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Vedangi Kilkarni (picture via Facebook).PNGUK-based student aims to become fastest woman to ride around the world
A 19-year-old from India who studies at Bournemouth University will set off from Perth, Western Australia, in June next year with the aim of breaking the Guinness World Record for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by a female cyclist.
Vedangi Kulkarni, who is studying sports management, is targeting the record of 144 days set in 2014 by Italian national Paola Gianotti, and aims to complete her 29,000-kilometre journey in 130 days.
Kulkarni, who comes from Pune in the state of Maharashtra, told PTI: "It is going to be super cool, I am very excited about it.”
Initially, her journey will take her across Australia from Perth to Brisbane, and she will then fly to New Zealand and ride from Wellington to Auckland.
From there, she will fly to Anchorage in Alaska and then cycle to Montreal in Canada before taking another flight to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.
That will be followed by the longest part of her circumnavigation as she rides more than 14,500 kilometres across Europe and Asia to Ulan Bator in Mongolia.
She will then take a flight to Perth to complete her round-the-world ride.
Referring to the rules set by Guinness World Records, which include passing through two antipodal points, she said: "There are certain laid-down norms in order to qualify. I am only adhering to them," she said.
Kulkarni is a relatively recent convert to cycling and began thinking about attempting the Guinness World Record after starting her studies in Bournemouth.
She said: "I met very interesting people and read a lot before finalising my plans. You need help because of the huge amount of logistics involved, and I am alone all through the journey.”
Currently, she is in India where she is hoping to find sponsors for her trip and is also working on some of the paperwork that will be needed on her world record attempt.
She has also set up a page on Go Fund Me, where she is aiming to raise £10,000 to help finance the journey.
As part of her preparation, Kulkarni has ridden in the Himalayas as well as from Land’s End to John O’Groats and entered this year’s London-Edinburgh-London, which she was forced to abandon through a knee injury – although she returned several days later to complete the ride.
The men’s Guinness World Record for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by bicycle was broken this year by Scottish rider Mark Beaumont, who arrived in Paris just 78 days after leaving the French capital to begin his attempt.
Last month at the Kendal Mountain Festival, Kulkarni met both Beaumont and the adventurer Sean Conway, an experience she said on Facebook would put her “back on the road with an updated mindset and a new confidence.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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13 comments
What a great challenge to undertake. I hope she goes ahead with it & I wish her all the best. I live in Australia & will be watching out for more news about her.
Juliana Buhring (who I consider the true record holder as she did it non stop) only had 8 months preparation with no cycling background and a shoestring budget. I didn't give her much of a chance when she set off but I really enjoyed following her tracker and proving me wrong.
I think it will be a tough record to beat but I would not rule Vedangi out on experience alone. I would be concerned about her youthfulness perhaps, but good luck to her.
....That's a Paris-Roubaix (220-230 km) every day. To ride this consecutively - and unsupported - will take a super-human effort. Not comfortable with Gianotti's 'record' which included a long break for injury. Avoiding injury is the main challenge for any compound indurance event. To carve it out makes a mockery of the record.
She's 19, recent convert to cycling, hasn't planned much, not much funding, failed relatively easy events is much more benign conditions, needs a chat with a 'pro' to have the right mindset and confidence, uses the phrase "super cool".
She'll not make half way!
Sounds like "please buy me a cycling holiday".
Don't want to sound like a tw't but unless you're top of gene pool, you don't recently start doing anything and break world records.
We shall see.
She won't do it.
What makes you say that?
The 'true' record holder would be Juliana Buhring, she did it in 152 continous days including travel time and, importantly, unsupported. Gianotti did her attempt fully supported with a van behind her at all times. I believe Guiness changed the rules in the meantime so that her record also excluded travel time. Gianotti also did it in two stages with ½ year of rest between them due to injury. Guiness accepted this rest period. There is, of course, a world of difference doing it unsupported vs supported.
Guiness are a joke these days, they give credence to records that aren't actually records and don't even beat existing marks. I pointed out an error in a claim that got an article here and elsewhere showing with unequivocal proof the 'record' was not in fact a record nor had it beaten the existing holder.
They just ignored it.
Both Guiness and the Ultra lot are guilty of changing/bending the rules and the spirit of how others have done it before, just makes a mockery of it all. They'll be including e-bike records next!
a good friend of mine holds various underwater records, longest time under with scuba gear, both warm and cold water. 49 hours at a depth of about 20 meters has broke the record a few times and ended up in hospital. Guiness then changed the rules on the minimum depth making it a lot easier to break. He was a little pissed off when someone beat his record under the new rules. He did challenge it but not sure of the outcome.
So its a woman attempting to cycle around the world but absolutely nothing about who holds the current record, or previous attempts. Just the bit about Beaumont.
It would take you 2 minutes of effort if you bothered to actually get the info.
In your own 2 minutes of effort, did you miss this bit?
"is targeting the record of 144 days set in 2014 by Italian national Paola Gianotti, "
Good luck, Vedangi!