Kurt Searvogel set out from his home in Florida on January 10th last year with an aim to break the record for the most amount of miles ridden in one year. And with just days to go before he finishes, he has already surpassed the 76-year old previous record
A 52 year-old American will ride into the record books on Sunday when he completes the most amount of miles on a push-bike in 12 months.
Florida-born Kurt Searvogel broke Tommy Godwin’s 76-year old record of 120,805 kilometres last Monday to reach 121,135 kilometres, having started his attempt on January 10 last year.
And the software engineer is currently in the process of trying to make his record as unbreakable as possible.
It’s an amazing story and even more so because Searvogel, also known as ‘Tarzan’, did it with a crew of one – his girlfriend Alicia Snyder.
Advertisement
He was also self-funded, and he’s survived on a diet that consisted of McDonalds take-aways, doughnuts and fizzy drinks.
Searvogel set out on a 300K sportive from near his home in Tampa, Florida 12 months ago and since then he has ridden over 320 kilometres a day.
Related News
If that wasn’t hard enough he’s had to deal with two collisions with cars, intestinal illness that required an overnight in hospital – though he rode the next day - as well as some difficulty breathing on occasion.
The latter, turned out to be undiagnosed asthma he either had prior to his adventure or developed.
When not riding – though he was on the bike an average of 12 hours a day, he was replacing the 8,000 calories he burnt daily, sleeping (about six hours a night), fixing his bike, uploading his rides to Strava, or plotting the next day with Snyder, who drives their Dodge Pleasure Way RV that serves as mobile aid station and occasional home.
The distance, to put it into perspective, is the same as riding around the world three times but he’s not the only one doing it.
The Highest Annual Mileage Record committee (yes, there’s such a thing) is tracking at least two others attempting to break Searvogel’s record.
Steven Abraham, 41, of England had been going well but he fell victim to a crash caused by a moped driver in March. He has started another bid for the record in August.
You can follow Searvogel on Strava here.
Topics
