‘‘My setup was quite minimalistic. It was just a sleeping bag and a bivvy bag.’’

In other countries he was ‘‘essentially just biking on a highway’’. ‘‘You’ve just got to take it as it comes and there’s no way of knowing what you’re going to find until you go and do it.’’

Fairbrother was originally going to skip the three races in North America, but a supporter set up a crowdfunding campaign to help raise money for flights after hearing about his challenge.

‘‘I ended up getting enough money to get over there, so I completed the whole season in the end.’’

In fact, Fairbrother was soon inundated with offers of support from the mountain biking community as more people caught wind of what he was doing.

However, he was determined to see the challenge through.

‘‘I had set myself a challenge at that point and had gotten so far that I thought I might as well keep it going.

Matt Fairbrother