Ian To has just abandoned halfway through his attempt to break the Land’s End to John o’ Groats record of 44 hours, 4 minutes and 19 seconds, set in 2001. Ian, a 37-year-old business strategist from Wiltshire, had hoped to maintain a speed of 20mph (32kmph) for 42 hours without sleeping in order to cover the 838-mile distance.

Hi everyone, yesterday Ian suffered with heatstroke. He also had a minor crash early on. He’s struggled with a bad stomach throughout the night and this morning we’ve decided, for his safety, to abandon the attempt. We choose to go out but we must come back. More to follow…

— Project 44 – LEJOG (@PLejog) May 20, 2018

He has impressive credentials for the attempt: in two months in 2016, Ian won the Giro Ciclistico delle Repubbliche Marinare (2,200km around Italy), Hard Cro (1,400km around Croatia) and Sverigetempot (2,200km, north to south of Sweden), according to Cycling Weekly.

Ian To @ITultracycling going strong through Kempsey, Worcestershire on his #project44 #LEJOG world record attempt #Cycling pic.twitter.com/nbAYIuKeJL

— Dan Grant (@coeurcycliste) May 19, 2018

Ian trains 20 to 40 hours per week, and had already racked up more than 6,000 miles this year before the start of his attempt. “Anything under 44 hours would do,” Ian told Cycling Weekly. “Ideally I’d like to do it in 42.”

Ian has competition from Michael Broadwith, a 40-year-old Math teacher from Hertfordshire. Michael also holds impressive credentials: he’s a three-time national 24-hour TT holder. Michael had planned to set out on April 30. However, the weather wasn’t cooperative at the time, and End to End 2018, a Twitter account dedicated to his attempt, says they’ll update when they’ve decided on a start date.

The @cyclingweekly feature covered @24hourmaths and Ian To of @PLejog. Ian’s attempt starts 6am tomorrow (track via his bio) – safe ride and best of luck! We’ll update here when we decide the start date for @24hourmaths – thanks for all your support and good wishes while we wait. https://t.co/hL87liyWMx

— End to End 2018 (@endtoend2018) May 18, 2018

• Ian To on Twitter: @project44lejog
• Follow Ian on Blackblox
• Profile of Michael and Ian on Cycling Weekly, with commentary by current record-holder Gethin Butler: Land’s End to John o’ Groats: How to break an unbreakable cycling record
• Project 44 – Lejog
• Profile of Ian on the Swindon Advertiser: TRUE LIFE: I’m good at enduring – that’s what it’s all about
• Michael Broadwith on Twitter: @24HourMaths