World Tri Update: Charlie Survives Being Hit By A Car

Remember Charlie Wittmack? He's the guy who began an epic "triathlon" of sorts this past summer by swimming the English Channel. From there, he got on his bike, and is riding 9000 miles across Europe and Asia, where he'll eventually run 950 miles from the Sea of Bengal to the summit of Mt. Everest. Well, in theory anyway.

Charlie has been making great progress on his World Tri so far, having reached Kazakhstan back in October. But it seems he suffered a bit of a setback while riding across that remote, and mountainous, country located in Eastern Europe/Central Asia. According to this story from Bloomberg, Charlie was riding along a highway when he was struck from behind at 40 MPH and thrown from his bike and knocked unconscious.

Fortunately, Wittmack didn't suffer too serious of injuries, and after a few days of rest, he was back on the road and rushing towards China, which he hoped to reach before October 21st to help avoid the onset of bad weather. According to his latest blog posts however, he didn't quite back that deadline, as he  struggled with bike problems as he tried to climb over the 3962 meter (13000 ft) Torugart Pass, which leads from Kyrgyzstan to China along the old Silk Road. It took five tries, for various reasons, to complete that journey, and he made it on an old, rundown, single speed bike, crossing three high passes, and in cold, snowy weather.

The plan now is to reach India by December 1st, where he'll prepare for the final leg of the triathlon on foot. If all goes well, he'll be making a summit bid on Everest in the spring, bringing an end to this 11-month long epic adventure. Keep checking out Charlie's blog for progress reports and spectacular pictures of his journey. Good stuff.

Thanks to my kid sister for sharing the update. :)