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Thursday 11 June 2009
Robin Simpson, the endurance athlete who is seeking a 12th world record by cycling from John O’Groats to Land’s End and then back again to John O’Groats in less than six days and 17 hours, has admitted that he was on the verge of quitting yesterday.
As it is, the singular Yorkshireman soldiered on and was just south of Taunton (and 140 miles from Land’s End) when Be Number 1 spoke to him at 1.30pm today, 51 and a half hours after he left John O’Groats.
“I had a bad day yesterday,” said Simpson, who has now covered 720 miles at an average speed (including stops) close on 14mph. “Just past Kendal, it was pretty much all uphill and I was so sore that I could hardly sit on my saddle. And I thought: ‘Right, that’s enough.’ But my brother rode beside me for an hour and pestered me to keep going.
“And I’m still going now, although I will never, ever offer to do something like this again. At least, that’s how I feel at the moment! I can’t even sit down properly, I’m so sore.
“So far, I have stopped for a total of eight hours and have slept for about five or six of those. But it’s a little bit strange, because tiredness is not a problem. It’s more a question of loneliness and it’s quite scary riding down dark country roads on your own at 1 o’clock in the morning.
“One thing that could stop me finishing is the soreness, but we’ll have to see how things go.”
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