I have the rules somewhere because I was hoping to have bagged the record by now. You have to go through two antipodal points. And 70% of the land in the world has somewhere in the sea as its antipodal point. The only really practical route for a speed record which meets this criterion is via Madrid-ish and Wellington-ish. Everybody does it this way.
I've only watched episode 1 and was irritated by two things:
1) this issue about using-so-many-calories-that-eating-fast-enough-is-a-huge-problem. I think they quoted some stupid statistic like 24 cheeseburgers to do 100 miles. What utter bollocks. Talk about Bad Science. Many of us here have done 90 mile days, day after day after day, and it's a piece of piss. My max is 160-ish in a day and all I did was stop for the odd sandwich and nibble on mixed fruit 'n nuts as I pedalled.
2) how much gear was he carrying! What with four humongous panniers maybe he really did need 24 burgers a day after all. And those butterfly bars can't have helped. I mean, it's supposed to be a SPEED record. Why do it on an overloaded donkey?
I have a Cunning Plan to use a much faster, easier route with a fast bike and minimal baggage. I'll do it when I'm even older and gittier, and show up these young fools for making a fuss about nothing.