The hardest part for me was the new set of lights and the average speed being disrupted by this. I stopped counting at the pit stop where I had 111 laps registered (love that number) because I was nearly delirious with anger at my luck to be faced with failing due to traffic lights and my mantra of obeying the law. At 111 laps we had only gotten a total of 9 true green lights on this set going and coming, which means we had to stop 213 times!!!!! We had lost over 1 hour 45 minutes just to those [...]

Chris Ghiorse completed his BSAFE 24 Hour Challenge of riding 500km in 24 hours at 10.58am, Sunday, just over an hour before the deadline of noon. His actual distance was 507.88km. A number of support riders, joined by a fresh group of riders, continued for the remaining hour to achieve their personal goals. In the final tally, Chris and the eleven sponsored support riders covered 2,701.5 km in 24 hours – and raised $23,767 at the last count – pledges and donations are still being made.

The course looped the Sir Francis Drake Highway between Port Purcell roundabout and the main roundabout in Road Town, covering 3.602km per lap. The average speed, including all the rest stops and traffic lights, was 21.92km per hour. The actual ride speed averaged 26.2km/h. Chris explained: “To put this into perspective I had 19 hours, 21 minutes and 12 seconds of forward movement. I spent roughly 3 hours, 40 minutes not moving. I took seven food and calls of nature breaks, for a total of about an hour and fifty-five minutes. This means I lost over an hour and forty-five minutes to the traffic lights. My original calculations were based on not giving away more than 2 hours in total!”

Using a team of strong and fresh riders – now known as the Midnight Express – to pull him through the hard early morning hours, and an unexpected but very welcome, Police escort from 6am until the finish, Chris managed to surmount what could have been insurmountable – the new traffic lights. The Midnight Express consisted of Andrew Thompson, Gareth Thomas, Orano Andrews, Thomas Layer, Richard Morgan and Alastair Abrehart.

Majors sponsors of the BSAFE 24 Hour Challenge – CCT Global Communications and VP Bank – receive their official jerseys from BSAFE director Chris Ghiorse.

The BSAFE 24 Hour Challenge will take place this weekend, November 12/13, starting at 12 noon on Saturday and finishing at 12 noon on Sunday. The fundraising effort is growing steadily, but with only one third of the $50,000 target raised there is a sense of urgency to get the message out to the public and businesses that believe in the mission of the BSAFE programme – to provide all children in the BVI free bicycle safety education.

Chris said: “If the multitude of people that BSAFE has touched pledged $10, the 24 Hour Challenge would be nearer $25,000 than $15,000, my only hope is that those who would like to donate actually do so.”

The course will be a loop of the Sir Francis Drake Highway between Port Purcell roundabout and the main roundabout in Road Town covering 3.602km per lap. In keeping with the principles of BSAFE, all road regulations will be observed throughout the ride. Eleven support riders have signed up to help Chris round the course. Richard Morgan and Thomas layer of St. Thomas plan to ride for at least 20 hours while Orano Andrews, Gareth Thomas and Andrew Thompson plan to ride for 12 hours starting at midnight on Saturday. Between them they plan to ride 2,290 kilometres.

Chris is confident that this is going to be a weekend to remember. The BSAFE 24 HQ is organized for the festival grounds, where there will be full 24-hour support for the riders. There will be music, food and drink for the volunteers to keep them entertained during the effort.

Team BSAFE 24 – at least Chris Ghiorse and Support Rider Richard Morgan who has signed up for a 20 hour shift – tried out Princeton Tec’s Push, Swerve and Remix lights the other night on the mean streets of Road Town Tortola.