On Could 26, 2024, ultra-endurance bicycle owner Lael Wilcox will set off on a quest to pedal her approach into the historical past books but once more as she goals to set a brand new Guinness World Document by circumnavigating the world in simply 110 days.
| Do not miss our interview with Wilcox about this final FKT try right here!
For an around-the-world bike journey to qualify for a Guinness World Document, the rider should full the identical distance because the circumference of the Earth — 18,000 miles— in a single route, beginning and ending in the identical place. The rider might make their personal route, and air and sea journey is allowed to soar between continents so long as at the very least 18,000 miles are really ridden by bike.
Scot Jenny Graham holds the present girls’s around-the-world biking file, finishing her 18,400-mile (29,600km) route in 124 days and 11 hours in 2018. To beat this file, Wilcox says she’ll should journey at the very least 163 miles a day for practically 3.5 months.
“I like competitors and a chance to attempt to be the quickest. However to be the quickest for one thing that takes like three and a half months is simply loopy,” Wilcox instructed Biking Weekly. “I at all times get aggressive and I need to do my finest however this one is so lengthy that I’ve to provide my finest effort as a result of I do not need to have to return again and do it once more.”
The always-smiling Lael Wilcox
(Picture credit score: Rue Kaladyte)
The 37-year-old Alaska native is arguably among the finest ultra-endurance cyclists of all time, having dominated the game of uber-long sufferfests for the previous decade. Her listing of accomplishments is prolonged and contains information at principally the entire world’s greatest endurance races, together with Tour Divide, Baja Divide, Trans-Am, Navad 1,000, Badlands, Westfjords Means Problem and the Arizona Path – simply to call a couple of. Wilcox additionally gained the 350-mile Unbound XL in 2021 after driving her bike 600 miles to the beginning.
We’re now only a week out from the beginning of Wilcox’s endeavor and it is beginning to get actual for the Alaskan.
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“God, it is gonna damage, however it will be so cool, too,” Wilcox tells Biking Weekly. “Journey of a lifetime.”
Let’s have a have a look at the bike that may assist Wilcox cowl the 18,000 miles around the globe.
The Across the World bike
(Picture credit score: Rue Kaladyte)
The bike frameset is the latest Specialised Roubaix, launched in fall 2023. This iteration sports activities a light-weight carbon body with aerodynamic tube shapes, 40mm tire clearance, loads of accent mounts and an improved Future Shock under-stem suspension system.
Wilcox can be utilizing SRAM’s brand-new 2x Crimson groupset with a 10-36t cassette. She’ll carry 2-3 spare AXS batteries and a charger. Wilcox tells Biking Weekly that she goals to remain in lodges at the very least each different night time for good relaxation and battery charging functions.
Her wheels are Zipp 303 Firecrest rims laced to a SON dynamo hub within the entrance and wrapped with 35mm tubeless Specialised Mondo tires.
Wilcox is well-known for her chamois-free driving, and depends on the Specialised Energy Professional Mirror saddle to maintain her woman bits completely happy. Her belongings can be stuffed in bikepacking luggage from Revelate Designs.
Whereas the frameset is a inventory difficulty, her cockpit is something however. Minimalists, avert your eyes —this cockpit is packed! The bottom consists of ordinary drop bars with Zipp’s clip-on aerobars to supply a extra snug long-distance driving place. There are additionally a number of different equipment, together with a custom-made sleeping bag harness by Revelate Designs, journey snacks, a telephone, a Wahoo bike laptop and a dynamo gentle unit. But, because of Shawn Small of Ruckus Composites, the setup stays neat and environment friendly. Small crafted {custom} carbon mounts for the aerobars, offering an organized house for all these equipment.
Wilcox says the whole package deal is” by far the most effective setup I’ve ever had—so streamlined.”
Wilcox has but to disclose the whole route, however when she does, she invitations the neighborhood to return out and pedal a couple of miles together with her. Those that prefer to observe alongside can take pleasure in every day tales from the street in her new Lael Rides Across the World podcast, created by her spouse, skilled photographer and videographer Rue Kaladyte.
