Metal hips man cycles the county

Rod cycled 230 miles (370 km) around Dorset in 24 hours

A Dorchester man with two replacement hip joints has attempted to cycle around Dorset's perimeter in 24 hours.

Rod Drew took on the challenge to show that having artificial joints need not be a handicap.

His 230-mile (370 km) trip also raised money for Dorchester Arts, and Rod said his journey around the county was "full of surprises".

Rod said: "Dorset is incredible. There's a huge contrast of the flatness of the east and the fairly hilly west."

Anti-clockwise

Rod, 64, set out from Weymouth Esplanade, heading eastwards.

His aim was to cycle along the county boundary as closely as possible.

Stopping off at friends' houses, he only took three short rest breaks during the 24 hour period and the challenge gave him a strong sense of achievement.

He said: "People have always identified me as someone who does a lot of sport, and sport has defined me through most of my life."

So a painful deteoriation of his hip joints several years ago, which reduced his ability to participate in sports, was a huge blow.

Rod had a hip replacement operation in November 2002

Metal hips

But when Rod had what he describes as "hip resurfacing" in November 2002 it enabled him to become active again.

He said: "Even though you have metal in your hips, you can still run, and you can still cycle, and before this type of operation came along [someone like me] would have been very restricted."

"I'm quite emotional thinking about it now, but having the operation was a complete turnaround for me."

Rod was born in Shaftesbury in the north of the county, and has also lived in west Dorset, so it was exploring unfamiliar parts of Dorset's east that he found particularly interesting.

He said: "I was cycling at night through the Ringwood forest and I was struck by the absolute quietness of it.

"There was no traffic around, and just a feeling of very much being on my own with nature. I felt a bit isolated."

Hot soup

From there Rod headed northwards, taking a 30 minute break in Shaftesbury around midnight, before cycling on for another seven hours.

His next break, at 7am, was at Chard Junction.

He said: "By now I was cold and tired, but some friends gave me some hot soup and kept me awake."

Fatigue forced Rod to miss out Lyme Regis but on his approach eastwards along the coastal road, he found he got a "second wind".

He said: "At Bridport I felt like I was starting a new day. As I headed through Burton Bradstock I was reportedly seen flying through the village at great speed!"

Rod set out from Weymouth Esplanade at 1300 and returned 24 hours later

Elated

Rod returned to Weymouth on target, arriving 24 hours after he had left.

He said: "I felt elated, and I felt like I could have carried on, but I was extremely hungry for soup."

Rod hopes to have raised around £1,000 towards the £4,000 target for a new exhibition space for Dorchester Arts.

He has no planned cycling challenges ahead, but is not ruling out another attempt to cycle around the county, perhaps in a clockwise direction.

He said: "I would have done the cycle the other way around (ie clockwise) but the weather conditions were so bad I just felt that if I'm going to have to go into the wind at the start and then come back into another lot of wind at the end, plus the hills of west Dorset as well - when you're fatigued it's very tough.

"But since having my hips I never predict how I'm going to be.

"One minute you can be in full vigour and then the next second you can change.

"That's why it's good to live every day."