Lego Club

by Dougal Morgan Cyclist Josh Quigley returned to Ballater in

September shortly after breaking a World Record, to thank the village for their enthusiastic support on his journey. The 29-year-old from Livingston broke the Guinness World Record for ‘the greatest distance cycled in one week (unpaced)’ by clocking up 2,179.66 miles, doing laps between Culter and Ballater. He cycled a daily average of 320 miles and rode 637 miles in 43 hours on the last day without sleep, to beat the previous record by 2 miles. Josh’s first attempt at the record in April this year was unfortunately unsuccessful as he had to pull out with a with a knee injury on day 5 after cycling 1,215 miles, with a route from Aberdeen to Crathie via the Pass of Ballater, and back. On his second record attempt, he decided to make Ballater the turning point en-route - a decision fueled by the loneliness of the previous attempt through countryside with no roadside encouragement – and it certainly paid off!

Each day an ever-increasing crowd gathered

in Ballater to cheer him on, culminating with an extra mini lap of Bridge Square to the sound of bagpipes adding to the atmosphere, on his final visit before going on to beat the record later that night. After collecting his World Record certificate in Braemar, Josh revisited several Deeside villages to tell his story, bringing along the prized certificate, his bike, and his support team. The Barrel hosted the evening in Ballater, and kindly provided a meal for Josh and his team before Josh gave his talk and took questions. Josh has made no secret of his struggles with his mental health, and in his young life has fought addiction and depression, which led to him trying to take his own life. On taking up cycling in his early twenties as a way of managing his mental health, he promptly decided to cycle round the world - which he has attempted seven times to date! During his cycling adventures he has given motivational talks to young people around the world to raise awareness of mental health issues, while covering over 80,000 km in over 80 countries on six continents. He has suffered numerous road accidents with life-threatening injuries, but his inner strength and determination led him to complete various challenges, including the North Coast 500 cycling record, beating the previous record by 6 minutes, in 31 hours 17 minutes last September. During the World Record attempt, Josh raised over £14,000 for the Feeding Communities Charity, an initiative of the Thomas Franks Foundation, which aims to provide healthy and nutritious meals to vulnerable people, the founder of which was Josh’s sponsor. The Ballater Charitable

Chiels kindly donated £1000 towards his nominated charity.

Josh’s next goal is to transition to road racing and get to the Tour de France! 

Images reproduced with Josh's permission

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