Bristol man's round the world cycle attempt

To most people the idea of cycling the gruelling 874 miles between Land's End and John O'Groats would represent a major lifetime achievement.

But for Chris Hole, who tackles the journey later this summer, the iconic route is merely a warm-up for a challenge on an altogether bigger scale.

The 26-year-old, from Westbury- on-Trym, is planning to take on an Olympian challenge in the Olympic year of 2012. He is determined to tackle the Guinness World Record for cycling around the world. Chris is hoping to be able to pedal more than 18,000 miles in 100 days.

"The current world record is around 190 days," he says. "In order to do it in 100 days, I'd need to be approaching 200 miles cycling each day, which is a considerable challenge – the most I've ever cycled is 112 miles in any one day.

"But I'm the kind of person who likes to set a goal and stick to it."

Chris, who works as a personal trainer at the David Lloyd gym in Westbury-on-Trym, first had the idea of tackling the global challenge during his gap year travels five years ago.

"I was walking around a book shop in Heathrow airport, while waiting from my flight out to the Far East, and I saw a book on the shelf all about positive mental attitudes," he says.

"I thought it looked interesting, so I bought it, and I was immediately hooked on the idea that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.

"I've now read scores of books on the subject, and I've picked up a tremendous amount of information about ways of harnessing mind over matter techniques.

"I see the round-the-world cycle as an opportunity to put some of these techniques in to practice.

"After all, I'm going to be spending up to 20 hours each day cycling – just pedalling around and around, and watching the road running up towards my front wheel.

"You need to have your head together to be able to cope with 100 days of that kind of repetition.

"To me, that's as important as the physical training."

Chris' job at the gym allows him to spend many hours each day building up his stamina on the exercise bikes, and he has enlisted the help of his very own personal trainer – Andy Bullock, who is a coach at the Bristol and District Triathlon Club.

"The Land's End to John O'Groats trip will be my first big warm up session. It should take around six or seven days," he says.

"It will be my first real chance to get to grips with covering more than a hundred miles each day over a week."

The former Chew Valley School pupil is taking on the challenge with the support of his parents, Jeremy and Jackie.

"My dad has always been a keen cyclist, and my mum is really into 'mind over matter' philosophies," Chris says.

"So by taking an influence from both of them, it should give me all the right attributes to be the kind of person who can take on a journey like this."

Chris is currently working on a route that will take him across Europe, through Bulgaria and Romania to Istanbul. If he can find a peaceful route, he will then cross the Middle East to Calcutta.

After crossing India, he will make his way down through Bangkok and Singapore, before taking on the challenge of crossing Australia and cycling the length of New Zealand.

It is a quick hop to San Francisco, before crossing America to New Orleans, then continuing on up the east coast to New York.

He will them take one more flight to Lisbon, in order to make his way up the Iberian peninsula and through France before getting on the Eurostar and heading home.

Chris now needs to find sponsorship to pay for the epic journey around the globe.

"It will cost quite a few thousand pounds, because I'm hoping to be able to get a support car coming round with me, which will be able to carry my tent and my food.

"For that I will need to find some sort of sponsorship, but it should be an attractive project for companies to get involved with because of the potential publicity that could result in breaking the world record.

"I'm also hoping to find a production company that might be interested in filming my adventure for a TV programme," he adds.

"My ultimate ambition is to complete the journey, and be able to come back and give talks and seminars on how I was able to use positive thinking during the journey, because I really do believe that if you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything."