Cyclists who made huge GPS dinosaur on France trip break world record

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 largest GPS drawing by bicycle (team).

“We were in quite good shape,” said Mr Brugere, 29, speaking to The Connexion on Thursday (April 20).

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

“The 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.”

When the GPS is enabled, Strava draws a line showing the user’s 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, Saône-et-Loire, Indre, Nièvre, Creuse, and Puy-de-Dôme to get the perfect shape.

Mr Arnaud told France Bleu: “We chose these departments because they’re not far from us in Loire, and because it’s flat. There are fewer winding roads than in the mountain areas, which allows us to make more precise shapes, like teeth, for example.”

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 ‘proof’.

Mr Arnaud, 31, said: “Every 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.”

Mr Brugere told Strava that the team had chosen to draw a dinosaur because “dinosaurs are proof that such a strong species can quickly become extinct”.

“We 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,” said the teacher.

The team now has plans to do another challenge.

“We'll probably do a new challenge,” Mr Brugere told The Connexion. “We wanted to draw a dragon, a dinosaur with wings…it will be an animal, probably a dinosaur.

“Our 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’t make a new record, it will still be a beautiful cycling trip.”

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