Lael Wilcox smashes women’s Around the World cycling record – But what does ‘circumnavigating the globe by bike’ actually entail?

On Wednesday evening, American ultra-endurance cyclist Lael Wilcox arrived back in Chicago 108 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes after setting off from the Windy City with the aim of being officially recognised as the fastest ever woman to circumnavigate the globe by bike.

In between, the 38-year-old Alaskan cycled 18,125 miles, through 22 countries and across four continents, complete with a total elevation gain of 192,024 metres (almost four times the climbing involved at this year’s Tour de France).

And she did so by covering around 168 miles, or 270km, a day, at an average moving speed of 14.42mph that saw her beat Scottish cyclist Jenny Graham’s previous around the world record of 124 days and 11 hours from 2018 by more than two weeks.

(Rue Kaladyte)

Of the 108 days Wilcox spent making her way around the planet, she spent just over half – 54 days and 12 hours, in fact – on her bike, often in the company of the friends, strangers, and well-wishers that joined her for portions of her extremely long ride (at least 3,000 cyclists are reported to have dropped in at different times), while the other 54 days were devoted to refuelling, resting, and keeping everyone updated of her progress on her daily bite size podcast.

Pending approval by Guinness World Records, Wilcox’s around the world ride, documented by her photographer and videographer wife Rue Kaladyte, will sit atop the litany of fastest times she’s already achieved at the world’s most important endurance events, such as the Tour Divide, Trans Am, Baja Divide, and Badlands.

“I had so much fun, I felt like I could’ve just kept riding forever,” Wilcox posted on Instagram alongside photos of the crowd of supporters who gathered at Chicago’s Buckingham Fountain on Wednesday evening.

How much of the world constitutes ‘around the world’?

So, aside from consuming an ungodly amount of Coca Cola along the route, how exactly did Wilcox circumnavigate the globe by bike?

Wilcox’s full ‘around the world’ route

After setting off from Chicago on 26 May, the Alaskan bike packer was forced to endure a block headwind and thunderstorms as she made her way through the bike paths and lanes of Indiana and Ohio, before reaching New York eight days later.

After flying to Portugal, Wilcox then rode north through Spain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, before finally turning south-east to make her way through Germany and central and southern Europe, eventually hitting the 6,000-mile marker in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

From there, the 38-year-old set off for Perth, via a layover in Dubai, for a 5,000-mile ride across Australia (a route put together by retired pro cyclist Mitch Docker), followed by a ferry to Wellington and a tour of New Zealand.

> Rapha athlete Lael Wilcox encounters mountain lion and wildfires during testing start to Tour Divide record attempt

Another flight from Auckland to her hometown of Anchorage teed up the final leg, 13,255 miles in, back across Canada and the United States, where Wilcox was joined by large groups of up to 100 cyclists as she homed in on her Chicago return, after almost four months on the road, and her place in ultra-cycling history.

“Sometimes I forget that I’m riding around the world,” Wilcox said during her final US leg. “It just feels like the most fun pop-up group ride I’ve ever been on.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Lael Wilcox (@laelwilcox)

But, while the scale of Wilcox’s 108-day ride is certainly impressive, and her achievement in completing it in the time she did undeniably staggering, it hasn’t been lost on many onlookers that her route isn’t quite what you would normally describe as ‘around the world’.

In fact, with the exception of Georgia, which sits at the intersection of Asia and Europe, Asia wasn’t included at all in Wilcox’s travel itinerary, nor were Africa or South America.

“It’s a remarkable feat of human endurance which I greatly respect,” one Reddit user commented on a thread about Wilcox’s ride.

“But it defies all common sense to call it an around the world route when it skips Asia almost entirely, and has the most convoluted routes through USA and Europe possible. It’s a very fast, very impressive tour of the developed countries of the English-speaking world, plus Europe.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Lael Wilcox (@laelwilcox)

So how can an around the world record be set on a route that in reality only really covers some of the world?

Well, the answer, as ever with these things, lies in the rules and regulations.

According to Guinness’s stipulations for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle, the rider’s route should be continuous and in one direction, the minimum distance ridden should be 18,000 miles (28,970km), and the total distance travelled should exceed, either by bike or commercial travel by air or sea, the length of the equator (24,900 miles or 40,075km).

Riders must also start and finish in the same place and while they don’t necessarily have to cover as many parts of the world as possible, they must ride through two approximate antipodes (locations on opposite sides of the planet) – which in Wilcox’s case were Madrid and Wellington.

Record hunters must also maintain a consistent direction of travel, and are only allowed to veer off course five degrees from their east to west or west to east route, with any “considerable distance travelled opposite to the direction of the attempt” officially discounted.

“Cycling around the world is so much more than simply riding the bike”

The difficulties in tracing a route that adheres to those rules while also giving the rider the best chance of breaking the record were noted by Wilcox in her first podcast before setting off from Chicago.

(Rue Kaladyte)

“The full route is pretty simple, but it’s the European stretch which took the most work and has the most detail,” she said.

“I have to ride 18,000 miles, 29,000km, and there are only five rules to go after for the Guinness world record. The first is starting and ending in the same point. Second, you ride either east or west. Third, you take commercial transportation between continents, so that means either flights or boats.

“Fourth, you cannot zig-zag, you can’t go backwards more than five degrees. So that’s about 500km, 300 miles. And the last is you have to cross two opposite sides of the globe. So for my route it’s Madrid, Spain, and Wellington, New Zealand. And one additional rule is that your full travel has to be 40,000km, about 25,000 miles, including your riding and commercial travel.”

She continued: “All that leaves the record wide open for interpretation – where are you going to ride, how are you going to cover that distance, and what that means.

“And most people think, ‘oh you’ll ride the most direct route, and the flattest route, and the fastest’. Which sounds really boring. So I really thought this is a chance of a lifetime to get to do a huge ride, both for seeing beauty and for competition at the same time.”

(Rue Kaladyte)

And that sums it up in a nutshell.

While for purists the concept of an ‘around the world’ ride may conjure up images of a globe-trotting journey across every continent, venturing across remote places and unexplored roads, the reality – especially for elite endurance cyclists intent on riding fast and breaking records – instead means that the planning phase will mostly revolve around good roads and safe, predictable locations (with, as many have noted on social media, safety representing one of the most important considerations for two women travelling around the world).

In fact, Wilcox’s route was broadly similar to the one undertaken by Mark Beaumont when he set the men’s record for a second time in 2017 by completing the 18,000 miles in 78 days and 14 hours.

However, the Scottish rider notably took on a much more direct route through North America and Europe than Wilcox, aided by his ability to travel at the time through Ukraine and Russia, and onto Mongolia and China before taking on Australia.

Meanwhile, the logistical challenges associated with planning an around the world record attempt are most clearly evident in the route currently being plotted by Vedangi Kulkarni, who is at the time of writing 66 days into her own attempt to ensure Wilcox’s record is a short-lived one.

Kulkarni, an Indian adventure cyclist currently living in Inverness, became the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe by bike in 2018 at the age of 20 (and the fourth fastest at the time), and is looking to repeat the feat while riding solo and unsupported.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Vedangi Kulkarni (@thisisvedangi)

However, Vedangi’s Indian passport means she wasn’t able to secure the necessary visas to complete her preferred route, so was forced to be creative to stay within Guinness’s rules.

“As an Indian citizen, I need to apply for visas for different countries and submit a ridiculous amount of documents. I remember once submitting a 70-page file for a visa application,” she told BikePacking before setting off two months ago from INS Chilika, a naval base in India.

“My route is utter chaos purely because certain countries could provide appointments in time, while others weren’t able to convey their decision before I needed to leave. I applied for everything in good time without waiting until the last minute or leaving anything for on-the-go, but it just wasn’t good enough.”

Designing her route based on countries that grant e-visas or have easier visa processes for more nationalities, Vedangi has made her away across India and Mongolia, before flying to Australia and New Zealand (where she currently is).

Like Wilcox, her antipodes are Wellington and Madrid, but unlike the Alaskan, Vedangi’s route will include South America, namely Peru, before a northeastern-facing European leg that will take her from Portugal to Sweden’s Arctic Circle. From there, it’s down to Oman and a final leg to the southern tip of India, completing a route that the adventure cyclist says will cover a lot more than 18,000 miles.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Lael Wilcox (@laelwilcox)

But in any case, Vedangi – who responded to Wilcox’s record-breaking ride by simply posting ‘LEGEND!’ on social media – isn’t too concerned about the bare numbers of her circumnavigation attempt.

“Cycling around the world is so much more than simply riding the bike,” she says.

And, after 18,000 miles and 108 days on the bike, it’s clear that Wilcox’s record-breaking ride is also about much more than the route.