Josh Quigley: The cyclist who never gave up

Josh believes cycling saved his life

Josh Quigley believes cycling saved his life.

Eight years ago he was battling depression and found himself lost, with alcohol his only escape.

He had split with his long-term girlfriend and was at breaking point.

After an attempt to take his own life, it was a talk by Sir Chris Hoy that inspired him to get on his bike for the first time since he was a child.

Despite being having no experience, he started to set himself challenges and has since set two world records for endurance cycling.

• Round-the-world cyclist badly injured in US crash

He also attempted to cycle around the world on eight separate occasions, finally completing the task at the end of 2021.

Two years earlier, a previous attempt ended when when he was hit by a car travelling at 70mph as he cycled through Texas.

He suffered life-threatening injuries and had to stay in hospital in the US for months.

Just over a year later, he fractured his spine, pelvis, elbow, shoulder and ribs in another crash in Dubai.

Josh's last attempt to cycle the world saw New York as his final destination

In the BBC documentary Our Lives: Cycling Saved My Life, Josh speaks of his journey with cycling over the years.

Now 30, he told the BBC he has always been a "very extreme" person.

"Everything I've ever done in my life, I've always had that ambition underpinning it," he says.

"So I think to get into cycling and going round the world, it was the biggest thing I could have done and that's where I started."

Josh, who grew up in Livingston, West Lothian, says his early life was not healthy and he started drinking at the age of 12.

From there, he says he became engulfed by the drinking culture and found it hard to break out of the pattern of downing alcohol with friends every weekend.

"I think the round-the-word challenge was great because it gave me a huge thing to focus on but also it gave me a bit of time away from Scotland."

He also became a world record holder in September 2021 for the greatest distance cycled in a week

After Josh's sixth failed attempt to cycle around the world, his dad died.

Josh says he was close to him but sometimes his father struggled to understand that he wanted to take a less traditional path.

He said losing his dad gave him the motivation to get back on his bike and start his seventh attempt to cycle around the world.

He was 14,000 miles (23,000kms) into his attempt when the Texas crash happened.

Despite the major set back and years of previous fails, Josh completed his eighth attempt in December 2021, after deciding to go back to America to finish what he started.

"It didn't go very smoothly, that's what I'll say for sure," he says.

"There was loads of times in the beginning where I would quit and I would fail and I would come home because I wasn't sure of myself.

"I didn't have the confidence and there was definitely a fear of doing it."

In total, he pedalled 26,000 miles through more than 30 countries on four continents.

In the future, Josh hopes to be signed by a cycling team

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Mornings programme, Josh said his crash had made him more resilient.

"No amount of accidents or injuries are going to stop me doing the thing I love, which is riding the bike," he says.

Throughout his journey, Josh says he has been surrounded by a good support system, including his fiancé Megan.

She met Josh in the planning stages of his first attempt for the world record and they are due to get married next year.

In his most recent venture, Josh attempted to get into the cycling world championships, which will be held in Glasgow in August.

But he has never won a single competitive race.

He said he struggled this racing season and suffered with lots of fatigue.

After waiting for results from his doctor, Josh discovered he had the Epstein-Barr virus, which he describes as almost like having long Covid.

In his final chance to get to the championships, Josh finished 83rd in his category.

Josh and his fiancé, Megan, plan to get married in 2024

Despite this, he won't let anything get in the way of his ambitions.

"I've been having a really tough time so far with my racing because obviously, my endurance was really good, but racing is obviously a different discipline of cycling," he says.

"My first couple seasons have not really gone that well. I've not been getting any results. I've been really kind of struggling with it.

"But I think it's similar to round-the-world in a lot of ways where I struggled with that for a lot of time at the beginning but I believed I could do it."

Josh's dream is to get signed by a professional team and one day make it to cycling's highest level.

"The Tour De France would obviously be the ultimate dream," he says. "So that's what I want to try to do."

He also hopes to meet Sir Chris Hoy, the Scottish Olympic cyclist who inspired Josh to start cycling.

"It would definitely be great to sit down with him one day and just chat about it because I wouldn't be cycling without him really."

Our Lives: Cycling Saved My Life is on BBC One on Friday 28 July at 19:30 and on the BBC iPlayer.

Details of organisations offering information and support with mental health are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free, at any time to hear recorded information on 08000 155 998.