Who is Matt Downie and how did he break Mark Beaumont's North Coast 500 record?

On 27 September, Matt Downie broke Mark Beaumont’s North Coast 500 record by an hour and five minutes, setting a new time for the 500-mile route at 27 hours, 30 minutes, zero seconds. The record is still pending confirmation from the World Ultra Cycling Association, but we can be sure of one thing: this fresh-faced newcomer is about to raise the bar for ultra-distance cycling.

GCN spoke to Downie to find out more about how the challenge came about, the ups and downs of the ride itself, and what the future might hold.

© Matt Downie

Matt Downie (middle right) with his support crew

A total newcomer

Given his inexperience, it’s a miracle Downie made it to the finish, let alone broke the record.

Before riding the 829km route, the longest ride Downie had done was a measly 8 hours – less than a third of the time he’d spend riding the NC500. When his friend Harry Johnson messaged him asking if he wanted to have a crack at the famous North Coast 500 record, Downie had no idea what ‘NC500’ meant. Nonetheless, he was keen to have a go:

“Within 30 seconds of me Googling it, I was like, ‘f**k it, go on then, let's do it.’”

It was that attitude that seemed to carry this whole attempt forward. Downie had a budget of just £1000 and only a couple of small sponsors to speak of. He started his preparation just three months before the attempt, which consisted of, as Downie puts it, “just sort of like zone two riding basically”.

This record has a distinctly ‘homemade’ feel about it. There was no nutritionist, performance manager or film crew. There were no big-name sponsors and there were no crowds at the start and finish.

It was just Downie, with a couple of mates and his girlfriend in a car behind, giving it his best shot. It’s a credit to Downie and his team that, despite all of that, and despite his inexperience, he was still able to slash Mark Beaumont’s big-budget record by over an hour.

An ambitious racer, at the end of his rope

Matt Downie is one of the many young cyclists who has, for years, been a ‘nearly-pro’. Despite a short stint on a UCI Continental Team, and a lifetime dedicated to cycling, he’s never quite made it to the big time. In fact, at the end of this year, he was planning to sell all his racing equipment and settle into a ‘normal’ life.

Now, having taken a famous record from ultra-distance behemoth Mark Beaumont, he’s poised to become a dominant force in the world of ultra-endurance cycling:

“I was going to hang up the wheels and sell everything at the end of this year, but now I've done the NC500, I've reignited the love of cycling, and just the enjoyment, just a pure enjoyment.”

© Matt Downie

The view from the support car

Recommended by a friend

It all happened thanks to friend Harry Johnson, who suggested Downie should take on the record. Johnson is a Transcontinental Race finisher, and he supported Downie during the preparation and the record itself.

Downie says Johnson asked him to go for the record because, “he thought to himself, ‘who's the craziest person I know who would actually try and do this?’ And he landed on me.”

In reality, though, it appears Downie was selected because of his unbeatable aerobic power. He’s a keen time triallist, and excels when it’s just him against the wind.

• Read more: Long distance cycling tips from Mark Beaumont

Downie told GCN: “I’ve got a big base. I spent a couple of years riding, not 270W but near enough to 270W every ride, pretty much.”

With a powerful ‘diesel engine’ like that, Downie was perfectly built for a long, steady effort like this one. On the record-breaking ride, Downie averaged 190W, and had a weighted power average (Strava’s equivalent to normalised power) of 229W – impressive numbers for a 27-hour effort.

The ride

The ride came to 829km, and covered 11,855m of elevation gain – for reference, an ‘Everesting’ is 8,848m of elevation. Downie averaged 30.15kph, despite spending a rather luxurious hour and five minutes stationary. That time wasted by the side of the road was mostly due to equipment changes – high crosswind gusts forced Downie to switch between his road and time trial bikes far more regularly than planned.

That wasn’t the only bit of bad luck that held him back. When he first set off from Inverness Castle, he faced a barrage of red lights.

“I hit every red traffic light going through Inverness. And I was like, this is not the way I want to start this record.”

Downie was frustrated that so much time was lost, but really, it shows just how dominant he was, and how much more he could achieve.

“We think we can go faster. So that may be the plan for next year – to do it again.”

Once he was out on the open road, things started to turn in Downie’s favour.

“I had a good tailwind going across to Bealach na Ba. I think right before the  Bealach na Ba, I averaged about 39.5kph. We had a howling tailwind, so that really helped, but I kept the power steady.”

That tailwind put Downie ahead of Beaumont’s record-setting pace, but rather than relax, Downie continued to push on, making his lead even more convincing.

“I think I was taking 20 minutes out of Mark [Beaumont] every 50 miles, so there was no point where I was down on the record.”

As the ride neared its end, Downie began to worry that the record would slip away from him. It was in the final portion of the ride that Beaumont really picked up the pace and took the record from Robbie Mitchell last year.

“But”, says Downie, “my team reassured me that – especially when the knees started playing up – they were like, ‘look, all you have to do realistically is ride 15mph all the way to the end and you just have the record’”.

Equipment

Downie alternated between two bikes, a road bike and a time trial bike, both top-end machines.

His road bike was a Specialized S-Works Venge – the now-discontinued dedicated aero bike from Specialized – which was paired with deep-section Enve wheels. His time trial bike was an Orbea Ordu with an Enve disc wheel in the rear and Speeco bars up front.

More aero optimisation came in the form of his clothing, with a Nopinz skinsuit and long socks from Huub.

Interestingly, he used a ‘chest fairing’ while on his time trial bike. As GCN's Ollie Bridgewood explored recently, fairings like this, which are becoming increasingly common, and somewhat controversial, in non-UCI time trials, come with a considerable aerodynamic advantage.

© Matt Downie

Matt Downie used an aero chest fairing on his TT bike

What’s next?

As well as beating his own time on the NC500, Downie has Land’s End to John O’Groats – the record for riding from the bottom to the top of the UK – in his sights.

He’s also planning to take on the Transcontinental Race, a mammoth race across Europe, in a pairs team with Harry Johnson, the man who persuaded him to ride the NC500 and supported him to the finish.

With a newly rediscovered love of cycling, a taste of glory, and an inbox full of inquiries, the future seems bright for Downie. After years of trying to fit himself into road cycling, he’s found something he can truly excel at.

Downie has bootstrapped his way into the record books, and he has learnt an awful lot. With experience, with more resources, and with confidence in his own abilities, we’ll be intrigued to see what else he can achieve.

Watch Mark Beaumont's previous attempt at the NC500 record on GCN+ now. And explore our extensive collection of exclusive and original cycling films.