Cyclists complete monster 2.6 million metre challenge

It is time for an update on the Honister 92 cyclists who have now completed their 2.6 million metre climb!

A small group was able to assemble at Cockermouth to do the final ride which was set to take us over the finish line. Although the group was a small one, it did at least contain Andrew Blair who had set the pace of the challenge, and had completed 187,000 metres and in a single week rode 16,251m in 625 miles, the best individual weeks performance. Two others who had completed over 100,000 metres were also able to join the group.

Here are some of the points from our statistician’s analysis.

• The 2.6 Million Metre target was completed after 115 days, equivalent to 71% of the time we allowed ourselves and 47 days early.
• Our total elevation gain (to the end of the week the target was reached) was 2,638,775m [=8,657,399 ft]. This was the total on Sunday evening following the Tuesday when the challenge was completed.
• Although this was a climbing challenge based on metres of elevation achieved, as a consequence we collectively rode over 100,000 miles. This is over 4x the circumference of the Earth and 16 times the distance of the 3 grand tours (Giro, TdF, and Vuelta).
• In total, 71 individuals contributed to reaching the target with 25 contributing something every single week. The average climbed over the challenge by each contributor was 37,170m (well over 4 Everest’s each)
• The pie chart shows individual contributions to the total and whilst we can see the top 6 contributed almost a third of the total between them, completing the challenge wouldn’t have been possible without each of those segments being brought together.
• From the weekly progress chart below, it was clear to see that as the challenge progressed, fatigue, work, family commitments and the weather caused motivation faltered slightly (as could be expected on a challenge requiring this much resilience) but we had done such a good job in the early weeks, we were still able to get over the line in good time.

What an amazing effort! Well done to all involved and very many thanks.