Author Topic: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It  (Read 2337 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« on: February 09, 2021, 03:38:59 PM »

Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It is a video diary styled documentary[1] following the journey of four Achkaerinese women as they attempt to cycle on land and sea from the south pole in Hygelac to the north pole in Hrothgaer. The team consists of Sammy Lawson, the renowned cyclist who has more Mundus Games medals to her name than any other athlete, Melanie Parker a team mate of Lawson, Molly Cooper a two time individual and team triathlon gold medalist at the Mundus Games and Bridget Portman a sergeant in the Achkaerinese army and a medic. They're backed up by a support team led by Eleanor Hendry, a multiple record holding sailor.
 1. OOC - If anyone's ever watched Long Way Down or Long Way Round it's basically modeled somewhat on that.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2022, 08:16:19 PM by Achkaerin »

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2021, 10:48:25 PM »
Meeting the Team: Sammy Lawson



"Hi I'm Sammy Lawson, probably best known for cycling exploits at the Mundus Games, I've been road racing since I was eight years old, I've won a lot of titles both domestically and internationally. And this whole wacky idea of trying to cycle pole to pole is mainly mine, I guess most people would wonder why someone would want to put themselves through something like this or how someone even thinks something like this up. I had the honour and privilege to pilot the Aerobreaker on the record breaking run as it took the human powered speed record a year ago, when that was going on I was approached about possibly doing this and not being the type to back down from a challenge I said I'd be up for it. Why did I want to do this? Because it's something challenging, because it's never been done before. Finding a team for it that was a little harder, not in the sense of finding cyclists I know enough of them after all, it was challenging because we weren't talking about a day's road racing we were talking about weeks in a small craft pedaling for hours at a time, close quarters with other people. Picking Melanie was a no brainer for me, she's had my back on the road since we were kids, she knows me, knows how to keep my spirits up and I'm sure they'll be moments where we get a bit low, where things don't quite go our way and it's really important to have someone who's like a rock around when that happens. Molly, well she's a good friend but also the more I looked at the maps as this was being planned the more I realized that we needed someone who was not only a strong cyclist but could keep an eye on our safety, as a triathlete Molly can cycle, can run and can swim all valuable skills in this venture and she's in the army so she's got plenty of other training that may prove helpful for us oh and she's got the music covered. Bridget, now she's like Molly in that she's in the army but she's our safety net, she's a medic which is important because you can't take something like this on and not have the cover if something goes wrong and someone gets hurt, as a sportswoman I know that if someone got injured in a race and there wasn't a medic around I'd be very annoyed and as I'm the person picking this team I'd be getting annoyed at myself and there's no point in that.

I've been asked a few times what I think the hardest part of this is going to be and it's a difficult one to answer because it could be a few different places, I think it will be on the water and probably be getting up through the Alucard, having to navigate all the small islands in that area, but then once we get up into the Illumic there's the vastness of the northern ocean to think about. And that's just thinking about the journey itself not thinking about having four young ladies in close quarters for months. It will be a challenge but one I'm looking forward to"

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2021, 03:08:42 PM »
Meeting the Team: Melanie Parker



"Hi I'm Melanie, Mel to my friends, I'm a road racing cyclist for Phoenix Cycling and Team Achkaerin. I've been cycling for as long as I can remember, I started because it was a way to get away, be myself, see a few things and places. I always liked going up the mountains the best then in high school I met Sammy and we've been on the same team ever since, we've raced all over Mundus at all levels of competition so when she asked would I help her in this venture I wasn't about to say no. It's going to be a difficult thing to do, we're going to learn an awful lot about ourselves as we do it and when all's said and done we'll hopefully be the stronger for it. I'm looking forward to seeing the parts of Mundus I've not been to before, even if it's from a distance. I think what's going to worry us all a lot is the days upon days of isolation on the seas, in fact I think that's more worrying than the snow and ice cycling in Hygelac and Hrothgar at either end of this."

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2021, 05:03:15 PM »
Meeting the Team: Molly Cooper



"Hi I'm Molly Cooper, the third sporting female personality on this team. I'm a Mundus Games winning triathlete both in individual and team events and this sort of crazy idea - cycling pole to pole is right up my street. I got into triathlon at a very young age, it's one of those slightly embarrassing moments when you look around at all the school clubs and you realize nothing quite suits you, I'd wanted to do something sporty but ended up in the army and then I started winning inter service triathlons, after that I never really looked back sporting wise I've had the privilege of competing across Mundus and I don't have to choose between the sport I love and my career because the army encourages me to compete. I said before this notion of cycling pole to pole was crazy, but it's the good kind of crazy, it's crazy enough that you want it to succeed.
 I have the advantage of having been in tough situations stuff that Sammy and Melanie haven't been through and I'm more used to the water than the others. My role is to be the guide, the navigator on the water and the rearguard on the snow I'm part of the safety net. It's going to be interesting to do this and I'm sure I'll learn a lot about myself."

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2021, 06:38:32 PM »
Meeting the Team: Bridget Portman



"Hi I'm Bridget Portman, I'm a sergeant in the Aelmoor Watch where I serve as a medic, I'm posted to the Horthgar medical outpost. It's fair to say I'm the odd one out on this team, the other three are sports stars and I'm not but I have the experience of the environment we're going to be cycling in. It's unlike any other surface on Mundus because while you have all the crunch and the grip of the snow it's thin enough in places that you get through to the ice and that has no grip, it's why I get around on Hrothgar using a dog sled team because using anything else is very tricky. So while everyone else is rightly looking at the challenge in the middle of this I'm looking at either end of it and bringing my understanding of that environment to this so on the snow I'm the guide. As a medic I'm also going to be keeping everyone shipshape. This has been an interesting thing to prepare for, firstly because the scale of this makes you go 'no one's ever done this before' which tells you the immense nature of it but secondly I'm not a regular cyclist, I'm not used to the long distances of cycling that Sammy, Melanie and Molly are so I've been getting used to something new already."

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2021, 02:21:53 AM »
The Journey Begins


At 0800 VMT on the 19th of March 2021 the journey began, the team cycling away from the south pole guided by Bridget with Melanie in second wheel, Sammy third and Molly at the back, not the blistering pace of road racing or triathlon due to the terrain and icy surface but it was nonetheless a start. The following are some extracts from their recordings while cycling during the first day.

Melanie Parker: "Well I managed to get a whole five miles before I didn't spot the ice correctly and came off the bike, which is about five miles further than I managed in training for this thing, I was coming off every few yards then. It's difficult going at the moment but once we get out of this boulder field it should be plain sailing the rest of the day."

Molly Cooper: "I don't think I've ever been anywhere as quiet as this, it's so calm, the only sound we can hear is our own voices and the skid of the occasional wheel losing traction on the surface, I've raced in a lot of places but the only place I can think of that's close to this for cycling are the Awhaele salt flats, and that was probably the hardest triathlon I've ever done. The concentration level compared to normal roads is on a whole different level."

Sammy Lawson: "We never said it would be easy, but I don't think we expected such a hard start, we're trying to cover almost three quarter road race distance a day so we're talking seventy to eighty kilometres which everyone we consulted on the planning said was feasible, the problem we've had from the start a few hours back is that the snow is breaking apart very easily we're more cycling through it at times rather than on top of it, we had a heavy snow storm last night when we camped at the start. I think we'll probably camp earlier than planned and give the wind time to level out the surface for tomorrow."

Bridget Portman: "Not the easiest surface I've ever cycled on and I'm a little embarrassed that I'm the one who's lost a wheel already we're all having moments from what I can hear behind me, we're not all coming off but we're all getting close to it. We're in a bit of a basin, there's not a lot of solid ground around us so we're virtually bobbing our way through and I'm basically the battering ram to clear the snow. Hopefully it'll ease up and we'll be able to get the miles under our belts because I think we can start making steady progress that'll get our confidence up."

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2021, 01:47:35 PM »
Outside Influences


After a few days of tough cycling through snow and ice the team have reached their camping spot at the very edge of Hygelac, ahead of what they thought would be the start of the Pedal Whale's journey north through the Alucard, however events in Lodja have changed that part of the plan as explained by Molly Cooper:

Molly Cooper: "We always knew something outside of our control could affect this trip, a freak storm, a collision, someone getting ill...we didn't think it'd be a major international incident, but obviously with everything going on in Lodja and the information we've been given it's not safe for us to take our original route so we've took an extra day to rest up and get the Pedal Whale ready while myself and Bridget looked at the maps and talked through our options. In the end we've decided to head around the other side of Albion by going through the Strait of Shaw and loop round into the Mhorish, we're adding a bit of distance to the journey but it's better than running into trouble in the Alucard with everything that's going on at the moment. In some ways we should probably be thankful we've had a few days of bad conditions while cycling across Hygelac because that slowed us down and being slowed down means we're slightly behind schedule so we're not having to deal with this while we're already in the Alucard."

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2021, 10:06:30 PM »
Cycling on Water


The Pedal Whale has reached its first significant milestone on the journey from pole to pole. The cycling propelled vessel has reached the islands of Drenova as they aim to journey up the western side of Albion through the Strait of Shaw. A summary of the last few days was given by Sammy Lawson.

Sammy Lawson: "It's a little cramped or as we're calling it cozy in here, we've got two sleeping cots side by side at the back of the ship, as you might expect most of the space is taken up by the four bikes, we're sitting in two lines of two and we've got a shift pattern worked out, we've been lucky with the weather so far and sticking close to land will help us out there. The only bad thing is that Melanie's had a little bout of seasickness but she's more or less over it. If we go up to the front of the ship we've got all our computer equipment, the navigation instruments and so on. It's good to finally be able to see Albion land off our bow and now we'll hope to make hay in calmer waters. We've been getting a lot of messages of support on our website and they've been giving us a lot of good cheer and adding a little extra push to our cadence. We're hoping to be in the Strait proper in a few days." 

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2021, 02:03:25 PM »
Riding the Storm


The crew of the Pedal Whale is in the middle of what appears to be their first major obstacle, a serious storm hit just as the vessel headed through the Strait of Arovium at night, the storm one of the largest recorded in recent times has been pelting the Pedal Whale for the last forty eight hours and it's likely to continue for a few more days as explained by Bridget Portman:

"We'd hoped to avoid something like this but it's one of those things that we couldn't really do anything about, we could see the weather patterns on the equipment and then it hit us in the middle of the night, Sammy and Melanie were on the night shift pedaling us north and then the boat starts rocking and we've got flashes of lightning outside the windows and rumbling thunder overhead and then me and Molly are dashing out of bed and getting on the other two bikes, and then we're trying to ride our way out of this storm. We've been at this forty eight hours so far we've had barely any rest between us and we're unlikely to get any more for a few more days if this storm pattern is as big as its supposed to be going by the instruments. We're all fine at the moment apart from a few bumps and bruises caused by the roll on the waves but we're hanging tough."

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #9 on: May 18, 2021, 01:32:32 PM »
Dartfordia Ho


The Pedal Whale has reached a significant milestone in its journey, in the course of riding out a storm the vessel drifted into Bad Wolf Bay - an area of water on the Paracambian and Dartfordian coasts, with the storm having past the Pedal Whale has set course for the Darti Peninsula and from there the aim will be to pass through Paracambi waters to reach the Horn of Ardia area. Melanie Parker said the following on this:

Melanie Parker: "We sort of knew that if we hit a really bad storm like the one we've just been through that it could throw us off course, had it continued for a few more days we'd have probably been beached on either Paracambian or Dartfordian sand and that could have done a lot of damage to our vessel and in turn led to a significant delay. We've been a little lucky. It was a great sight this morning to set eyes on the coast of Dartfordia with the sunrise behind it. We've got a few hard days of pedaling ahead of us but once we get out into the open water again it's full speed ahead to Festival of Sail."

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2021, 08:23:14 PM »
Illumic Sprint


The Pedal Whale has reached a significant milestone in its landmark journey, crossing through what is in nautical navigational terms known as the southern gate - a line drawn between the southern tip of Redfern Island of Heyra and the western most tip of Eskdale creating a line on a north west/south east tangent. The arrival into the Illumic comes, surprisingly considering various incidents along the way, ahead of schedule. Given the geography of the Illumic in the context of the route this also marks the beginning of the home straight so to speak, all four members of the team were pedaling as the Pedal Whale began it's sprint through the Illumic, the journey through the Illumic is expected to take around a week. Molly Cooper explained the significance of the moment:

Molly Cooper: "This is huge for us, we've been pedaling ever since we left Hygelac, we've ridden through storms, calm seas, shipping lanes and now it feels like the end is in sight though we're still a significant amount of distance away. It's like the last climb in a road race, it's like the last kilometre before transition on the bike for me. We know we've got in all probability the opportunity to put our foot down and accelerate for a few days so we've actually changed the sleep rotation a bit, we're taking advantage of the calm to push through at good pace but resting the legs as well because we know as calm as the waters of the Illumic are the Northern Ocean is far rougher, we're probably not going to breathe easy until we hit Hrothgaer."

Online Achkaerin

  • Lord Chief Justice
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,967
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: the Holy Empire of Achkaerin
Re: Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It
« Reply #11 on: January 31, 2022, 09:29:31 PM »
(OOC - Thought I'd posted this months ago...oops)

Journey's End


A week after reaching Hrothgaer's shores with the Pedal Whale the team of Sammy Lawson, Melanie Parker, Molly Cooper and Bridget Portman reached the North Pole, the months long trip at an end. At the finish line they were many hugs and congratulations, the team were greeted by friends and family who'd been specially flown in for that moment. For the four women at the heart of this story the journey has created a life long bond, and perhaps it is best left to Sammy Lawson to sum it all up with the following words:

"We started this because we wanted to push our limits to do something that hadn't been done before. Well over the course of this we've learned a lot more about ourselves and we've made life long friendships and we'll never forget these months together or what we managed to achieve."