Features
The ride of his life
By
Muriel Reddy : 01-May-2009
Chris Roach has set out from his home north of Sydney to ride around the world for charity. It's a challenge that may take him eight years.
Three days before he set off on his epic 78,000km ride around the world, Chris Roach was feeling sad. He was also nervous and excited about the ride that would take him across six continents, six deserts and seven mountain ranges over the next eight years.
"I am starting to realise just how much I'm leaving behind," he explained, referring to his family and friends. "But I suppose that's the price I have to pay to undertake something like this."
In the months leading up to the ride, Roach was on a steep learning curve - finding sponsors, marketing himself, plotting a loose course, researching seemingly minute details to do with his custom-built bike, and steeling himself for the formidable challenges that lay ahead.
The 27-year-old expects to learn a lot more about himself over the months and years as he battles distance, loneliness, the weather and homesickness. "You have to be in a good frame of mind to undertake a trip like this," he said. "It will be lonely but I like my own company. And I will meet a lot of new people along the way."
The bike will be his constant companion, and having cycled 8000 kilometres from Norway to Turkey four years ago, Roach fully understood how pivotal it was to the success of his journey. "I spent about three months researching what kind of hub and rims I would need," he explained. "It's a heavy bike with a steel frame and it has a lot of downhill components because of the load I will be carrying. I might carry up to 80kg in food and water when I am riding between cities or towns. My tool set is really basic. It's very difficult to anticipate what problems might arise with the bike and many of them will have to be dealt with creatively."
He recalled that on his last big ride, he lacked the tools and the experience to repair a skewered wheel. However, he called into a fire station in Montenegro, where firemen provided him with the tools as well as a bed for the night.
"It's important to deal with situations as they arise," he offered. "You cannot anticipate how you will react to something, emotionally or physically. I think you have to be laid-back and open-minded to the things that happen. You cannot go in with a mindset because things will change."
He certainly hoped the ride would change his level of fitness. It was low on departure but he believed he would build both his endurance and fitness over the course.
He also hoped the ride, dubbed The Cycle Strongman Expedition, would raise funds for Oxfam Australia, the not-for-profit organisation dedicated to fighting global poverty and injustice. Roach is also expecting to lift environmental awareness.