Sean Conway has had to call a halt to his attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for cycling across Europe from west to east due to a torn muscle.
> Sean Conway begins cycling across Europe record attempt
The Zimbabwe-born adventurer, now based in the Lake District, had been planning to undertake the 4,500-mile ride in 24 days or fewer.
However, he had to abandon through injury after 800 miles as he headed into the Pyrenees.
In a statement released via sponsor Yellow Jersey Cycle Insurance, he said: “It’s with a very heavy heart that I have decided to withdraw from my World Record Cycle attempt due to injury.
"I have not taken this decision lightly and don’t deal very well with failing at challenges however I just do not feel that I will be able to give this record the power I need to break the impressive new record set recently by Jonas Deichmann.
“For now, I’m sorry that I’ve not been able to carry on and wish to thank everyone who has supported this project.
"Needless to say I’m now going to take some time out to recover as quickly as possible before I announce my next challenge.
"It’s such a tough decision to admit defeat and I am gutted however, I will take this time to rebuild my strength and come back stronger.
"It goes without saying that, all being well, I will be back to give this another shot next year.”
Yellow Jersey Cycle Insurance director Ryan Georgiades added: “We’re gutted for Sean. It’s so tough having to call time on a dream but we know he will be back and we’re looking forward to supporting him moving forward on his next adventure.”
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.