due to a knee injury after completing the first half of the ride on schedule to break the record.

The London-based New Zealander had already set one Guinness World Record this year, heading to Australia in January to rack up 9,750 kilometres of riding in a month.

- Bruce Berkeley rides nearly 10,000km in January to set new Guinness World Record

Fancourt says that Berkeley’s abandonment underlines just how hard a record the LEJOGLE is to beat, and instead of his usual Specialized S-Works, he will be riding a one-off time trial machine from Identiti Bikes, equipped with Shimano Di2.

He told road.cc: "I am attempting 15 world records before the end of summer 2016. I had a MTB accident last year and broke my back.

"It was whilst I was recovering, I decided that I was going to do some remarkable with my life and break some world records in endurance cycling.

"I applied to Guinness initially for 10 records then decided that I wanted to aim for 15. I have already completed 5 and I am now attempting LEJOGLE on Monday 17th August 2014. I have a full support team. This will be my 6th world record attempt this year.

"LEJOGLE is without doubt the record I want the most out of all 15 records. Breaking this record will be a dream come true.

"I have already cycled LEJOGLE in 2013 with no training and it took me 18 days!

"This time I am aiming to do it in around 5 days, although I dont care if I end up beating the current record by just 5 minutes as I will not be drafting or having help from other cyclists like the current holder of the record did."

Here are the details of the five records Fancourt has so far broken this year:

Fastest to cycle Trans Europe, North to South. 4,200 miles, Unsupported through 12 countries in 21 days, 14 hours and 29 minutes.

Farthest distance travelled off road on a MTB in 12hrs (174 miles) , 24 hrs (313 miles) 48 hrs (504 miles).

Most countries visited in 24 hours by bicycle (7 countries; Czech Rep, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia & Bosnia). I completed this last week by cycling 323 miles unsupported.

Besides Identiti bikes, his sponsors for the LEJOGLE attempt includ Slam69, Halo wheels, Uvex, Gloworm lights and Follow my challenge.

He can be followed by tracker through his website at www.leefancourt.com which also has links to his social media pages.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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7 comments

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Gkam84 | 8 years ago
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Yeah I was reading it earlier, was well behind and certainly wouldn't have made the lost time back.

Sounded like he hadn't been able to eat all week, we had pretty much similar on one of the record attempts.

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crazy-legs | 8 years ago
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Looks like he's binned it somewhere north of Inverness due to stomach problems and illness. Brave effort.

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Gkam84 | 8 years ago
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Oh yeah, hats off, I wouldn't have even contemplated this when I was a fit rider and racing regularly.

I'm just trying to figure out his schedule, negative splits are very possible if the weather is with you, I think you could ride at least 8 hours less on the route back, I want Lee to get this record as the current one shouldn't even stand, just worried he's quite a bit behind where I thought he would be by now.

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crazy-legs | 8 years ago
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Careful Gkam, your happy positive demeanour will overwhelm this place...  3

Maybe he's riding negative splits or just keeping it within himself. Maybe it's a positive frame of mind.

Whatever - hats off to him for even attempting it and best wishes to him.

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Gkam84 | 8 years ago
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Ahead of schedule? As of right now, he is 2 days and 12 hours in and has covered 700 of a 1700 (at least) journey. He hasn't even hit some of the big drags and climbs coming up.

What I was on Chris Hopkinson's crew for his second attempt, he's already reached John O'Groats by this point and he's also stopped in past a hospital to medical tests and picked up medication.

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john1888 | 8 years ago
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I met up with Lee this morning and cycled alongside him for around an hour. He is ahead of schedule and is confident that he will beat the record.

His face was a picture, as i met up with him at 3.30am when going through the Scottish borders. Seeing a cyclist coming to give him support at that time wasn't expected  21

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Gkam84 | 8 years ago
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Looking at his GPS tracker, if it is right, he's already well behind schedule. I'm guessing this wind wasn't with him from the South, this record needs a tail wind to start or you get behind and can't get it back.

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