British adventurer travels through Manchester on 10,000km cycle journey of the UK
British endurance adventurer, Jamie Ramsay embarked on a journey with a difference t – a cycle ‘world tour’ of famous places, without even leaving the UK.
He’s swapped Moscow, Russia for the tiny hamlet of Moscow in East Ayrshire, Scotland, and the canals of Amsterdam for Holland in Oxted. They’re just a handful of many stops on his 80-day, 10,000km cycle tour the whole way around the UK, which had to be rapidly re-routed after Covid-19 shattered his plan to cycle to last year’s Tokyo Olympic Games.
Team GB’s biggest fan
Jamie, 41, a former Scottish Adventurer of the Year, had originally planned to drum up support for his beloved Team GB by cycling and sailing across two continents from London to Tokyo 2020.
He’s such an Olympics fan that every time Team GB won a gold in London 2012 – 29 times – he’d cycle to work in a gold bodysuit. Now he’s a full-time endurance athlete himself – a combination of runner, cyclist, trekker, and mountaineer – and has run across the Atacama Desert, cycled across Australia and climbed active volcanos in Ecuador.
A UK tour of international sound-alikes!
But like all of us, the pandemic derailed his travel plans. So, he and sponsors Whole Earth, an official supplier of Team GB, came up with a fun alternative: around the UK in 80 days – ending up at the nearest sound-alike city to Tokyo … Stokeyo in Stoke-on-Trent.
The gruelling adventure started in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London. Over the next few months, he’ll be exploring Hadrian’s Wall, climbing Ben Nevis, swimming the Blue Lagoon in Pembrokeshire – all the while encouraging support for Team GB athletes competing in Tokyo this year without spectator support. You can see Jamie’s full ‘Whole Way’ journey route and how and where to get involved here: www.wholeearthfoods.com/teamgb/wholewayjourney
Come and join the world’s biggest virtual Mexican Wave
During the tour, Jamie plans to create the biggest virtual Mexican wave to show our Team GB hopefuls on Zoom on his arrival in Stokeyo. He’ll be visiting Team GB athletes’ families, schools and fans en route and will record their cheers and waves on doorsteps.
Of course, everything will be socially distanced and comply with government guidelines.
It’s going to be fun, fast and very physical – an endurance feat which will see him burning up 5,500 calories daily. That’s the energy equivalent of two jars of Whole Earth peanut butter a day.
‘I’ve always been nuts for Team GB and peanut butter,’ says Jamie. ‘So, when Whole Earth approached me a year ago with the idea of a naturally powered journey to the Olympic Games, I jumped at the chance.
‘Sadly, travelling to Tokyo isn’t possible right now, but I hope my passion, perseverance, and determination to do this challenge will inspire Brits to get behind Team GB too. We’re all in this together.’
Sponsored by Whole Earth (the official peanut butter of Team GB), Jamie will be harnessing the benefits of the plant-based spread along the way.
Kirstie Hawkins, Whole Earth brand controller, says: ‘As Team GB’s official peanut butter, we’re encouraging fans to back our Olympic hopefuls the whole way and Jamie’s renavigated journey to Stoke-y-o is as nuts as it is inspiring. On top of the support from Jamie and millions of Team GB fans nationwide, we hope that our peanut butter helps to fuel our athletes in Tokyo.”