Fairbrother is the best customer McDonald\u2019s never had. On Christmas Day 2025, the 21-year-old Kiwi zeroed in on a pair of Golden Arches close to his home in Christchurch, New Zealand, and proceeded to tap out what has to be the most nut-cracking Festive 500<\/a> the Rapha collective has ever seen. Twenty-four hours. A 25-second loop around the drive-thru. Five hundred kilometres.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n The obvious question: Why?<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, good question,\u201d Fairbrother laughed when I asked him about the thinking behind the ride. \u201cI\u2019m not too sure where I came up with the idea. It\u2019s just been burning a hole in my head for a while. I had to scratch that itch and get it done. I worked out the only time it was possible was when McDonald\u2019s was shut \u2013 and in New Zealand, that\u2019s only one day a year.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultra riders are, by their nature, slightly quirky. They enjoy the unknowns. And while Fairbrother\u2019s McDonalds mission didn\u2019t involve battling for survival in a remote corner of the globe, he still rolled in with a healthy dose of trepidation.<\/p>\n \n The ride was, of course, uploaded to Strava. Where it was immediately flagged. (Image credit: Strava)<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d never been to this McDonald\u2019s before, so I didn\u2019t know how long a lap would take. I didn\u2019t know what speed I could hold. The target was always 24 hours, but I didn\u2019t know how far I\u2019d get. Then, being competitive with myself, about an hour in I started doing the maths. Small goals came quickly. First it was 250 kilometres in 12 hours \u2013 tick. Then it was, OK, let\u2019s double that.\u201d<\/p>\n Five hundred kilometres around what is essentially a gastro-velodrome? Not quite. The drive-thru harbours a host of technical features that make riding less fluid than the boards \u2014 chief among them, two speed bumps. Two spine-jarring, derriere-destroying speed bumps on every single 25-second loop.<\/p>\n Fairbrother completed 2,650 laps.<\/p>\n \n Riding round a McDonald’s drive-thru is a unique way to spend Christmas day (Image credit: Matthew Fairbrother)<\/p>\n That\u2019s 5,300 encounters with those bumps. And, to make matters worse, he did the entire thing in standard, baggy cycling shorts. No liner. No chamois<\/a>. Yes, you read that correctly \u2013 and yes, I asked twice to be sure.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \u201cI think just being a mountain biker\u2026 yeah, I never really wear padded (bib) shorts<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cI did have to get out of the saddle a lot though. I\u2019m still, er, healing \u2013 can we say.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Strava](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ZpbuJ2xZvUzzWyKqYH9SET.png\")
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