Pan Celtic Race 2021 ~The Film~

foreign [Music] [ __ ] do [Music] [Music] you can lose a lot of faith in people if you watch the news all day people are horrible aren't they you know most people teach the kids that the world's a big bad place full of horrible people but if you get on your bike and ride across a country you meet countless nice people who are willing to do so many nice things for you when you come up against your limits you realize how far you can push those limits it's a funny thing because people always question what they're capable of so you tell people about this kind of thing or about this style of riding and most people you talk to will say things like i could never do that which is not true at all we all started somewhere and it was only when you came to have a go at doing something like this that you realize how capable you actually are it's just about pushing those limits to find out how far you can push them the pan celtic race 2021 was a ultra endurance self-supported bicycle race that started at maker heights in cornwall it traveled 1240 miles through celtic lands and finished in north wales um at the clan chief's house in clandino nice to meet you astor alex there yeah barbs [Music] when he was asked what made him come up with the pan celtic race that you know it was like when you were a kid and you used to go out riding your bike and every bike ride was an adventure [Music] [Laughter] as you grow up you forget about that adventurous side to riding your bike and it becomes a means to an end sometimes for some people but it doesn't always have to be like that just to take you back to those childhood days of adventure and enjoying riding your bike [Music] the roads the routes the hills the smells [Music] that's what the race is it's a way of taking people back to a time where you were a lot more carefree and the only things you had to worry about was getting to a place on your bike pushing your pedals eating drinking and sleeping [Music] [Applause] all right i just want to wish you all a safe journey okay this rain is only temporary but the memories will be forever all right arise arrive riders off the cloud celtic plan spears shall be shaken shield selfie splitting a sword day a red days as the sun rises right down right now right now let's go riders arrived at maker heights in cornwall ready to start the race and were greeted with biblical rain that lasted for hours upon hours which then flooded people's kit it waterlogged phones and generally made for a pretty rubbish start to the race the cornish roads that were narrow and unrelentingly steep short sharp climbs that would really zap the legs it's just one after another climb after climb [Music] yeah the route is brutal right not a single piece of flat in the whole thing um just sapping you are motoring but i've done 260 watts normalized and i've done 24k now that's just like normally out on the road i'd be like 35k now so you look like you're buzzing i'm having so much fun why would you do it if you don't if you're not like if you don't enjoy it yeah yeah well there's like there's two different sides where you'll get people who love it but they love it afterwards yeah and when they're going through it they're kind of like oh my god it's so hard to see you so much fun i'm sure like in a few hours i'll be in like a in a hole but well hopefully not so i've been riding with him myself so so what what's your plan but but where are you headed tonight today tonight just keep riding i'm just gonna keep riding until you yeah the thing is like normally i'll try and ride through the night but like i've come into the race so tired already so i was dozing off during the week yeah um at work so i don't know i might need to like get a couple last night but yeah and then if i've got energy towards the end that's when i can do it all night or something angus young had already made his way to the front of the race and was putting time into his nearest rivals chris pipblado and alex boswell [Music] oh [Music] alex paul chris and will came into land's end fighting for second place before disappearing into the night man how many people how many people have been through is it just just angus probably like two hours ago or something um what's his what's his game plan is he just is he doing a language he plans to ride extremely fast by the looks of things i mean he's a matter of people all right pal how are you all right i have no plan really i'm just cycling at my speed you know yeah and then when i get tired all that good plan i've never raced before you know like had i've never ridden an event with a race at the end you know it's always been longhordak or and i've done loads of that kind of thing i sort of know how to manage myself and i've not looked at the thing all the updates that i've had is basically from you guys yeah i i've been you know i've not been wanting to look oh mate what a flipping route you like it oh that's epic yes yeah it gets better wait oh it gets better ah it was just honestly the tunes were buzzing just like oh it's so good bit of moss on the uh hill yeah wheel slide yeah love it that's the dancing in the moonlight yeah are you gonna stop here are you yeah yeah i'm hoping there's some toilets i originally thought i would try and get to wade bridge it's 200 mile but how many miles a year on the clock now 162. 162. it's not a bad day though is it first day it's [ __ ] grippy yeah [ __ ] there it is we're just watching your instagram stories then i'm not sure that this route is hilly enough let's have some more hills right it's really good to see you yeah good to see you yeah yeah ride safe dude [Music] dancing in the moonlight everybody this rain jacket i stuff i'm stuffed at the back of my jersey and my bottom of the back started to go numb and i thought it was down the bottom and i was like oh [ __ ] i have to turn around so i had to turn back around and go up a hill i'd just come back down got to the top so i can't see it it was only in the back of my jersey wouldn't it still it was just higher up i was are you [ __ ] up get a bit scattered my wife keeps telling me to stop cycling like this yeah i'm hoping there's up there okay [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] i don't like getting up in the morning ready to sleep uh in the boston about two hours the sunrise this morning was amazing like just coming just into some knives and it was yeah really really beautiful i'm going to go get mcdonald's there's a shell garage that's safe as well because nothing opens until seven right and um every place i've been like must be seven by now and it's still i've never been here before it's lovely a bit different to scotland it was so different yeah i mean no it's huge obviously oh my god i thought i had this beautiful field to sleep in and i went and turned my bike over the face really flat glass [Music] i oh all set up and ready and i was like how grim is this like could i just deal with it and i thought about it for a minute and they were literally like like slugging their way all around like all over my kit and i just did images of like bending all over my face when i woke up in the morning one of the other riders had camped just down the road and i pulled inside him and he was sitting outside the bus shelter and he was like that fat shell is really grim you don't want to go in there and i went in i was like it's not that bad like you don't have to breathe through your nose it's fine [Music] checkpoints are an important part of the race in that they provide a safe haven for riders and provide them with the chance to recharge their batteries both mentally and physically before moving on again having ridden through the night mike sheldrick's experience shines through as he arrives at cp one in fourth place he tells us stories of his adventures through the night when some people his age will be falling asleep in a chair my plan they plan on set off at the starting was just to get to uh man's end and kept there but i got there and didn't feel really fat i kept sort of carried [Music] i think in a couple of nights two minutes time however really good really good sleep in two nights time although i've got this morning it's a different mentality like this switched my phone on this morning and i've got a message saying my daughter has given birth to my first grandchild congratulations see what i'm going for see where priorities are now it's a little bit um it's a handy excuse though if i'm really struggling a bit halfway around a scope i think i've got to go home [Music] [Music] we caught with chris just as he arrived into bridgewater he was suffering with some navigational issues but he was making great progress over the rest of the following pack is that why you were looking at your phone back there i'm only getting about 150 kilometers on the garment i'll have to do the rest of my phone i'll tell you what considering you're having an issue you're doing pretty well well i didn't i thought there was five guys up the road but you know when i got postcard for pete didn't see he didn't say what yeah because he's a professional god tonight today what's your plan i'll get to well stonehenge first and then i'll see you going to stonehenge tonight yeah yeah and then i'll said i didn't get much sleep last night [ __ ] james [Music] with the weather forecast for heavy rainstorms coming in during the night chris didn't make it to stonehenge and bedded down halfway between glastonbury and stonehenge the rest of the field also took the opportunity to bed down for the night angus incredibly decided to push on [Music] yeah i'm not having a blast i'm settling into that kind of rhythm where it's just like everything just goes a bit numb and your legs are turning but you can't really feel them and like you've got no control of how much power you put it's pretty slow going in this i've no idea where i am it's just like a complete maze of lane you just follow a line i do a lot of just like maths in my head really yeah mental maths just like working out oh if i carry on at this pace what time will i get to this point that sort of thing just keep me occupied really or like oh but you know i'm at you know 21k an hour average so far if i if that drops to 20.8 can uh how much later am i gonna be to finish just like completely like pointless stuff um but it just keeps things ticking over angus uses his local knowledge and heads for a cave at cheddar gorge where for the first time since the races start he beds down for a few hours by the time we caught with chris at stonehenge who was holding second place angus was 105 miles ahead [Music] [Music] thanks to chris's long sleep paul alex and stu percival all managed to put good time into him [Music] in bristol we caught up with a few riders who were taking the opportunity to make use of the big city cities provide the opportunity for riders to really start thinking about their next move with things like public transport allowing them easy access to head home and scratch from the race my next gun went about 50k in this morning it's been a right struggle on the steep stuff it's sort of sinking in a bit so um yeah i'm trying to work out what to do still got a better way to go and by the sounds of it i don't know if it's something that's easily solved it can be like a really scary thing leaving the city when you've got so much normality there and you can eat and drink and sleep and then you have to head off back out on your own into the quiet roads back with your thoughts dread fear loneliness [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] how's the weather been last night the swim again i've got absolute drench did you yep so i've got wet bibs on to start the day nothing like a good cold wet [ __ ] bag's getting bigger i've seen your video on instagram i went to bed and it was chuffing it down four hours later i woke up it was still chucking it down got me some slack i just want to get up and get dry [Music] [Music] last the the final flinty bit [Music] on the front one then about half a mile maybe more than that maybe like 2k down the road in the background as well so that's both my inner tubes gone and then uh yeah just just before getting seven bridge really really rough but you go over a little bridge and it's super rough i was absolutely hammering it to get back on to get back up to try and get back up to third right um is that what you're looking for now third well that's where i was yeah right i almost caught chris yesterday morning just before the gravel bit yeah yeah you were hot on chris's tail yesterday but yeah obviously punctures and then when it when again i had to do a patch yeah um i still not got any any other tubes it's alright i'm just going to go i'm going to go late for the next couple of days i've got the bevy i've not used it yet um weather is well weather's getting better i keep telling people it's getting better right i'm going to crack on then enjoy that descent mate yeah go again oh well it's gonna it's gonna lift my spirits after yesterday defeated me i'm i reckon i'm about six hours behind where i'd want to be to plan so yeah because i wanted to do 400k yesterday and i did just under three still got plenty time so i wanted to be in swansea despite the troubles he'd faced alex boswell pushes on through the day overtaking at least four of the riders that are ahead of him well i've just checked into my hotel for the evening it's a bit basic but i'll give you a quick tour this is the door you can log in oh that's the sink i don't know what that is [Music] let's get alongside him jump on punctures is my nightmare today but i'm in good shape you're looking i'm gonna go along and um i'll just get there [ __ ] right you are ferg [Applause] it's the i think that the race itself if if i was gonna say that it was a person it'd have to be mali this is the race within the race matt ryan for those that don't know molly ryan the race director and the man who thought this thing got [Music] you're a dot munching pacman aren't you yeah what are you stop punching puppets what are you going to do with those stops [Music] all along okay [Music] i think when he sums it up you know he wants the race he wants to take people back to that time when they were kids and they could just ride bikes all day um without any other care in the world i think that says a lot about his character you get caught up in life sometimes and having something where you can switch off and forget about all your troubles or even they don't even have to be troubles that you want to forget about but just one day in life you just want to switch off from it all and get out on the road and have an adventure [Music] we don't test our resilience a lot in life because everything's comfortable you can go to shop buy whatever you want you don't even have to have any money you can buy a car you can everything like that so we never really test our resilience i think it's a it's been personal it's good for me to to do that the welsh people have been fantastic it's so accommodating and i've had some real good stories and adventures but they really like i've never ridden any of this that i've been on so i don't know i don't know whales at all i just i every time i'm on like oh you know off the main road i'm just like how do they find this it's so cool and this morning so i you know i came over from that dog like the red dog like and then um i the first couple of hours were difficult my phone's run out of battery so there's no music to block out my own thoughts and i was just like oh ahead of me like that and i was just giving myself such a hard time and then i looked up and there was just like sheep balancing on like you know stupid cliff ages just like man like and a little like just animals doing stuff and it was just so sweet and then just like looking up and this road just rolling in front of me across the hilltop so i was like who cares he's in front of you [Music] [Applause] [Music] i was really struggling just like energy-wise and i was coming up to cheddar gorge and then this bloke came out um dot watching and made his bell and he started doing his bell and shouting my name out i had to start crying just like psycho for no reason i just started crying because i was like i've been suffering for ages and it just like put me up and then i was just like off flying down to the garage it's just unbelievable experience how it sort of gets you been running in every sort of weather condition like like going and we start you know thinking about home and everything like that and then you remember why you did but it just popped out of nowhere as a flight i just felt like stopping at that point and just ringing his bell and that was it just like spurred me on it was just incredible it's just sun it's just so nice really and you get up and it's beautiful like this it's been raining and then you come up there this lovely lovely climb [Music] but yeah i don't know how two i'd be profiling i'm supposed to go between my backside my hip and my knee i don't need to be diluted there oh yeah fantastic what what what a journey really [Music] meanwhile on this year's short route we caught up with jack breen at cp2 who'd pulled out a huge lead over second place michael rollerson it's jack [Music] hall when he was in cheddar gorge so i was like oh i'll catch him [Music] [Music] we caught up with angus young as he headed off into mid wales with a sizeable lead of approximately 85 miles still enjoying it yeah he's upset i was really quite slow yesterday i was just stopping a lot i don't know what i was um and then actually accidentally slept through my alarm so i stayed at a hotel put an alarm on for like two hours and then like five hours later i woke up yeah i think it's probably done me well yeah yeah chris isn't too far behind is he probably like three four hours back sorry yeah you did quite well yeah when i was asleep yeah because i saw there was like a pack of like two or three of them i've just got in the back of my head now but i've had a massive sleep so i'm great oh and he hasn't he probably only got a couple hours in the bush 100 miles into the race and we catch up with chris and paul who are never more than three miles apart it's clear that chris's capabilities in the hills compared with paul's capabilities on the flats means that they can't put any distance into one another and are constantly vying for second place i'd settle for third yesterday yeah yeah i was racing to stay in birth yeah i got a bit of a surprise this morning when chris stopped early i'm trying not to look too often strike strange trying to manage everything else at the same time so four nights of very little sleep he just reminded me it's the main ninety percent of managing things and then every now and again i get spur on i enjoy the racing aspect of it and then and then i have to manage everything else for what happened what did you do last night you stopped for a while ah i totally hit the wall oh did you just pretty much nine o'clock just the wheels fell off all right so i just called it early and just kind of got asleep just found a field somewhere and i didn't have food for like a nine hour ride because ever everywhere was closed oh captioning not available [Music] [Music] it was quite climbing yesterday wasn't it yeah yeah ah [Music] yeah i'm just uh hoping the motivation to get to anglesey would get me through and that feeling of like because i'm going so slow your legs are tired i keep thinking oh my gosh my back wheel's deflated oh yes i'm like i keep looking at my back i'm like is there no air in there i'm not moving because you're nearly there yeah you're nearly there yeah okay thanks yeah it looks like this conveyor clip yeah this anchor just doesn't have any functionality i've not done my shoes off at all because every time i put any pressure on it it just buckles but i can feel like i can feel my quad which is fine because that's what i need to pedal but like this hole down here up to like here is numb what do you think is causing that uh this started hurting just up here and then my colleagues at the same time so i think between them there's just a lot of pressure yesterday i lit i put my foot down and went into a pothole and fell over and i was just yeah because i was planning on riding through the night and then after that are you still going though yeah it's pretty incredible thanks see somebody saying that they've been up all night but then you're smiling and laughing when you're telling the story yeah there's not many people that do that thank you all right it all goes into a blur doesn't it but uh yeah i had a bad bachelor quite early on i started off quite well first couple of days or first day and night we're okay so where are we tuesday tuesday i uh first of all i left my i stayed overnight in a room in glastonbury and i left the room about quarter to five in the morning everything out clicked the door shut and as the proprietors instructed i left a swipe card in the room and then i realized i left my shoes hooked on the towel radiator to dry them out so i got my shoes so i had to wait three hours before anybody came that morning just sitting there outside the room so that was a bit bit so destroyed especially was out the window i could actually see other riders going past you know and then later on that day middle of the afternoon i started being just being sick throwing up and um i sat on a bench and then i fell asleep and then i got in my sleeping bag and i didn't get up out my bag until uh probably about seven the next morning i don't know what it was i just emptied myself overnight and i um i felt for two days i just had a horrible taste in my mouth just didn't feel good i was hardly eating it i don't know how i was moving because i couldn't face food and i i was going to shops and looking at food and just looking at chocolate bars i love it you know and i really only got my appetite back yesterday you know finally got it going but throughout my legs have been okay you know the legs have always been there it's just stomach really how's your granddaughter oh good yeah yeah actually um i actually facetimed it yesterday from a petrol station 4 courts it was a bit difficult but don't think she could make out what i was saying but she probably doesn't understand anyway she's only about three days old so it's still nice though it didn't matter yeah yeah it was good yeah yeah it was really good yeah you're making it go emotional now um yeah so um yeah yeah so yes i know so as soon as i get home um they're up in sheffield i'm leicester but uh i'll find a way of getting up and giving a proper hug that stupid stop line they've got about where you travel have stories to tell if you just turned up at the finish and said oh everything was fine it's been a really steady ride i won't work with it it really sort of strips everything back and it takes away all the commodity and easiness that life gives you and makes you test your resilience on a daily basis with what it is that you can and can't do or what challenges you can and can't overcome and it just takes you out of your comfort zone and makes you ask questions that you might not want to answer i won't be the first of walks up here i don't think i actually got down to the metal barrier down there and then looked up and thought it's 940 miles in it i think i've got every right it's quite a past day in the morning most people are in bed aren't they so [ __ ] [Music] okay [Music] on friday the 9th at 14 minutes past 2 in the afternoon 25 year old angus young rolls over the finish line in clandino and takes the win of the pan celtic race 2021. i was so excited the whole time every time we see you that's all you kept i was just buzzing yeah the whole time i was like this is amazing there are a couple of moments when you're just riding along and you just think this is epic it's like sunset every night i was in a good spot so first night land's end next night stonehenge after that i might have messed up nothing next i can't remember what happened yeah and then it was remade a man road and last night it was it was right over the um tip of the peninsula well i have no idea what time that is [Music] [Applause] [Music] are you involved in um in a proper race here there was a kind of a gentleman's agreement this morning what was the gentleman's agreement until we found breakfast ah nice um his legs were kind of pretty done in this morning hey but i think he's starting to work into it so he might pick up at this point in the race exhaustion sets in both riders push each other to the extreme chris takes a wrong turn while paul has a 15 minute nap and inevitably they come together once again [Music] come on [Applause] [Music] [Music] we'll be testing each other for about 40 miles 50 miles after that you know he'd stretch me out on the climbs and i'd just reel him in and it went hard and he'd dance away on the hills easily and then i really mean quite easily and then we just had a chat and we're like we're never mad more than two or three minutes away from each other it's like painful you know like there was half an hour difference you you'd work at it wouldn't you or you'd try and work at staying away but when you're just seeing each other's flashing light all the time we just had a chat and we're like i think we're to be better for each other's company aren't we we're just we're going to bury ourselves for now again we might have finished an hour ago and would have been in a mess and not enjoyed each other's company for the day so we've had a good day if we smash it we're going to end up here together and if we just go down yeah you meet people when you're doing well especially when you're organizing this race and the people that come and sign up and then race the race you are almost friends before you've met because you relate to one another on so many levels that we're all the same we all ride on our bikes to get places to experience new things to experience new places and and people you know people talk about the people that they meet out on the course it was so kind it really gives you a sense of how nice people are in general talking to riders you can see that it certainly reaffirms life for a lot of people [Music] proven conclusively that doing it on a tt bike is not the formula what's the name of that bike company that sponsors the um enigma there's no puzzles there i tell you they are the right [Music] [Music] believe it or not this is her favorite place after every bike ride i get a good clean don't i audrey did you make up the places that you wanted to uh not quite but i'm i'm just stoked it's yeah just go it's kind of the thing that i never thought i'd do and i've done it [Music] you'll love this travel lodge settle travelodge was fully booked so i went and tried to sleep on a bench from a four blanket that was no good so i just laid on the grass wrapped myself up and just fell a blanket full this is really comfy then i woke up there's two policemen there i look like we've got reports of someone sleeping by the road rafting in tin foil oh we should have been quick enough to think like i'm not seeing him but my pedo fell off today it fell off it was attached to my feet i was like this is it i'm gonna have a scratch and i'm an angle see i will see that my headphones wrapped around my pedals four days ago tonight my page [Music] um [Music] um [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] you are a legend

Channel: PanCelticRaceSeries

Views: 494,368

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Id: Mq51OAXnc64

Length: 46min 41sec (2801 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 15 2021