During the two-and-a-half-hour flight from Beijing to Jiayuguan, the enormity of the task slowly started to reveal itself. Travelling west to Gansu province, ultra-distance cyclists and Chinese expats Sean Gallagher, 46, and Ben Schuessler, 42, watched an endless expanse of desert unfurl beneath them – vast, remote and almost featureless save for one serpentine structure that had accompanied them for much of the journey.
The Great Wall of China’s fortifications were built over a period of 2,000 years, the earliest sections dating back to the 7th Century BC. The total structure comprises over 21,000 kilometres of bricks and mortar, but riding a straight line (the recognised endurance route) from west to east, begins at Jiayu Pass before winding 3,000 kilometres/1,854 miles to Shanhaiguan, where it tumbles into the Bohai Sea beyond Beijing.
And the pair intended to ride its length – 2,457km/1,526m if you don’t follow every bend – unbeknownst to them at the time, setting a Fastest Known Time (FKT) of just under 83 hours.
“As a photographer, I always get a window seat,” Gallagher told me from his apartment in Beijing, where he has lived as an expat for 20 years. “And flying over the terrain for two and a half hours, I was looking out the window, looking at the mountains, looking at the deserts, looking at the Tibetan Plateau. And it was slowly starting to dawn on me exactly what we were about to do because I thought, ‘I’ve got to cycle all the way’.”
This was not an excursion conceived on a whim. With the long-distance Audax scene gathering momentum in China, Gallagher and Schuessler – both members of the Beijing West Cycling Club – had spent plenty of long days in the saddle imagining bigger challenges. Before long, the idea of traversing the Great Wall began to feel almost inevitable. To an endurance cyclist living in China, it was the obvious thing to do.
But the duo also had a time goal which, if met, would see them beat the previous FKT of 10 days.
“We set ourselves a target of eight days to complete the ride,” Gallagher said. “It wasn’t a race. We were doing it for the experience and wanted to see as much of China and the Wall as possible. But once the goal was set, every day had to be planned around it.”
Sean Gallagher and Ben Schuessler ready to set off
(Image credit: Sean Gallagher)
That meant roughly 300km/186m in the saddle each day. Although the pair rode regular 300km training weeks, this challenge pushed them into unknown territory – physically, mentally and geographically.
“The challenge came from riding that distance eight days in a row through some incredibly remote parts of China and dealing with the conditions along the way,” Gallagher said. “I genuinely questioned whether we’d be able to finish. You start thinking about accidents in the middle of nowhere, mechanical failures, what happens if something goes wrong far from help. Those thoughts run through your mind before any big endurance ride, but out there they felt very real.”
The duo began their quest in blustery conditions at 5,500 feet above sea level and soon encountered another complication besides the punishing terrain of the Tibetan Plateau.
Northern China’s highways are crowded with trucks transporting coal and rare earth minerals from the region’s vast natural resource reserves.
“We were travelling along those same roads,” Gallagher explained. “So as well as being at altitude in the desert, we had these trucks constantly passing within a metre or two, kicking up dust, coal dust and debris from the road. By the end of the day, that’s physically and mentally exhausting.”
The life of an endurance rider is all about learning how to adapt and overcome. Accordingly, neck buffs and arm and leg warmers were repurposed as protection against the dust and debris.
The duo travelled the entire distance of the wall
(Image credit: Sean Gallagher)
The ride continued through the inhospitable grasslands of Inner Mongolia, where an entire day’s riding yielded the sight of just one solitary rabbit. Each evening the pair pointed their bikes towards distant settlements, hoping to find a hotel before nightfall – something not always straightforward for foreigners in China.
“We didn’t bring camping equipment, so we knew we had to reach the next town or city each night,” Gallagher recalled after Schuessler punctured during a desert storm. “But in China only certain hotels accept foreigners, and those tend to be in the bigger cities.”
Food, on the other hand, the ultra rider’s best friend, was always easy to locate. And this being China where rice and noodles abound, the pair were never without a healthy quota of carbs.
“We had a lot of noodles and a lot of rice,” Gallagher laughed. “Very stereotypical China. But we actually ate surprisingly well throughout the trip. There were plenty of truck stops and roadside restaurants where we could stop for lunch and get a decent meal.”
The pair were never without a healthy quota of carbs
(Image credit: Sean Gallagher)
With the Great Wall – or fragments thereof – ever-present throughout the journey, Gallagher found himself developing a growing emotional connection to it as the finish drew closer.
“It reminded me a bit of the beacons in the Lord of the Rings films, the watchtowers lit across the mountains. There was a real romanticism to it. I think when you travel alongside something like the Great Wall for that long, a deep connection inevitably forms.”
Gallagher and Schuessler completed their Great Wall odyssey in style. With 355km/220m remaining to Shanhaiguan, they rode at an average speed of 20.6mph to reach the end of the Wall and secure a new Great Wall of China Fastest Known Time (FKT) of 82 hours, 56 minutes over 2,457.87km/1,526m.
“The sun was setting over the Wall when we arrived and we just savoured the moment,” Gallagher said. “That’s the beauty of these kinds of rides. Endurance cycling can be deeply personal. You can choose a route that really means something to you. Riding doesn’t always have to be a race.”