Why I Took On This 100 Kilometre Ride... On a Handbike

I'm about to go on the biggest ride of my life here at Grinduro Scotland. In fact, that's twice as far as I've ever ridden in my entire life. So good. Oh my God, this is so steep. We'll never make that. Yes, I'm not going to lie. This is going to be a really big test, but I'm not doing it alone. Yes, riding epics like this is in my DNA and Martin, don't worry because I am here to help you make it through this challenging event. You guys will have seen me taking on massive challenges, 24-hour races, helped Blake through the Swiss epic, but now's my chance to help Martin and it's going to be tough. He's doing 100 kilometers. Martin, you've been pro for over 30 years and you've never been flipping mountain bike. You never really done any distance. No, distance has just never been my thing, dude. Trial riders, we actually don't ride very far. Grinduro is an enduro race, which is a format I'm very familiar with, but on gravel bikes and over a humongous loop. There are two loops, a 50 and 100K, and within that are four stages. The stages are timed, much like a normal enduro race. You've got a start point and a finish point. There's lots of different types of stages, a crazy uphill stage, a slightly more downhill one, one which is really single tracky, and then those times are added up all together. Dude, I think it goes that way. I think you're pointing the wrong way. This is going to go bad. No, we're off. This is it then, Mark. This is beautiful. Yes, my arm's gone. No. This is it, Martin. We head off into the abyss of the day. Oh, the old arm's gone. That's it. Let's turn around. Dude, we tried. No one can say we didn't try. We've been dropped already. We're at the back. We literally lost. My riding career started back in the early 90s in mountain biking, but I'd been a motorcycle trials rider for quite a while before then, about a decade. Then I progressed into mountain bike trials, which is a very niche side of the sport. Then that progressed into being a show rider where I do stunt shows effectively. That's where I really got on well in terms of a career path, magazine shoots, videos. Then as the world of YouTube dawned, I blossomed into a man who makes silly videos on the internet. I guess I'm still doing that. Oh, we're going graveling already. Are we? We're onto the gravel already. That's sick. Oh, my God. It's bumpy. Yes. Said the mountain bike. Endurance. Well, back in the day, riding a trials competition, yes, there is endurance in that in the sense that you're doing lots of very short sprint type efforts, anaerobic efforts over a long period, like five hours, and you keep doing that. There is a type of endurance, but if you're referring to mountain biking endurance, no, not my wheelhouse. This must be gravel then. This is gravel now. It's really bumpy. Very bumpy. I am on the bumpy bit to be fair. When we get to our first stage, I totally forgot we've got stages. Yes, it's not just a big ride. There's four sections to race within this. Oh, my Lord. We're coming to our first stage, Rich. Did we get to have a big old rest? Clearly, that's not right. Oh, sick. My accident took place in one of those stunt shows I was talking about. Yes, just made a really quite normal mistake, but that had quite a high consequence. Landed, folded myself in two, snapped my back, paralyzed from the waist down. You can simply understand it as in no feeling, sensation, movement of any kind below that point. Yes, that obviously had a big impact on how I live my life, but it's also led me to do some things that I could never have imagined and be challenged in a way I haven't ever imagined. I've been doing that ever since. Stage one, the race begins. Rich, you're in trouble now. You fly downhill, I know that. Are they all downhill this time? No. Oh, f**k. Good luck, Mark. See you in a moment. See you in a moment, buddy. Well, this is it then. Stage one of Grinjuro. It's a lot of uphill. This isn't a downhill stage at all. Hey, hey, hey, come on. Rich is catching me up. Mark is running out of energy. That's a big hill to go up. I was catching him. How long is this stage? Jesus. This climb at the end is killer. I did not see this coming. Oh, wow. This is longer than I thought. Thank you. We're done. That's the end of the stage. What are you doing? Oh, that was tough, wasn't it? There was a little climb in the middle I just wasn't ready for. Yes, a little punch. Oh, yes. That's a warm-up. Nice one, bud. It's really good fun, though. Yes, right. It's fun being on the clock a little bit. Yes, because it pushes you on a bit. Otherwise, you're a bit like do-do-do-do-do. Rises it up a bit. Yes, my competitive side suddenly kicked in. You went flying past. I was like, oh, man. There was a little downhill just after you passed me. I thought, oh, my God, I'm going to be able to pass him back. Then there was a- A long drag. A long drag. I was like, oh, he's gone. I think it's time we checked out the I have gone for an out-and-out gravel thoroughbred of a bike, the Propain Terrell CF. This is the Bowhead RX. I've got it kitted out with 24 wheels up front. I've got a 27.5 Mazda on the back. This thing is an absolute weapon. For a start, it's got room for up to a 50-mil tire, two bottle cages as standard, and one of the crowning pieces in it, if you like, is the in-frame storage, which I shall be making the most of with snacks and a few tools and things like that. It's got incredible braking. Of course, I'm powering it with my arms, but I've got assistance. It's essentially a Bosch e-bike. It gives me a chance on some of these huge climbs and distance to get this ride done. When it comes to gearing, I've gone for a 1x12 setup to keep things simple. It's a mixture of SRAM's GX and Apex groupset. It's a GX rear mech with Apex cranks and brake calipers and shifters up the top there. 10x50 out back, 40-tooth chain ring. I think that should do the job. I'm quite confident in that kind of setup that I'll be able to get up or down anything that's necessary. It looks a little bit strange compared to the normal bike, but there's lots of familiar things like the braking, the gear system, there's a derailleur at the back, there's just two chains in between getting the power to that back wheel. Wheel and tire combo is essential. I've gone for a Reynolds G700 Black Label wheel set, Vittoria Airliner inserts, and I've got Vittoria Tirano T70 tires, 700x45C. This, like I said, can take up to a 50. These are pretty knobbly. I don't know a huge amount about gravel tires, but these ones look like they're going to be absolutely bang on. With inserts as well, I'm still going to ride it pretty hard. 35 PSI out back, 32 PSI up front. It's quite simply the best hand bike in the world. I'm not just saying that. Other finishing kit when it comes to the bike. Well, let's start at the front. Garmin Edge 1050 computer, big old screen on it, nice clear direction so we can see where we're going with plenty of time in advance. An Ergon SM men's team saddle with the carbon rails in a wide. I use that on a lot of my epic rides and cross-country bikes. It's a comfy saddle so I always use that one. Garmin's XC rally pedals down below, power meter pedals synced up to the head unit so I can keep an eye on the output that we're doing and my output and make sure Martin don't go too hard at the beginning. One more thing, the Bowhead RX has got articulation. When I'm in them loose gravelly corners, I've got double front wheel for more grip and more speed. Oh, lunch break. Go on then. What have you got there? Because my bag is actually a bit too heavy. I literally brought a lunchbox. At no point. Feel the weight of the lunchbox. Yes, that's why it keeps falling. At no point on an epic ride have I ever taken a lunchbox with me. A ride like this needs a really great nutrition plan and I have got that covered because I'm eight weeks into a keto diet. It's recommended to consume between 60 to 90 grams of carbs per hour and about 500 mil of liquid with electrolytes in. Keto diet is essentially high fat, moderate protein, and no carbs. Carbs, yuck. I should be doing this via bars. Pork scratchings. Gels. Got some Serrano ham. And fruit. Some cheese. 12 boiled eggs. Rich is going to be so pleased with me. Now, would you like a bit of cheese first to try or are you going to go with an egg? No, I don't want to deprive you though. I should stop eating this cheese. I was going to make it last. Martin is doing exactly what I thought might happen and has bombed it off. He's essentially got too excited because of the first stage and is now zooming around the woods somewhere ahead of me. This could turn out to be quite fatal in the long run. We'll try and reel him in and calm him back down. A little update time. We had a realization we're getting a bit carried away. Martin's battery is lower than we thought. We're at 30% battery on Martin's bike, but we're not quite- Well, we're past the halfway point to where the other batteries are, but it's going to be very touch and go, isn't it? We've got about 15K to do on 30% battery. With a stage in there and quite a lot of climbing. I've toned it down though. I'm right down in eco-y mode. Yes. Battery kind of- What's the word? Battery management. Battery management moment. It's crucial right now. Rich don't want to be pushing Martin as well. Or towing. I'm getting some fuel in. Some- Yes. Fuel. Fuelly-fuelly. I think we've finished talking. Oh, God, we have a water feature. Oh, my gosh. Oh, this is interesting. Oh, my God, Martin. Oh, Mark. Oh, gravel bike. Oh, my God. Oh, it's going to be tricky. Oh, yes. Champion. Oh, no. Oh, I'm in the ditch. I'm in the ditch. I'm in the ditch. Hang on. Backup's arrived. One, two, three. Scotland is illegally beautiful. Unreal, isn't it? Oh, no. What's up? This climb. Are you dying? This climb is going to kill me. I'm in very low single digits on eco now. Are you? Yes. Oh, man. Was that bad? It's starting to hurt a bit now. Is it? Yes. Do you want to know where we're at? Nowhere near. 16% left. 32K, but it's 40 odd. You've got 8K to get out of that. It says you've got range for five. Five. I've got eight to do. Eight to do. Roughly, that's what they said. It's about 40, yes. Oh, dude, I don't know if I've got this one in me. Look at the range, though. I mean, I'm gaining battery. Well, not battery, but range. You're not generating power. I'm saving some power for the stage. There's got to be a stage before the food stop, and I still want to win this thing. Oh, bridge. Oh, step. Oh, narrow. Okey-dokey, then. It's getting a little bit worrying now. I'm going to hand you over to Martin for a little update. We've got, what do you reckon? We're not really sure where the food's at. Anything from two to four kilometers. Yes, but we've got, that's where we are on tour, and this bit of land needs a bit of tour, but 8% battery, three kilometers range, and I'm not in the best state at this point. I need them batteries, man. I do, so bad. That's it. Yes? Yes. Oh, my God. Yes, so a bit of a drama because Martin's had to turn his bike down at such a low mode. The steeper hills that we're getting to, almost impossible. A bit of a push required. Now I've got to go back down and get my bike. Oh, I tell you what, we're struggling on battery. I'm tired. I'm much tireder than I should be with how much we've still got left because we're not halfway yet, but this battery issue has really sapped my energy, but it is amazing out here. Oh, my God. Look where I've been. I'm just stunned by these bikes sometimes because in my situation, this is not trivial. It's really incredible. I'm very grateful, but I'm tired. We're nearly there. I think we've got it. We're down to one range, Rich. One kilometer, Mark. On eco. We're at 40K on the docking list. Hey, you know what? Go on. That's the furthest I've ever ridden. Yes, it is, isn't it? Yes, and that's literally the furthest off-road you've ever been. I've never. Unassisted, no lifts, there was a bit of assist from you on that last hill. Happy the hell by you. Under your own steam, crushed it, but I'm a bit scared now. We might have reached our limit if we don't come across something soon. Hey, I just felt it's got to rain. Yes, me too. I didn't say that. Oh, my God. Imagine it. Sorry, where are we right now? We are at this crossroad here. 14, yes. And we need to get to 19. 19. Well, we're never going to make that. That's it. No. We'll never make that. The battery's gone. Done. One kilometer on it, but that's on eco, so there's no battery on anything else. We don't know where the batteries are, unfortunately, and we're in big trouble, actually, and the rain's coming. Why am I even doing this race? My heroes on handbikes are people like Christian Bagg. He developed the Bowhead RX and Guga Ortiz. Their pinnacle of riding is doing the Leadville 100 in Colorado. It's called the race at the top of the world. It's at massive altitude, 100 miles. Christian was the first person to ever do it on a handbike and did an incredible time. When you admire people like that, you're like, oh, I wish I could do that. I guess I entered Grinduro going, wow, can I even ride a distance of any kind? This was the first thing I saw that I could get like, right, if I could get close to 50 miles, then I'm on my way at least. I don't know, could I do Leadville? It's such a spectacular event. Christian made it look amazing, and it's just in such an incredible location. Maybe that's the next target. I've spoken to Calum. It is as good as confirmed. He's waiting for actual confirmation, but it does sound like your batteries are down the hill at 90. Come on. Good luck, guys. I've still got to push you, Friend Ark. Yes, but we've got hope, Rick. The weather is pretty horrific now. We thought we had until about four in the afternoon before it was going to change, but well, it's way before that. Luckily, we're packed for it, but we don't have power right now as usual. Oh, zero range. No. Zero range. I've never seen that in my life. Oh, this hill turned up at the moment. Oh, Christ. Push. I'm pushing really fast. If you can see me through the smeary lens, I apologize. We've been trucking on now for another three or so K. We still haven't got to the feed station, and the rain is just horrific. We've made the executive decision, haven't we, that when we get to the feed station, it'll just be the best way back rather than the route back, I think, unfortunately. Martin's arms, they're hurting, right, buddy? Arms are hurting. We've got no battery anymore. Zero. It's just me at this point, but I think with this last bit, someone said it was a kilometer, and it definitely has been longer than a kilometer. I mean, look how slow it goes once the battery really drops off. Right, I got to get back pushing. I'll see you in a moment. Yes, it really is. Hey, is this the feed station? It is. Oh, music to our ears. Oh, man, I'm done. It's not simple, is it? I'm so done. Oh, yes. When did it go flat? Forever ago. 10K ago. Was it? Oh, my God. Oh, it's been so hard. Hey, look, it's not a one on the battery. It's an exclamation mark. Is that what it says now? So we made it. Look at that. There's no battery. We even got an exclamation mark on the power. Yes, thank God. Thank you to Neil Russell from Adaptive Riders Collective for sorting out them batteries for me. I also would be in trouble. Rick is going to try and get the batteries off, swap them over, and then we should be on our way. Yes, I think so. Although I can hardly hold my arms up where they are at this moment. Is that a bad sign? Right, look at that. Can you see that? 100%. Battery's in. Let's go. Back again? We're back in the hunt. You're obviously very quick to go a bit slower. I've got turbo. Oh, so good. So good. We've just got to the next stage. We're right there. We're right down in the mountains now. We've got some big climbs to do to get out, but check this out. We've just got to the coffee stop. That's weird. But it's just the one climb. Hey, cheers, Mark. Cheers, man. That's fantastic. Drink it in. Amazing. Okay, this is serious. We've decided to carry on with the big route, and we've just gone up a climb in a minute that they said is horrendous. But that just made us want to do it. That made us want to do it more, sorry. But we are about to take on the next stage, and this is where it gets pretty brutal for Richard. Steepy McSteepface. It's also stage three. We have missed a stage, annoyingly. Yes. Can you see this? Do you know what that is? What? Game face. If they're down, you're in trouble. My legs do get tired, and I've been pushing you just to throw some things out there. Yes, do. We can go at the same time. Let's go. Come on. I'm running out of energy. Are you actually? Yes. Yes, I've gone out too hard, Rich. Okay. Do you realize we haven't started climbing yet? Oh, but that's where I'm strong. I can't go as fast as him. The climb. Oh, this is going to be hard. I may have underestimated this. It stopped too. Oh, thank God. That was hard. That climb was my limit. It was so steep, so slippery, and I knew if I stopped, I wouldn't get going again without having people help me. To be honest, everybody going up that hill didn't look like they wanted to help me. They just wanted to get to the top. It was so steep. Most of them were walking, bar Rich. It just became a real battle to get to the top, but I'm so glad we chose to do it because it was a real high point of the race, actually, that whole stage. It was really spectacular, and it was so brutal. Once you got to the top, you'd climbed so high that you had an incredible downhill to come, which made it all worthwhile, and I could really let the old bowhead go then. It felt pretty amazing. The sign back there just said high-speed descent. I think I'm going to let Martin lead out on this one. From what you can see behind me over there in the clouds, that's where we've come from. It's where we raced up to, and we've belted back down. Those downhills were insanely fast. Afterwards, I checked my Garmin. I was running the big 1050, and I looked, and it said my max speed was 56 or so kilometers an hour. Martin was pulling away, so he must have been in 60-plus for sure. He was an absolute missile down there. We have had a time. It is. Since we last saw you, it has been nice. Oh, my God. Hey, Martin, this is the Grangero. So good. We're having an amazing time. We got through the battery nightmare. Frustrating. We got the batteries in. Glorious. Then we come down to this amazing gorge. We're about to start a stage. There's a coffee shop. That was nice. It was slightly a tainted brew in the way that it was there at the base of what was stage three, Steepy McSteeperson or something. That was tough. That was serious. You went well. I nearly didn't get up there. Rich, wow, went unbelievably fast. Everybody was walking. Obviously, I wasn't. I couldn't stop. I knew if I stopped, I wouldn't get going again. I just knew it. I was like, I must keep going. I was just talking to myself saying, don't stop, Martin. Don't stop. Don't stop. I got to the top. I was so chuffed. Some stats for you to keep you updated. We are just shy of 60 kilometers, which is insane, bud. We've climbed 927 meters, three hours, 44 moving average speed. Remember I said, well, 13 would be good. 16, we're done. That's not bad. With what happens, that's not bad. We're absolutely motoring on. We're doing really well. Not to put a downer on things, 50% battery left on Martin's bike. I haven't got any more batteries. 20 or so kilometers potentially left to get back and 18-kilometer range. This is the fourth stage we're at now. Don't know what to expect. It looks great. This one doesn't look so bowhead-friendly. It doesn't look so gravel-like friendly. What is the bowhead really good at and what is it really bad at? The bowhead goes mad fast on an open downhill track. If you imagine old 90s downhill racing at Mammoth Mountain, it does that exceptionally well. Scarily. Yes, maybe too well. It doesn't climb fast, but it will climb incredible stuff and it did earlier on. When it gets really narrow, it can get a bit tricky because you've just got to be so on point and the tires are so wide, they can catch things, which I've done a couple of times. You have. You did have a topple. Yes, a little topple. Shall we race before you're eaten alive? Yes, let's race. Martin's going to struggle on here because the bowhead is so wide, he doesn't sit in a rut. I'm racing right now. Knee went down. Or the other. I'm in hell right now. Well, these lovely ladies have told us it's only another 12K to the finish. Well, my range says eight. No, it's two miles. It's two miles. Oh, that destroyed me physically and mentally. I gave up on life along there. Shall we finish? Come on, let's go. Which way is it? Oh, down. Thank God. This is it then, Mark. The finish. This is it. Hey, done it, man. Hey, Mark. Oh, mate. Well done, buddy. Thank you. Very proud of you. Thanks for helping. Did really good. Really good though. I'm tired. Do you want to know how far you went? Go on, tell me. 73.85 kilometers. New record. Yes, yes, yes. Average speed 16.7. Exactly 1,000 meters of climbing. Four and a half hours moving. That's mad. Eight hours on course. I can tell you that. Hang on. Seven hours, 20 minutes elapsed time. Good answer. That was one of the best days riding I've had. It was so good. The weather was wild. Five words to describe it, Mark. Very funny, but at times a hardship. That was too many. That wasn't very exciting, was it? Five words to describe it. A very funny ass kicking. That's about right. My buddy just absolutely crushed it. Well, that's a shame because that's our job. That's literally what we do. It felt awesome. I honestly had such a fun time the entire time that I'm amazed because it was quite a long time on the bike in the end, but it just didn't feel like that at all. It felt way shorter than it was because we giggled almost all the way around like idiots, which if you spend any time with us, and Lou will vouch for this, we are.