麻豆传媒映画

A group of French cyclists have set a world record after completing a 1,000-km route in the shape of a dinosaur.

Florent Arnaud, Maxime Brugere, Franck Delorme, Nicolas Meunier, and Jean Roule recorded their trip using the fitness app Strava.

The intrepid quintet - triathletes that are part of the Loire-based cycling team Cyclos Randonneurs Saint-Galmier - have now been entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for the .

鈥淲e were in quite good shape,鈥� said Mr Brugere, 29, speaking to The Connexion on Thursday (April 20).

鈥淭he weather was good, except for one day. It was tiring physically but relatively easy mentally. We made the head shape first.

鈥淭he main difficulty is to make a nice shape. Florent redesigned the route to avoid the forest roads. We needed as many tarmac roads as possible. Out of the 1,000 kilometres, we rode 900 kilometres with all four people.鈥�

When the GPS is enabled, Strava draws a line showing the user鈥檚 route on a map.

Creative people seized on this and realised that - instead of a bog standard circle - you could make interesting drawings.

The dinosaur (intended to be a Velociraptor) shape took 1,024.7 km to cycle in total, breaking the previous record of 760 km. The journey took more than 43 hours over six days, and the cyclists crossed the departments of Cher, Sa么ne-et-Loire, Indre, Ni猫vre, Creuse, and Puy-de-D么me to get the perfect shape.

Mr Arnaud : 鈥淲e chose these departments because they鈥檙e not far from us in Loire, and because it鈥檚 flat. There are fewer winding roads than in the mountain areas, which allows us to make more precise shapes, like teeth, for example.鈥�

The group had already done smaller dinosaur shapes in preparation for the record-breaking attempt, including a T-Rex in 2020 and a Diplodocus in 2021.

In order to confirm their record-breaking journey, however, they had to gather 鈥榩roof鈥�.

Mr Arnaud, 31, said: 鈥淓very day, we collected signatures and asked residents who saw us to fill in forms. We took photos and videos, and made note of the GPS coordinates.鈥�

Mr Brugere told Strava that the team had chosen to draw a dinosaur because 鈥渄inosaurs are proof that such a strong species can quickly become extinct鈥�.

鈥淲e are the main culprits of this environmental crisis, but also its main victims. As such, the future is in our hands and cycling is one of the best ways to contribute to change,鈥� said the teacher.

The team now has plans to do another challenge.

鈥淲e'll probably do a new challenge,鈥� Mr Brugere told The Connexion. 鈥淲e wanted to draw a dragon, a dinosaur with wings鈥�it will be an animal, probably a dinosaur.

鈥淥ur record is sure to be beaten fairly quickly. I've already had a few calls from people looking for advice because they want to break the record this summer by making a heart. Even if we don鈥檛 make a new record, it will still be a beautiful cycling trip.鈥�

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