From Cold to Chile : Cyclists Pedal From Alaska to Raise MS Funds

Here is the tally for two men on the world’s longest contiguous bike ride: 6,000 miles behind them, 24 days of pouring rain, six tire blowouts.

And 10,000 miles to go.

(Add to the tally: one caribou herd sighting, one badly scraped elbow, one 3-inch leg gash.)

Boston-area cyclists Spike Ramsden, 31, and Wayne Ross, 30, spent the night at a friend’s house in Newport Beach on Wednesday on their “Cycle the Americas for Multiple Sclerosis” fund-raising trip through 14 countries. They are on pace to beat the world record time of 10 months and 11 days for the route from northernmost Alaska to the tip of South America.

“We just think of them as heroes,” said Terri Roehr, a spokeswoman for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in Florida. “They’re making people aware of what MS is.”

Multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease that affects the brain or spinal cord and typically hits people in their late 20s or early 30s.

Ramsden, a professional sailboat racer, hatched the idea for the ride with a friend last year in a smoky pub in Bristol, England. He wanted a new challenge--and decided to cycle the world’s longest land mass for charity with his high school buddy, Ross, a veteran cyclist.

Both have friends with multiple sclerosis.

Their goal: to raise at least $200,000 for multiple sclerosis from donors along the way; foundation officials say they do not know how much money has been raised through the cycling trip so far.

On Wednesday, Sachs Bicycle Components in Yorba Linda donated a complete set of new bicycle parts, including shifters, wheels and chain rings.

The cyclists are traveling without assistants. They started the trip at 5:20 a.m. June 12 in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, near the icy Beaufort Sea, where the wind-chill factor brought the temperature down to 20 degrees.

(Add: 700 miles of unpaved roads; one big moose; a few broken wheel spokes.)

They loaded their custom-made, 24-speed Rhygin bicycles with 90 pounds of gear each. They packed enough food to last through Alaska’s rocky wilderness, where they forced their burning legs to push up several slopes a day that totaled 15,000 feet of climbing--at times at 2 mph.

Sometimes, they bickered and rode as many as 10 miles apart.

Still, the ride has been “absolutely wonderful,” Ramsden said. “It’s really restored my sense of wonder. You’d see jade green lakes, colors you’d never believe. There’s so many things that make you stop every day and go, ‘Wow. I didn’t think that was possible.’ ”

The pair will ride about 100 miles each day until they reach Cape Horn, Chile, at the tip of South America in mid-March.

Both are such pros that they start their mornings by simply hopping on their bikes. No need to stretch.

Neither are sore.

(Four sets of wasted wheel chains each; four amiable black bears along the Alaska Highway; don’t ask how many freeze-dried oatmeal breakfasts.)

To donate or get information on multiple sclerosis: (800) 781-2276; or on the Internet: https://www.icanect.net/msf