Lael Wilcox going for Jenny Grahams RTW record

Choosing a route is absolutely part of the challenge of the record IMO. If the backtracks in Lael’s route satisfies the GWR folk then it’s fine with me. If it turns out it’s an easier route than previous records then that’s fair play.

I’d be really interested to hear what Jenny Graham thinks of tihs attempt. It’s got a lot of differences to her approach but also a lot of similarities. I strongly suspect she’d be nothing but suportive.

hence legs over the Alps and through Switzerland

Including the Stelvio.

Interestingly ‘fastest’ and ‘flattest’ didn’t seem to be the only priority

Lael has finished the first leg from Chicago to New York. Her first 6 days are on Strava and “flattest” certainly looks like a low priority.

I’d be really interested to hear what Jenny Graham thinks of tihs attempt. It’s got a lot of differences to her approach but also a lot of similarities. I strongly suspect she’d be nothing but suportive.

Very much this.  In her book Jenny explains her self imposed rules that would have made it harder for herself.  She did the record the way that she wanted to do it, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to do it that way.  I don’t think this takes anything away from Jenny’s record or anyone else’s attempt. Is Marc Beaumant’s record less valid because he had a support crew and large budget?  I find the idea of “the spirit of things” for a world record a bit ridiculous.  Either it’s within the rules or it’s not.  If you really care about the record then you will do everything in your power to take the quickest, easiest route to give you the best chance of success and not be beaten by someone else who pushes every rule to its limit.

It would definitely be more impressive if she did a leg that went though Derbyshire, as the shit stae of the roads and th number of wankas in Audis would most definitely slow her down.

Long podcast interview with Lael discussing just about everything mentioned up thread, for those interested, apart from **** drive Audis in Derbyshire

Escape Collective: Ultra: Lael Wilcox’s race against time for the Around The World record

Episode webpage: https://share.transistor.fm/s/b5131012

Media file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/media.transistor.fm/b5131012/f7622c09.mp3

Anyone got any idea what’s happening with Vedangi? Her tracker has been stationary just outside Kolkata for several days now.

I think she got heat stroke in India and is jumping to Mongolia

https://www.instagram.com/thisisvedangi?igsh=MWV6Z2kwZ3g0d2UwbA==

Do you have a link to the tracker!

Ah thanks for that. I see she is now in Mongolia and setting off on Wednesday. I wonder if this will be a restart.

Here’s the tracker:

Vedangi Round the World

Sorted, I’ll aim to watch both attempts. I’ll open another tab for Vedangi.

I have been dot watching every day and it looks like Lael is nearly back in Chicago. Probably Friday morning?

20 miles to go. My estimated finish time was a few days out!

108 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes

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A post shared by Lael Wilcox (@laelwilcox)

Absolutely amazing. By my maths, an average of 167 miles a day!

On the BBC as well:

BBC News – American becomes fastest woman to cycle globe
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7344w3jzzo

No going to compare with my Strava for the last 108 days!

Amazing achievement, hoping there’s a great film coming up about it, I find her really engaging on her previous stuff.

I’ve been dot watching and listening to the daily podcasts with breakfast. A great performance. I don’t think I’d have the mentality to ride every day for 108 (well 109) days and as for those daily distances, Crikey. What really impresses me is that she decided to do it with a decent sleep each night.

BBC mentions Vedangi. Sadly she seems have been having problems and won’t be threatening Lael’s record but she is plugging on.

Who’s next? Lachlan? Currently averaging over 300 miles a day on his trip around Australia.

Who’s next? Lachlan? Currently averaging over 300 miles a day on his trip around Australia.

He did a lot of those miles in flip-flops as well cos he was getting hot-spot problems in his cycling shoes!

I’d be really interested to hear what Jenny Graham thinks of tihs attempt. It’s got a lot of differences to her approach but also a lot of similarities. I strongly suspect she’d be nothing but suportive.

One article I read somewhere (social media maybe?) said that JG was at the finish in Chicago cheering LW in. Does seem to be a thing in ultra-endurance racing where the whole community is really supportive because they all know that records are there to be broken and they understand what the athlete went through in order to achieve that. Seems to go through phases as well – there was a spate of Everesting records a few years ago when lots of people were at it and – as with this round-the-world record – part of the challenge is choosing the right hill, the right weather conditions and so on. The records will never be exactly equal if Person A does it on this hill but Person B chooses another hill; same as RTW where either you have an exact route to be followed (which is probably unworkable) or you just set some parameters and leave it to the individual to abide by that framework.

Hell of a ride, no matter what anyone thinks of the overall record.

Brilliant news, I have been listening to her podcasts.  She s done some monster daily miles and night rode through the desert, sleeping in the day.

I too couldn’t believe she had any bad days or got bored, but as she says in interviews she feels she could carry on.

Loving all the support she got along the way.

One article I read somewhere (social media maybe?) said that JG was at the finish in Chicago cheering LW in.

According her Instagram she was congratulating her from Scotland.

There is a his interview Mark Beaumont on GCN on how he wants others to try for his record and the impossibility of using his route

The feature starts about 2 minutes 20 seconds in

And congrats to Lael too of course