This Rider Just Became the Fastest Woman to Bike Around the World
She may not be the fastest cycling woman in the world-that title likely belongs to Denise Mueller-Korenek, who broke the bicycle land speed record last month-but she’s the fastest woman to bike around the world.
On Thursday, Jenny Graham broke the women’s record for the fastest around-the-world bike trip. The 37-year-old from Scotland covered 16 countries and more than 18,400 miles in 124 days, comfortably besting Italian Paola Gianotti, the previous record-holder, who made the journey in 144 days in 2014.
“I just set out to see how far I could go,” Graham told The Guardian. “It’s sometimes been tough, but I thrive on challenges on the road.”
To make an around-the-world trek count for the Guinness Book of World Records, riders have to bike a minimum of 18,000 miles unassisted between two antipodum points, or locations directly across from each other on the globe. (Think of it this way: If you slice an orange, the places your knife hits on either side of the fruit would be the antipodum points.) In addition, riders must log an extra 6,900 miles on overseas flights, so that their total trip distance exceeds the equator’s length of 24,900 miles.
A post shared by Jenny (@jennygrahamis_) on Jul 12, 2018 at 10:49pm PDT
Graham followed a general route established by Mark Beaumont, who last year set the absolute world record for fastest ride around the globe, finishing in just 79 days. While Beaumont ended his ride in Paris, Graham started and completed hers in Berlin, rolling out on June 16.
Along the way she would hit Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Mongolia, China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S., Portugal, Spain, and France.
On the road, Cyclist reported, Graham sometimes stayed up for more than 20 hours at a time to get in her miles, often riding at night to avoid traffic. She averaged 156 miles a day, according to the Guardian. In Australia, she traversed a 90-mile stretch of highway with only the moon to guide her.
A post shared by Jenny (@jennygrahamis_) on Jul 29, 2018 at 9:26pm PDT
Before boarding her final flight back to Berlin, she finished her North American leg in Alaska, where she had to tough it out through darkening days and dropping temps. To reach the finish line in the time she wanted, she had to ride for 32 hours straight, according to the BBC.
“I knew I wanted to do something solo to test my physical and mental ability,” Graham told reporters. “I am the fittest I have ever been, so I thought I’d train hard and give it a go. Here I am, back in Berlin. I can hardly believe it.”
[Find 52 weeks of tips and motivation, with space to fill in your mileage and favorite routes, with the Bicycling Training Journal.]
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