Now is an exciting time in the world of adventure cycling

Mark Beaumont begins his second epic cycling adventure tomorrow and within a matter of weeks, there will be not one, but two challengers cycling the globe hoping to snatch the world record from his grasp. One of the contenders, James Bowthorpe, is already 5,000 miles into his journey and is making his way through Thailand as I write this. The second contender, Julian Sayarer, starts his adventure on Friday, June 5th. Each rider has their own crystal-clear agenda. For James, this is to raise awareness and £1.8 million for a Parkinson’s Disease research charity. Julian, on the other hand, has grander intentions. His website carries a simple, yet strong message: this is not for charity. Faced with a world where corporate greed and misguided politics are the mainstay, and the sense of community, which once drove this fine nation, is in rapid decline (no thanks to the greedy corporations and floundering politicians), Julian wants to remind us all what society is really all about: the simple things in life. Such as the bicycle. A truly momentous invention for all mankind. For me, one of the interesting aspects of these adventurers is the way in which they are adopting social media to further their message. Both James and Julian have blogs, use Twitter, and either are using, or intend to use, flickr and YouTube to share photos and videos with their supporters. As a fervent users of these social networks themselves, I can certainly see the attraction in using such a simple medium to reach out to hundreds of people when everything around you – the sights, the sounds, the people, the language – is alien. More importantly, social media allows these guys get to control their own message without it being muddy by the traditional media institutions. This I like a lot. Mark Beaumont, meanwhile, is about to head to Anchorage, Alaska to start a journey covering some 15,000 miles. He plans to cycle from Alaska to Argentina, and climb the two highest peaks on the continent: McKinley and Aconcagua. Like his previous adventure, his endeavour will be filmed for a BBC documentary, The Man Who Cycled The Americas. If you can’t wait, you can follow1 him2 online3 just about everywhere.

External sites: 1 BBC; 2 Twitter; 3 flickr