Cyclist enters record book for fastest trip across Canada

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WINNIPEG (NEWS1130) – A cyclist who smashed the record for the fastest journey across Canada finally has his official acknowledgement from the Guinness Book of World Records.

But  you can’t blame Winnipeg’s Arvid Loewen for taking so long to send in the paperwork for his certificate. After his remarkable trek by bike from Vancouver to Halifax in 13 days and six hours back in July he had to rest, recuperate and get a new hip.

“It took me so long to even submit my claim to Guinness,” he explains. “My wife had to encourage me to go ahead and do it.”

Looking back, the lack of rest was one of the biggest challenges of his tour.

“The sleep deprivation really got a hold of me in the middle third of the trip,” he says. “I was riding 20 to 21 hours a day, with only two hours of sleep a night.”

And he lost time to due fluid build-up in his legs.

“So, to really be able to set the record, I went the last 40 hours straight through, without any sleep.”

The 55-year-old says getting his name into the world-famous book wasn’t his main motivation. It was, rather, to raise money for the Mully Children’s Family, a centre for street kids in Kenya, for which he collected almost $500,000.

He is planning another endurance-type feat, but what that is, he’s keeping to himself, for now.

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