He is Australia's most successful cyclist, with a swag of titles including seven consecutive world championships, yet no one has heard of him and he has to fund his riding with a full-time job.
That's because Jason English has chosen to excel in the extreme discipline of 24-hour mountain bike racing.
"It's not a glamorous sport." 24-hour mountain bike champion Jason English.Credit:Jeffrey Chan
While Cadel Evans and Richie Porte are household names, English squeezes his training in between a full-time job as a physical education teacher in Port Macquarie.
"My wife's always telling me I picked the wrong sport," English laughs. "I usually don't even get free entries into competitions. I don't want my hobby to cost my family money so I pick races that are cost-neutral. If I can have a free weekend, that's a good weekend."
Jason English (front) has won a swag of world titles.Credit:Gary Schafer
His sport entails riders doing as many laps of a dirt track as they can over 24 hours, carrying their own lights.
"At the last worlds in New Zealand, I spent less than a minute off the bike. My longest transition time was 15 seconds," English says.
That race was the closest contest English has had, with Canadian lumberjack Cory Wallace fighting for top spot until the final lap.
"I was going as hard as I could. I almost gave the marshall a hug when he told me Wallace hadn't made the split."
Wallace called his effort "inhuman", but English said it came down to "a bit of mongrel" on the last lap.
"It's not a glamorous sport. You look wrecked at the finish line. You're falling asleep, eyes are bloodshot from the mud and dust, people are chucking up. It's pretty brutal."
Despite his modesty and his lack of commercial success, English's achievements are unparalleled.
He has raced 30 24-hour solo races since 2007, winning 27, including 25 consecutively. He has held the Australian national title since 2008.
But many of his students don't know who he is and he says he leads a double life, juggling work, training and spending time with his wife and two young children.
So how has the baby-faced 36-year-old been so dominant?
"I've got no idea," he says with a laugh before admitting to a punishing training regime that includes daily rides at 4am, regular weight sessions and a weekly tally of 1000 kilometres before a big event.
He says he's very goal-driven, focusing on short-term rewards while racing such as the next food stop or the coming dawn. The hardest part of 24-hour races is between 1am and 4am, and this is when English often pulls away from the rest of the field.
Hydration and nutrition are vital, and riders have a combination of endurance drinks, soups, noodles and gels. English uses his own training as experiments to see what the body can achieve and has released YouTube video of a 240-kilometre ride powered only by coffee and attempting an Everesting event (riding a bike repeatedly up and down a hill until you have covered 8848 vertical metres) on a fixed wheel bike eating only eggs.
English is racing in India and will return to Australia to defend his national title at the Scott 24 in Canberra on October 8-9. After he quits, English hopes to get into coaching and skill development. Unfortunately for his competitors, he is showing no signs of throwing in the towel, saying the late 30s is peak performance time for endurance athletes.
"My wife keeps saying I should go out on top, but then I think, just one more race."
MARATHON MAN
142,756.6km ridden so far
227,845 vertical metres climbed so far in 2016
445.2km distance English rode from Campbelltown in Sydney to Port Macquarie