Round-the-world cyclist on track

UK man's bike attempt round the world reaches Kolkata

James Bowthorpe, just an everyday bloke, is still on track to beat the world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bike. He's now reached northern India on his Santos touring cycle in an attempt to raise £1.8m for Parkinson's disease research.

So far his route has taken him through Europe, crossing into Turkey, Iran and India. After travelling through Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, he'll then take on Australia and New Zealand, before flying to America and journeying past Canada, the USA, a hop over the pond to Portugal and from there back to London.

After 61,000 miles, James is still keeping up his 120-mile daily workrate, and you can even track his progress on a GPS site. At the time of writing, he's been on the road for 51 days of the 170 he's hoping to complete the 18,000 mile journey in. The current record stands at 195 days.

James sent this to WideWorld from the road:

"If you were thinking that I am an intrepid and brave explorer, think again! To give you an idea, I am unable to watch horror films because they give me nightmares and I get Creature From The Deep syndrome whenever I swim out of my depth in the sea (made up syndrome, very real to me). In the wrong conditions, I am also scared in the dark.

I want to do three things: break the world record, raise a lot of money for What’s Driving Parkinson’s? www.whatsdrivingparkinsons.net and also raise awareness of the disease and the groundbreaking work that this research charity does. Bravado in some form might come into it, but only as a by-product. Going to countries that are considered dangerous, or even scaring myself unnecessarily, are not part of the plan. Trying to cycle 120 miles a day takes up enough physical and emotional energy, without adding other stresses."

Everyone at WideWorld would like to congratulate James on his efforts so far - show your support by logging on to his site at www.globecycle.org

Follow his day-to-day journey here: http://whereintheworldisjames.com