Race Across America with Dan Richards

World Extreme Medicine Podcast

In this conversation we talk with Dan Richards around the transcontinental Race Across America 3000-mile race, making it longer and more gruelling than the tour de France and one of the toughest bike races in the world.

In May 2009 Dan Richards lost his right arm, shoulder and part of his neck in a motorcycle accident whilst in the military. Dan has gone on to navigate the highs and lows of rehabilitating and adapting his life for the better. Dan has found his passion for elite cycling and has ridden in the Invictus games amongst other high-performance events.

Dan Richards isn’t just a normal run of the mill kind’ve guy!
From a young age he knew, within his heart of hearts that he was joining the British Army! Leaving home for the very first time at 17 years old, that is exactly what he did.

Posted to Afghanistan in Sept 2007 before trekking through Northwestern Nepal and The Trans Himalayan Plateau, Dan had aspirations to train as a Farrier with his regiment - The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.

Dan’s career would come to an abrupt end when, on the 31st May 2009, he was involved in a collision with The Central Reservation on London’s A41.

Deciding upon needing something else to do, he picked up a bike and began throwing himself into cycling. It was atop a hill in Verdun, France in 2016 that Dan decided that “I’m going to be a cyclist” and subsequently set the goal for and competed at the 2018 Sydney Invictus Games. Using the games as his “line in the sand” Dan’s life has taken a dramatic turn from where it was once was! Being forced into a change situation and adapting to it has, as Dan say’s, “probably made me a better person”

Dan is currently part of an 8 man getting ready to take part in the worlds toughest bicycle race; the Race Across America.

Looking back on his life, Dan sights and stands by unequivocally that losing his arm and shoulder is the greatest thing to have happened to him.