Local man James Griffiths from Stottesdon near Bridgnorth is to be the very first Briton to take part in the Tour of the Dragon Race in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
Billed as the ‘most extreme one day mountain bike race in the world’, the race will see James, who is a wildlife and conversation advisor for Natural England, cycle 268km across four mountain passes reaching altitudes of 3340m and climbing 4000m.
This is the fourth such race; in the first one held in 2010 only 9 of the 23 participants completed the race. James, who has been training at altitude in mountainous areas in Europe, will line up at the start on 6 September and anticipates the race will take him between 14 and 17 hours.
He is raising funds and awareness for the work carried out by Spinal Research UK. James has been supported in his challenge by Live the Adventure, also based in Stottesdon. To follow James’ progress visit livetheadventure.co/blog