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back in april i found out what my big blue peter challenge was going to be live on the show
should we do it yeah yeah let's do it check this out this is a hydrofoil bike using advanced
technology it's been cleverly designed to replicate the cycling experience on water
you'll be pushed to your limits as we want you to be the first person to attempt
to cycle the longest lake in england lake windermere on the hydrofoil bike
okay i'm in shock i've never seen anything like this bike before and i have so
many questions what's your fitness like i can run 5k but this is 18k
this challenge is colossal i need to start training like now
it's day one of my training and i've come to delamere lake to meet rowan
who is an expert when it comes to the hydrofoil bike
rowan it's so good to meet you know you're gonna be the person who's gonna be teaching me how to
ride this bike absolutely okay today what we're going to concentrate on is the launching and
coming back so just getting you up falling for the first time and then coming back in
before we get started let's take a look at the tech firstly all the power comes from the pedals
turning them moves this propeller which drives the bike through the water
now getting the bike up and out of the water involves a really cool
bit of science called foiling it's the same process that allows planes to fly
the bike has a set of wings called hydrofoils at the front and at the back and as the bike starts
to move under the water the water traveling over the top of the curved angled surface of
the foil goes faster than the water traveling under the bottom and that creates lift which
moves the bike up and out of the water right i'm excited to see this work because this is
the first time i'm seeing this in real life okay three two one off you go wow
there's something really unnatural about seeing someone on a bike
in water what happens when you stop peddling i'll show you oh oh oh oh what these things
right this is it my big moment has come brace yourselves guys
i think i need more training and it doesn't get much better after that big push nice
it's so hard you gotta start somewhere
no no no i haven't stayed on the bike for longer than three seconds yet but uh
hopefully we'll get there today three two one yes
i'm doing it i'm doing it are we out boy i can't believe i'm cycling on water this
is incredible no no no no no no no keep going keep going you can sit down when you're ready
good job adam nice work what are you steering
i think for a complete beginner to have progress this far in such a short time is fantastic
oh no that's training day one done today too which is all about learning how to do a submerged water
start which means pushing the bike under the water and peddling it up and out i asked him on
like a scale of one to ten how difficult this type of lunch is and he said nine out of ten
okay no problem this is so much harder than rowan made it look
i'm struggling because i don't weigh much so it's taken a lot of effort for me to push the bike
under the water and when i do manage to do it i can't get my balance right and i slip off
the nature of the challenge that adam is taking on in lake windermere means that he
needs to be able to do this so if conditions are trying if he is in difficulty he needs
to be able to get back on the bike himself it's absolutely crucial for him to be able to succeed
this is so frustrating and demoralising
i've been in the water now for over an hour
and the team are starting to get worried i want to keep doing this just don't give
yourself hypothermia eventually the decision is taken out of my hands and the team decide
to pull me out it's just so difficult once i'm searching for the pedals with my feet
i'm also trying to balance the bike itself and the slightest movement and you're the bike's away and
you're capsized and it's just so frustrating it's so annoying i mean if i don't nail this manoeuvre
like i'm in big trouble for the challenge because if i fall in accidentally at lake one mirror
i'm done like how am i going to get back on the bike again
today i want to try and focus on the submerged launch i want to be able to get out of the water
on the bike by myself because if i fall in in lake windermere i'm pretty much finished
i was so close that time i could feel it like the the hydrofoil started kicking in
and i felt myself coming out of the water but it just wasn't enough but i'm so close
yes yes yes yes yes yes
i can't believe it i've actually done it i've done a water start
but then disaster strikes i crash into a wall and although i'm totally fine
the session needs to stop we have an actual crack on the foil itself
this is something that we need right it's not to say like it's a handlebar that's slightly chipped
or cracked this we like we need this without this we don't really have a hydrofoil bike
whilst the team tried to get the bike fixed as soon as possible
i'm at a loss for what to do but i can't let this setback derail the whole challenge
so i've come to meet with two girls who know what it takes to prepare for a monumental challenge
in 2018 rhoda and ruth cycled nearly 900 miles from jonah groats to land's
end making rhoda the youngest ever person to complete this epic feat
hello girls hello how are you both great thank you so i have a big challenge to train for and
i thought if i spent the day with you guys maybe i'd pick up some uh little tips and
tricks of course he can yeah should we go for a bike ride sure yeah let's do it
so you guys have been like cycling basically all your life then yeah yeah it's just stuff
so guys what was it like uh doing your big journey from land's end to john o'groats hard was it yeah
over 900 miles we had to do 40 miles a day oh wow that's made me feel a lot better because i only
have to do 18 kilometers on like wondering wow when you think about it it's not that hard really
if you say so i just grit my teeth and get on with it just get on with it yeah that's what you gotta
do just get on just look up enjoy the view and get on with it so my bike it's broken okay do you
have any tips for me well keep training don't stop and you could train in a place like this
you could train on the road if you're training in your house if it's raining
yeah and you don't get really wet whenever i'm doing my bike challenge i'm worried that
the weather that day is going to be like really bad there's no such thing as bad weather only
the wrong clothes i like that as long as you're having fun and you've got the right gear yeah
maybe i'm foolish what i need to deny is train as hard as i can off the water
so that by the time the bike comes back fixed hopefully i'll be ready for this big challenge
so for the next two weeks i give it all i've got
while i've been doing my training a team of experts have been hard at work repairing the
damage i did to the bike and amazingly they've managed to complete the work ahead of schedule
okay i've got some good news as you can see we've managed to fix it and we're back out in
the water on the bike for one last training session and today i really want to focus on
building up as much distance as i can so i'm gonna try and aim for 12 kilometers there we go
the session starts pretty well all the training i've done has paid off and i'm doing all right
although it's definitely tougher out in the open water but i'm feeling comfortable okay i've just
been told i've done just over six kilometers which is just over a third of the distance
it's good but uh i want to do more today i want to try and at least do double that i'm feeling good
i'm feeling strong and i'm pretty confident i'll manage to achieve the goal i've set myself today
but little do i know disaster is around the corner
i just lost the pedal the pedal turned off and i lost my balance and fell in would you mean the pin
on paper the pedals even float i think we've lost that for good and i've only done about 8k today
the challenge is literally next week i'm raging i just wanted to do more
this is worrying really worrying it's definitely not the confidence big time
because now i'm going into lake windermere with no idea what half the distance even feels like
next time on blue peter with my bike fixed it's finally time to take on the biggest
challenge of my life will i manage to cycle the length of lake windermere
no no no no and can i set a new world record in the process this is not to be missed
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