Travis makes Saint Piran proud with 240 indoor miles for the NHS
Saint Piran Development Team rider, Travis Bramley, rode an amazing 240 miles on a turbo trainer yesterday - all in the cause of NHS Charities Together. Completing the ride - which was twice as far has his previous longest effort - in under ten and a half hours is an astonishing achievement. Everyone at Saint Piran is very proud of him.
Read the full story of his effort below and find out how to donate to this worthy cause at the bottom of the page.
Round the World with Travis
“This morning I’m bursting with pride to be one of 80 riders cumulatively riding around the world for the NHS yesterday. The idea was born out of Mark Beaumont’s Around the World in 80 Days Challenge, which he completed in 2017, breaking the world record for circumnavigation of the world by bicycle in the process.
The idea of this challenge was for Mark and 79 other riders to each complete 240 miles on a turbo trainer, amassing sufficient miles to ride around the world in a single day. The opportunity arose for me to be a part of this thanks to Just Pedal UK, a cycling tour operator whom I worked for in Autumn last year, cycling from London to Paris and Monaco as a ride leader. Myself and three colleagues were among the 80 riders, whose aim was to raise £50,000 for the NHS Charities Together - a fantastic cause. Alongside this, riders, runners and rowers were all encouraged to ‘donate their miles’, in support of the challenge and the core peloton. I’d like to say a huge congratulations to everyone who took part, either as part of the 80, or completed support miles!
Before this event my longest ride was just shy of 120 miles, so 240 miles was completely unknown territory. Starting at 4am, the peloton’s aim was to be mostly finished by 8pm in time to clap for our carers. After the first few hours however, I was feeling optimistic and decided I wanted to complete the challenge in one fell swoop.
Two rapid toilet stops & a quick change of bib shorts six hours into the ride were my only respite from the saddle. I’m not going to lie, the last three or four hours really hurt, epitomised by the fact I ate an entire bag of jelly babies in the last hour without realising!
I was riding with the ride leader, Graeme Stewart, and after an easy first 5/6 hours, we ramped it up to around three watts per kilo of bodyweight. Having been sensible and taken a proper break at five hours, Graeme was around 15 miles behind me and therefore that little bit fresher, so not getting dropped was a constant battle in the closing hours. It was fantastic to see so many people getting involved, from Olympic medallist Vicky Holland, riding in support of fellow triathlete, Blair Cartmell, to Thomas Ivor who at just eleven years old competed the whole 240 miles late last night.
I rolled over the virtual finish line in 10 hours, 27 minutes, with an average power of 214W. We rode the ‘Sand & Sequioas’ route on Zwift, which isn’t the flattest route, resulting in 3324m of climbing in total. People have been asking me what hurt most, to which I have to say my feet and hip flexors. My feet were a manageable kind of pain, the kind you’d expect after hours of pressing on the pedals. But my hip flexors in the last hour were excruciating, as they began to cramp up each time I rose out of the saddle, and jeopardised completion of the challenge (apologies to my family for all the shouting - haha).
I had countless messages of support on my Instagram, @travis_bramley, a personal record number of ‘ride on’s’ on Zwift and even more messages after the challenge had finished. It was absolutely fantastic to have so much support and it’s clear to see the ride was in aid of a cause that we can all get behind and will ultimately affect every one of us.
My family were the best support crew I could’ve asked for on the day, with my sister Aegean getting up at 4am to see me off the line! Pancakes were made, bottles were refilled, morale was kept high throughout - my Dad even did a two and a half hour stint on the turbo next to me!”
If you are able to donate & wish to, please head over to https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/WorldinaDay
