Ride Earth

Tom Allen, Andrew Welch and Mark Maultby departed from the UK on June 17th, 2007, on an attempt to circumnavigate the globe by mountain bike.

Originally, we had planned a fairly complete world-wide route, through Europe, Asia, Australasia and the Americas. Before long, however, we decided to abandon this in favour of a completely free-form adventure which we hoped would some day culminate in a return to England. Within this adventure, there would be no limits other than common-sense and bureaucracy.

When we arrived in the Caucasus, we decided to continue the adventure separately for the time being. Read Tom’s blog or Andy’s blog for the latest updates.

So Why Cycle Round The World?

Our motivations are many and varied:

• To have and inspire others to have a great adventure, taking in, and interacting with, the local people and cultures on a ground level, human to human basis into areas so far left untouched by tourism and the backpacking trail.
• To promote mountain biking as a lifestyle and mode of sustainable transport, and living with a minimal ecological footprint and lower impact on the environment that we as a species are increasingly putting under threat.
• To support and provide coverage for our charities whose work aims to help create a sustainable and environmentally-stable future for the planet and the human race
• To film the trials and tribulations, lows and highs of our expedition and the state of the natural environment as we pass through it, and to document and communicate our trip.

The Riders

Tom Allen

• Date of birth: 18th June 1983
• Leg hair: Dense
• Dominant foot: Right
• Earlobes: Detached
• Favourite toast colour: Oak
• Preferred speed: 28mph
• Worst hair day: 3rd November 2001

This is Tom. He isn’t often seen wearing tights, but when he is, you can bet your bottom dollar there’s a good reason for it. On this occasion, Tom was using tights as a protective barrier against scalding-hot porridge.

Born and raised in the heart of the Midlands, Tom’s affinity with nature was apparent from an early age, at which time he could often be found building or residing in a woodland retreat in the back garden. His life as a cyclist also began at an early age. The first time his parents removed his stabilisers, Tom, without warning, belted away across the village green into the distance and did not return for quite some time. Growing up, he took great pride in fashioning a number of soapbox racers (go-karts) out of wood and old pram wheels, some of which had considerable off-road capabilities, and always wished he had the bollocks to ride his bike off a ramp into the River Welland. It was a long time coming, but in his late teens he finally read The Lord of the Rings and realised that he had always been a wood-elf, and that his life would someday take him on an epic adventure.

“I first began thinking about some kind of long-distance biking expedition in 2003. It was the start of my second year of university and a good friend had been inter-railing around Eastern Europe over the summer. I thought to myself, ‘why take the train and miss out on the journey itself?’ It’s not for everyone, by a long shot, but the idea of cycling from city to city, seeing the landscape and culture gradually change, and doing all this under my own steam started to appeal to me. I’d read and heard about these places, but I wanted to see the all rest of it, discover my own treasures, without a guidebook or the comfort of a train or plane ticket.

“The environmental aspect of the trip was a natural evolution. We have spent our schooling years being taught about global warming and its causes, landfill and man-made, non-biodegradable waste, and here we still are, 20 years later, all talk and no action. People know about these problems but nobody wants to take responsibility without seeing someone else do it first.

“I also believe that humans have a moral obligation as a species to look after the planet they inhabit. We constitute a miniscule blip in the history of Earth and, as with life, if we get it wrong there won’t be a second chance! I believe people need to fully grasp and accept the potential consequences of what we are doing to the planet, rather than take the easy option of ignoring them, and leading by example is, I think, a good way to do this. It’s already beginning to happen. Hopefully the project will add to the growing inertia, and educate and enlighten people in this way – even if it’s only a small handful, it’s still the result I’m looking for.”

Andrew Welch

• Date of birth: 5th October 1982
• Favourite soil: Sandy loam
• Knobbliest kneecap: Right
• Favourite accessory: Twiglet
• Worst direction: Left
• Longest day: St. Swithin’s Day 2002
• Favourite twang: Deep

This is Andrew Welch. He believes that his interest in the environment is genetic, as one of his hands is green. But he also adds that a certain secondary-school economics teacher was adamant that environmental issues would soon be at the forefront of the global agenda, inspiring him to do a degree in Environment, Economics and Ecology at York University on a whim (rather than ‘do an art degree, paint pretty pictures and become a great artist, because he didn’t need a degree to do that’).

Andrew spent some time after university attempting to sell t-shirts with designs that conveyed an empowering message with True Focus T-Shirts. However, after much time spent happily creating designs and artwork in front of a computer, he decided he wasn’t doing enough of his great loves – mountain biking and being in the great outdoors.

“Geography, environmental issues, the organic world, and its clashing and conflicting with the man-made world has always been a very stark and important issue to me. Apathy towards our responsibility to our planet has meant that environmental issues have taken a back seat – possibly because it such as big issue and therefore difficult for the human mind to grasp. It is only recently that such issues have become more in the focus of the media, and people are taking notice, although nowhere near enough. There are more silly gas-guzzling cars on the road, a coal power station built every day in China, and the Amazonian Rainforest will be gone by the year 2050 at the current rate of deforestation. These issues are so startling but it seems out of reach to the normal average Joe to make a difference, which is exactly the reason why the best way for me to contribute is to take action myself and try and inspire others.”

He commented that his family and scouts are mostly to blame for his wanderlust to roam free and explore.

“My family has a farming and rural background. I have lived in the countryside all my life. Family trips to Cornwall to go windsurfing, walking or kayaking, or to Wales to go surfing and walking, or to Dorset to explore the caves and beaches. Attending Scouts was a priceless experience – camping, playing manhunt in the dark complete with full army gear, making campfires, building shelters – these were the greatest of times, building great friendships, and learning skills that sowed the seeds for today.

“I got into mountain biking when I was about 15, developing an obsession for the shiny bikes like a moth drawn to the light – the attitude, the freedom, the tricks, the designs. It wasn’t until University when I got seriously into mountain biking. Innumerable weekends biking in the Dales, Yorkshire Moors, on trips to Scotland, Hamsterly Forest, all over the North of England, and pedalling like a lunatic around the university campus with a group of other lunatics – this was the legendary mountain biking society. Over time I really got into the sport, to me becoming a symbol of health and the ability to escape temporarily from the clutches of linear living. In 2005, my love for bikes took me to work in Croatia as a mountain-bike guide for 4 months on the stunning Island of Korcula. I felt drawn to the local people, trying to be as respectful as possible, and learning about the culture. The experience of living abroad gave me the inspiration to consider further travelling after it came to the end of my season – I didn’t want to go home. The seed was sown and the prospect of so much to discover in the world has brought me to this point.”

The Ride-Earth concept is literally to Ride the earth, leave the roads to the cars and the dinosaurs and hopefully show people that the countryside still exists, that it is the greatest asset we possess as a species, and is more a part of us than we think. We will making our own way, following paths of others who have taken on such similar adventures and pilgrimages before us, while learning and developing ourselves and contributing to an important and worthwhile cause.”

Mark “Euro-Boy” Maultby

Hi everyone and anyone.

My name is Mark Maultby. I’m 23 and I hate rollercoasters. They make me nauseous and dizzy. People often say to me: Mark, you openly protest against the hideousness of themeparks and yet you enjoy adrenalin activites everytime you trials unicycle or ride a singletrack at breakneck speed. I blush. There’s a big difference. I love unicycling and mountain-biking because if you’re being thrown around then at least you’re in control. Well, you should be. It’s a marvellous sensation, and it’s the reason I’m here writing this now.

Secretly though, I wish I had the stomach for rollercoasters; they look great fun. Normally the first few seconds are. But then I spend the rest of the day in a bush being tended to by park staff with disposal buckets. This is shameful. So, in a way I’m doing this trip to prove to myself and to anyone else who cares that I can stomach much braver things than 2 minute Nemesis runs. This will take real grit. All Nemesis requires is that you get on and sit there. Yeah, I sound bitter, don’t I?

I respect Tom and Andy more than they know for the trip they’re about to undertake. It’s as ballsey as a grizzley bear, and I almost wish that I was leaving in June to cycle-navigate the world with them. But I’m not. I have responsibilties to attend to. Boo-hoo. BUT! I shall be riding some of it. I shall be with them from the Midlands (God help me) to the straits of Gibraltar in, well, Gibraltar. This route will take me through Holland, Belgium, briefly into Switzerland, and then across France to Spain. It all sounds so easy here on paper doesn’t it? And after that I plan to do another leg of the route at a later date. Whenever it is they get there (2009/10), I shall be flying out to South America to ride a potentially much larger and more ambitious section. Tom and Andy will both actually resemble Strider by then. I look forward to a feast from the very bosom of Argentina.

So that’s me. I like wheeled things and being outdoor and off-road on them. I will be riding a long, long way; even if it looks scrawny alongside the towering odyssey that is Tom & Andy’s trip. I hope that Ride Earth encourages people to get out there on bikes, and to look to them for the excitement they want from rollercoasters, and as a much greener, more economical mode of transport. Let’s face it: the world can’t take much more C02! I hope that the charities we’re donating to, including my private ongoing support to EDGE charity, are given the exposure they deserve, along with our donations.

I’d like to wish Tom and Andy the best of luck. They’ve a long way to go, and it ain’t anyone else getting them there! To be honest, at this point, I can’t wait to be out there, carrying all the belongings I need on my two-wheeled steed, chaising them on the crest of their dreams, and looking forward to the next monster descent. May we ride…

Thanks for being interested enough to read this far.

Over and out.

Mark – the eel – Maultby

P.S. we’ll be blogging from the road, so stay tuned…