The World Champs Project

For those not familiar with Chris Hall, here is a short introduction. He is a road, long distance, endurance, and adventure rider who as a proud Lazer ambassador previously braved challenges often for a good cause such as, 7 Everests in 7 days, 107 kilometers a day for 107 days in a row, 107tdf which resulted in 3609 kilometers and 38 100 elevation meters in just 3 weeks. Basically, a lot of numbers and facts that prove Chris to be an exceptional human-being with exceptional riding skills. 

Those exceptional riding skills have been put to the test again with the World Champs Project. The challenge? Cycle a route connecting all the previous world championships in the UK. The goal? Celebrate the history of cycling World Championships and give a nod to the first 11-day edition of the UCI Cycling World Championships where 13 existing individual World Championships cycling disciplines have been brought together into one mega event for the first time.  

The Exact route. 

Ending at the most recent World Championship city, Glasgow, Chris passes through four other world championships cities, starting in Goodwood where the world championships were held in 1982, continuing to Leicester (WC of 1970), Liverpool (WC of 1922) and Harrogate (WC of 2019). In total, that is 1 150 kilometers and 10 347 elevation meters in just 8 days. 

That’s a long way to cycle alone. So why do it? Chris encouraged others to join in and ride as a community of cyclists together. 

Now you would ask ‘So, how did it go?   

Chris himself described it in one word as ‘wet’. Whilst tying together the rich cycling history in Britain, he in turn got typical British weather with the only dry day being the last one riding into Glasgow. Ultimately, making this challenge harder than initially expected. 

It wouldn’t be called a ‘challenge’ when it does not include any difficult days. When asked about his hardest day, he pointed out the trip from Liverpool to Leeds due to the number of mechanical issues. Because of the awful weather, lots of debris came over the cycle lane resulting in 6 punctures and a slit in the rear tire about 1.5cm long over the course of the day. 

All the hard moments make the finish, at the World Champs in Glasgow, thus the more incredible. The World Champs Project resulted in a celebration of cycling history and an opportunity to simply ride and explore and be absorbed by cycling.  

We will leave it up to him to tell the whole story. 

We also encourage you to check out his route & donate to Movember or The Pace Centre, a school for kids with cerebral Palsy, here: https://www.chrishallrides.com/stories-page/the-world-champs-project 

_{Photos by: Jack Hague}