When JPMorgan Chase's Sedef Imer finishes her working day at the London office at the end of July, she won't be taking the tube home. Instead she's setting off to Sydney, Australia. Nothing odd in that one might think, but how about if that trip was being made on a recumbent bike (known by aficionados as "a bent").
"When I mentioned the trip to friends, their reply was 'so you're going to cycle to Heathrow airport, jump on a plane to Australia, and cycle from the airport to the centre of Sydney'," says Imer. But Imer and her partner Nicolei Zuraw are making the 25,000km ride to Sydney on just four wheels between them, passing through three continents, 15 countries and 11 time zones.
The trip, sponsored by Canadian software company mail2web.com, will involve cycling six days a week, six to eight hours a day for a year. They hope to raise £50,000 for UK charities Cancer Research and Children in Need.
It will be money well raised. Explains Imer: "This is going to be no carefree jaunt – there are so many challenges ahead that will no doubt make us regret ever having started in the first place more than once: frenzied mobbing by kids and adults who have never seen a foreigner on a bike before – never mind the weird contraptions we will be on.
