Ride Earth

We 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.”