“Freezing, rough, slow, painful.” Spencer Matthews rides for almost 19 hours in brutal Antarctica triathlon attempt
He’s already completed a 3.8km swim in sub-zero water but the work isn’t done yet as Spencer Matthews continues on his quest to finish seven triathlons on seven continents.
No triathlon race bikes were in sight here as the entrepreneur and endurance athlete, riding a bike more suited to snow and ice and dressed for extreme conditions, took on the 180.2km iron-distance bike section of his Antarctic triathlon overnight.
Taking to Instagram to update those following the Project Se7en charity challenge he revealed the cycle took him 18 hours and 50 minutes, with images showing him looking tired and muddy yet victorious. Matthews is raising funds for St James’ Place, a men’s suicide-prevention charity.
Matthews stated: “What a wild experience that was!!! Cycling most of yesterday and all of last night… Towards the end I was literally falling asleep riding. Freezing, rough, slow, painful.
“The longest activity of the entire challenge. Now only the final marathon stands between me and successfully completing PROJECT SE7EN.”
An epic challenge
Completing an iron-distance in the Antarctic is a rare challenge to achieve as we covered here. The previous record is held by Anders Hofman who was the first person to complete it.
Challenging conditions kept the crew isolated in their tents for 27 hours on the glacier due to a 150 km/h blizzard midway through in that instance though – so as a consequence, it took Hofman 72:54:09 hours to finish the extreme challenge.
The final stage of the iron-distance is a full marathon distance (42.2km) run.
Lead Image: Stone Visuals UK
Helen Webster
Editor, 220 Triathlon 
