1,000km. It’s roughly the distance from London to Milan, roughly the distance from London to the northern tip of Scotland (taking the scenic route), roughly the distance from London to Berlin. But why cycle to any of these places when you can rack up the equivalent mileage without leaving one small corner of the capital?
Gabriel Sayer this weekend completed his monster charity ride, which has at the time of writing raised around £10,500 for mental health charity Mind, by riding 1,000km (621 miles) solely through laps of Regent’s Park.
Back in 2022 he did 600km around the park, this time going one (or 400) further and hitting a round 1,000 in memory of his daughter Molly.
Gabriel, a consultant vascular surgeon, set off on Thursday and finished in time to join his usual Saturday morning coffee ride at 9am two days later. Well, he was technically seven minutes late, but nobody held it against him — as far as excuses for being late to the group ride go, it’s a strong one.
“The ride was done in memory of my daughter and to raise awareness and money for the mental health charity Mind,” he explained to road.cc. “Regent’s Park is such a fantastic resource for everyone and especially popular with cyclists. I ride a lot around the park and love the community aspect of all the cyclists who come here. Over the years I have developed made many friends on the basis of sharing each other’s wheel.
“Cycling 1,000 km seemed like a good challenge. Calling on the support of friends and regular users of Regent’s Park, especially those from Islington Cycling Club, I had people with me for all but a few of the 40 plus hours it took.
“The biggest mental challenge was the traffic lights with a new set of lights added just for fun two weeks before. It was also quite windy with a chilly northerly breeze making progress up the ‘hill’ hard work. I used my volunteers to pilot me through the wind.”
With physical and mental fatigue both a challenge, Gabriel opted to break the ride up into four-hour blocks, stopping for 15 minutes after each to eat some real food. With the on-bike diet consisting of Jelly Babies, energy drinks and Yazoo milkshakes, the feed stops with sandwiches and cheese helped break up the effort. There was sushi on the menu during the breaks too, Gabriel joking: “It is Islington after all…”
“The hardest parts were pushing into the night,” he explained. “The relentless circling and continuous pace took its toll. By Friday night I needed a proper sleep afforded by the event HQ, my brother’s campervan, where I managed to get three hours’ sleep before starting up again at 3am to do the last 100 miles.
“So far we have raised over £10,000. I am so grateful to all who sponsored me and supported me in the ride.”
There’s a link to Gabriel’s JustGiving page here and you’ll be glad to hear after two days and 1,000km he made it in time for coffee and a cinnamon bun…
13 thoughts on ““Relentless circling”: Cyclist rides 1,000km around Regent’s Park”
Chapeau!
Chapeau!
great ride, what an effort…
great ride, what an effort…..very familiar with RP laps, but still hard to conceive of this
Global Nomad wrote:
I once did 100 km in laps of the inner circle (90-odd laps as I recall) when I was recovering from illness and wanted a very quiet and almost flat route on which to test my capacities; I must admit it almost drove me out of my mind with boredom by the end, the discipline it must take to do ten times that is incredible.
ETA sorry to be a killjoy Gabriel but Regent’s Park isn’t in Islington, a little bit is in Camden but it’s mostly in the City of Westminster.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Thank goodness I didn’t have to say this 😆
I hope he didn’t break the
I hope he didn’t break the (alleged) speed limit
Great job, though.
The article quotes “before
The article quotes “before starting up again at 3am to do the last 100 miles” The park speed limit for vehicles is 20mph.
That said, maintaining 30mph for three hours with hundreds of miles under his belt would have been incredible – so it’s more likely he actually said km not miles.
All in all an amazing / humbling achievement – but one couched in a tragedy most of us wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Quote:
So 100 miles in 6 hrs (and 7 minutes).
It wouldn’t have taken this
It would have taken this lycra clad lout, less time than expected, to complete 1000km, as she streaked around the park at speeds in excess of 52 mph.
Photos taken by a Daily Telegraph photographer, showed a blurred projectile, passing through red pelican crossing lights.
When Ian Duncan Smith, widely acknowledged to have one of the sharpest minds in the Conservative Party and a rich mine of excellent ideas for improving traffic safety, was asked for his views on the photos, he said “I’ve just peed myself, I was trying to concentrate on your question and forgot I needed a wee wee. Last week, I tried to break wind, while eating a canape and had a parallel experience.”
Hi, not sure what this means?
Hi, not sure what this means? Who’s the Lycra lout?
It’s just a bit of satire
It’s just a bit of satire poking fun at the absurd pieces about cyclists that have been published in the telegraph.
Well done.
Well done.
“Relentless circling” Was this the event theme song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3l8hdhZlrk
I’ve spun around between two
I’ve spun around between two bridges in Brussels for 22 hours on a fixed gear bike and didn’t call the press to brag about it. 😅
https://www.strava.com/activities/6455164284
I think Mr Sayer’s primary
I think Mr Sayer’s primary aim in contacting us was to raise vital funds for charity in memory of his daughter – and very happy to say it appears to have worked, because a couple of those who donated mentioned that they read our article.
You may not have bragged to the press, but you have bragged in the comments section of this article more than three years after you did it. But congratulations all the same.