British cycling hero Leigh Timmis survived the chaos of Hurricane Nicole to set yet another Guinness World Record. Timmis was attempting to break the record of the greatest distance ever cycled in the space of seven days.
To complete the task Timmis opted to head across to the United States, and Florida in particular. The choice to select Florida as the location for his venture was an easy one for Timmis, due to its flat roads and usually reliable climate.
Discussing the thinking behind his decision he said per Cycling Weekly : "There's this perfect kind of cocktail. You're looking for zero elevation on the road, which this road's got, a great surface, no junctions, so there's nothing to slow down that average speed.
"And then, of course, a reliable climate, which we hadn't been able to find in the UK or anywhere else." This 'reliable climate' however could not have been further from the truth, as Timmis' attempt landed in the middle of the chaotic Hurricane Nicole.
Going into detail about his hard-fought week on the road, the Brit admitted he thought his team were 'joking' when he was informed about the hurricane. He went on: "On the first break of day two the team said, we need you to sit down, we've got some news for you. They said, there's a hurricane coming. I thought it was a joke."
"At that point everything changed. We went from having this very controlled project that had been put together so scientifically to OK, now it's not about doing that. Now it's about just breaking the record."
Detailing exactly what it was like riding through the adverse conditions, Timmis went on: "You'd get these patches of rain that were intense. The rain's coming down at you, it's coming up off the road, all the grit's getting thrown up off the back wheel, you're getting incredibly uncomfortable.
"And then you've cycled through that, and out the other side it'd be 37 degrees and you'd start to burn." Remarkably though, despite the hurricane the cyclist fought on and managed to break the record after riding 2,230 miles, 19 more than previous record holder Arvis Sprude in Latvia.
Taking to Instagram to announce his achievement, he wrote: "In the early hours of Sunday 13th November, the team and I broke the seven-day cycling world record. With a total of 2230 miles, we added 19 miles to the existing record set by Arvis Sprude in July this year.
"What makes this record so impressive is that for three days of the record attempt every mile was affected by Hurricane Nicole... It was a gargantuan effort by all involved and I owe a huge thank you to the road team: @_sallycarter_, @ukbikefit, @christianaucote, @jbhague - four amazing, professional, passionate, and enthusiastic people."
