(CNN) – On December 1st, Laura Massey-Pugh and Stevie Massey, both from the UK, cycled through a storm at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin approximately 180 days after setting out on a journey to become the fastest cyclists to cycle around the world on a tandem bike.
The husband and wife team, who began their grueling challenge on June 5, traveling nearly 18,000 miles (28,968 kilometers) across 21 countries, were greeted by excited friends and family who anxiously awaited their arrival in the conditions pretty brutal weather. .
“It was dark, it was snowing, they [their friends and family] were absolutely freezing, but they still got their banners out and everything,” Massey-Pugh told CNN Travel.
“So it wasn’t like we had envisioned it, where we arrived in a blaze of glory — it was more of an absolute battle to the end. But I think that just made us even more proud of the accomplishment.”
Tandem bike challenge
Laura Massey-Pugh and Stevie Massey arrive at Brandenburg Gate, Berlin on December 1 after cycling around the world.
Laura Massey-Pugh
Undertaking a record-breaking double bike ride wasn’t something the veterinary surgeon would have thought was in the offing for herself before meeting Massey at a beer festival in 2015.
While they were both keen cyclists, Massey-Pugh says she was more of an “everyday cyclist”, while Massey was an experienced long-distance rider who had been riding tandem bikes since he was young.
“He regaled me with his stories of long-distance bike rides and the ride from Land’s End [mainland Britain’s most southwesterly point] to John O’Groats [a Scottish village located on mainland Great Britain’s northeastern tip] and again,” Massey-Pugh says of their first meeting.
On their second or third date, Massey took her out on a two-seater, and the experience “almost brought her to tears.”
“She didn’t know she’d become a super stoker,” he says, explaining that a “stoker” is the person at the back of the group, while the person at the front is described as the “captain.”
While the pair, who married in 2018, have been on many solo bike rides together, they “really clicked in tandem,” although Massey-Pugh took some time to adjust to it at first.
“The actual tandem is not that hard to learn, especially if you’ve ridden bikes before,” she explains.
“If you’re in the back seat like me and you’re used to riding and steering your bike, I think it can be almost harder to suddenly give up all that control and not see where you’re going.”
New record
They reached 9,000 miles (about 14,500 kilometers), half way, while in Australia in September.
Laura Massey-Pugh
In 2020, the couple read about two women, Cat Dixon and Raz Marsden from Great Britain, who broke the world record for the fastest time circumnavigating the globe on a tandem bicycle.
Although they were extremely impressed by the achievement, Massey-Pugh says she couldn’t help but think “we could go faster than that” and decided to look into things further.
They soon discovered that while there was an actual record for the fastest female and fastest male to complete this challenge on a tandem bike, there was no record holder for a mixed male and female team.
To achieve the record, they must meet a number of requirements from Guinness World Records, including cycling at least 18,000 miles in the same direction, passing through two antipodal points, places on opposite sides of the planet, and starting and ending in the same point.
After they contacted Guinness and committed to the task, the pair began what turned into about 18 months of “hard planning” and training.
The couple, who had traveled thousands of miles at a time together by the time they began their six-month journey, say just getting to the start line felt like half the battle.
Getting a suitable tandem for such a trip turned out to be one of the most difficult challenges.
“It’s a very special thing, a tandem,” explains Massey. “That’s how it was [a case of acquiring] parts from all over the world to get exactly what we wanted for the job we needed to do.
“We got the best people in the business who knew the best to advise us. And it paid off in the end.”
Excruciating journey
The couple traveled over 18,000 miles (28,968 kilometers) and passed through 21 countries.
Laura Massey-Pugh
According to the couple, their custom-made tandem bicycle, which is equipped with specially designed couplings that allow it to be split into two parts so that it can be packed in separate bicycle cases for airplane travel, costs somewhere about £8,000 (about $9,900).
“It was a solid day from first light,” says Massey. “As the light got shorter, we were going dark every day for at least two hours, normally.”
While they had originally planned to pass through Azerbaijan, they were forced to change their route due to border restrictions in the country and flew directly to India from Turkey, before cycling down to Malaysia.
They tried to minimize plane trips, taking a total of six, as much as possible, as the process of boxing the bikes, along with the length of the flights, cut their cycling time massively.
Massey-Pugh took on tasks such as working out their route and “sorting out the food” in order to take some of the pressure off her husband.
“Holding the front of the bike itself and driving was more mentally taxing,” she explains. “So I tried to close the gaps like anything else to make the journey go more smoothly.”
Due to their significant difference in height and structure, changing positions on the tandem bike was not an option.
The pair were filled with challenges throughout the trip and had to put aside all thoughts to take time to enjoy some of the destinations they were passing through.
Constant obstacles
The pair, first seen in Thailand, suffered numerous setbacks and constantly doubted themselves.
Laura Massey-Pugh
“The trip of a lifetime went out the window on day one,” admits Massey, citing “injury, accident, illness, delays and visa issues” among their many obstacles. “It was just for the challenge.”
In Malaysia, they were knocked down by a “motorcycle going too fast”, which resulted in “a few scrapes and scratches and some pretty bruised ribs”.
“It was so close to the end of the whole journey,” says Massey-Pugh. “We were very lucky, we had a soft landing. But it could have been a lot worse.”
Not only did the accident cause significant damage to their bags, which had to be replaced, but the experience made them seriously question whether it would be safe to continue.
“Once the bike was in order, it was really nerve wracking to get back into motorcycle traffic for the next four days,” admits Massey. “So that was bad. Very bad.”
However, they ultimately decided to persevere, going to Singapore in August.
Despite the many obstacles along the way, they received a lot of “help and help” from others throughout most of the journey, and were incredibly touched by the lengths people went to to support them.
“Once everyone found out what we were doing, people were so kind,” says Massey-Pugh. “They fed us, watered us and helped us do our laundry. That generosity was something I will never forget.”
From Singapore, they flew to Perth, Australia and cycled across the country to Brisbane, before flying to Dunedin, New Zealand.
“It was a bit bittersweet because we flew across New Zealand in eight and a half days. So we didn’t have time to stop anywhere,” adds Massey-Pugh.
They then took a plane ride to Vancouver, Canada and made their way across the country to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Riding through the long high passes of the Rocky Mountains was one of the highlights of the trip for Massey.
“We had avoided hilly roads where possible [before,]” he says. “But starting from Vancouver, we almost literally couldn’t avoid going over the Rockies. And the weather was good there.
“We got the tail end of summer and kind of fall. but it was still warm. That was pretty special.”
After covering Canada, they flew back to Europe, arriving in Lisbon, Portugal in November, before cycling through Spain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands and back to Germany, where they arrived at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate just in time for make it “the magic one. number 180.”
Ride up
Laura and Stevie say they cycled an average of 10 hours a day.
Laura Massey-Pugh
“It was just a huge sense of relief,” says Massey-Pugh. “To finally be able to stop riding and see some dear friends and family that we haven’t seen in six months was absolutely incredible.”
As well as reaching their target, they also managed to raise £10,000 ($12,379) for three different charities, mental health charity Mind, independent charity Vet Life, which provides emotional, financial and mental health support to the veterinary community and Sustrans, a UK charity. that supports sustainable transport.
The couple have been overwhelmed by the support they have received since returning to the UK earlier this month, and are currently enjoying some downtime and “having other people to talk to”.
“We probably spent more time in six months, literally together, than most people do in their entire relationship,” says Massey, who quit his job as a mechanical engineer before the challenge.
“I think the biggest thing was working as a team and being stuck with your husband for six months on the same bike,” says Massey-Pugh, admitting that they often ran out of things to talk about during their time together. in the street.
“You have to be focused on your goal and you have to really care about each other. This is absolutely essential to your success.
“You can’t have a barney ride halfway with separate bikes. You’re stuck together by the frame [of the bike].”
Now that their feet are firmly back on the ground, they say they will continue to ride tandem bikes together, but have absolutely no plans to take on any major cycling challenges in the future.
“It was such a massive investment, physically, mentally and financially, with the expenses and time off work,” says Massey-Pugh. “So I think this is our Everest. What could you do more than cycle around the world?
“We will definitely continue to ride the bike and may do some shorter challenges in the future once we have recovered, but we will never do anything like this again.”
