'I feel like Eddie the Eagle in a truck!' (From Gazette & Herald)

'I feel like Eddie the Eagle in a truck!'

A RUSSIAN corporation has invited a Ryedale businessman to become the first ever Westerner to join a gruelling 4x4 race.

Phil Cornelius will brave snowdrifts in the Ural Mountains, frozen Siberian tundra, a 70km stretch over the ice of Lake Baikal and the razor-sharp ice boulders on the frozen rivers of Eastern Russia.

Phil, from Kirkbymoorside, said he felt like "Eddie the Eagle in a truck".

The director of Helmsley-based travel agency Ryedale Travel will lead one of 50 teams vying to finish first and win a top prize of 10kg of pure, solid gold worth about £100,000.

Phil said: "The Russian organisers hope to make this their equivalent of the Paris-Dakar rally. Last year they only had entries from Eastern Europe and Russia, but now they want to widen its appeal, and offered to sponsor a UK team.

"I put an application in, and was chosen. To be honest, I suspect I was the only one daft enough to do it."

Phil, 57, will be joined by Charlotte Ellis, 28, and a Russian driver who will help to navigate and translate. The organisers, Russian company Expedition Travel, will supply a Mitsubishi L-200 vehicle to each team.

The aim is to complete the 10,000-mile route between February 23 and March 8 - just 14 days.

Last year's race was the first of its kind, and was subject to intense attention from national Russian media. This year, Phil and Charlotte will be the first Westerners to take part in the event.

Race spokeswoman Elena Nikolaeva said: "The race stems from an ideal born of a fundamental love of the Russian Motherland, a belief in the spirit of the individual and a desire to reach beyond the bland conformity of a rapidly globalising society to share the exhilaration, joy and exuberance of unknown Russia with as many people as possible."

Phil added: "I have been to the Arctic before, so I am used to the cold, but the other teams will be much more experienced in these conditions. I'm feeling a bit like the Jamaican bobsleigh team, or Eddie the Eagle in a truck.

"Apparently, it can get as cold as -40C - at that temperature your exhaled breath immediately turns to ice and clatters to the ground in shards. At -50C, metal starts to crack, and at -60C birds drop out of the sky, dead. I leave on February 18."

Updated: 15:41 Wednesday, January 11, 2006