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April 24, 2007
£10K TARGET, PLANET-SAVING TRAVEL FOR ROUND-THE-WORLD BIKING DUO.
It's a big planet, but when Tom Allen and Andrew Welch set out from their Northamptonshire homes on June 18 to mountain bike round it, they'll be doing their little bit to turn round environmental damage.
Their project is called Ride Earth – their plan is to cycle through areas that are untouched by tourists, but whose population battles to make ends meet because of the demands of the First World.
The duo will use solar power to record their adventure, and will buy their food and supplies from villages and markets thereby ensuring that money stays in the local economy. Cycling is massively efficient, and equates to the equivalent of around 3,000 miles per gallon.
But bicycles are another crucial theme for their journey – Tom and Andrew have teamed up with mountain biking legend Hans Rey's charity "Wheels4Life", an organisation that provides people in Third World countries with bikes to enable them to get to work.
Tom and Andrew are ambassadors for Wheels4Life and will be identifying individuals who might best benefit from being provided with a bike.
ExtremeGB.com, the UK's leading online retailer of outdoor and extreme sports goods, is sponsoring the trip – and putting its products where its mouth is – with a global test of endurance.
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The Daventry-based business is kitting out mountain bilkers Tom and Andrew for a 36,000 mile off-road circumnavigation of the earth
Edward Giles, Managing Director of ExtremeGB.com, said: "These two guys are setting out on an amazing challenge: they have clearly spent years planning, preparing and psyching themselves for the ultimate cycling trip. It is a daunting journey of great duration and distance."
Tom and Andrew's objective is to use the trip – Ride Earth – to highlight and educate as to how people can live a meaningful and sustainable life with a minimal ecological footprint through their passion for mountain biking and adventure.
They'll use the trip as a charity fund raiser to generate cash for a number of charities whose goal is to highlight sustainability and environment issues.
The lads will cover around 50 countries, taking them through Europe, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, Eastern Asia, Australasia, South America, the USA and Canada.
"We've so far established off-road routes through Europe and North America, for the rest of the journey we will be taking to established agricultural and trade routes," said Tom.
ExtremeGB.com has kitted out the pair with a range of tough outdoor gear, including Suunto X9i, Deuter Backpacks, Vaude Ultra-light tents, LifeVenture Travel equipment and a JetBoil Camping Stove.
"The usual outdoor gear just doesn't cut it with some people – especially if they're adventurers and outdoor types who know the difference between something that looks good – and something that actually does the job. Our products have a real ‘wow' factor for outdoorsy types – they are the best and most fit-for-purpose products in their sector," said Edward Giles.
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"We try, assess and test as much of our equipment as we can, but there's nothing quite like a trip of this magnitude to test limits and, in some cases, work with the manufacturers to improve the breed even further."
ExtremeGB is part of the GB Group, an established online retailer providing marine equipment (www.sailgb.com), outdoor equipment (www.outdoorgb.com) and sports watches (www.watchesgb.com)
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Further information:
Iain Macauley
0161 929 0446 / 07788 978800
im@pressrelations.co.uk
www.extremegb.com
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