American Is Fastest Woman to Bicycle Around the World

She made it around the world in 108 days—an impressive feat not least because Lael Wilcox was on a bike. The 37-year-old US cyclist ended her remarkable circumnavigation in downtown Chicago on Wednesday with a time of 108 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes, beating Scottish cyclist Jenny Graham's 2018 world record by almost exactly 16 days. Wilcox, who covered 18,125 miles, even smashed her own expectations. When the Alaska native left Chicago at 7am on May 26, she anticipated returning in 110 days, Outside reports. She went on to average 175 miles per day on her bike. On one day, less than two weeks ago, she managed 271 miles while attempting "to escape a horrible heatwave outside of Needles, California," per Outside.

Wilcox, who holds several other long-distance cycling records and was the first female winner of the 4,000-mile TransAm race, crossed 21 countries on four continents, per the BBC. She rode from Chicago to New York City, flew to Porto, Portugal, continued cycling to Tbilisi, Georgia, then hopped on a plane to Perth, Australia. From there, she road to Brisbane, caught a plane to New Zealand, cycled across the South and North Islands, then flew to Anchorage, Alaska, for the final stretch back to Chicago. To clinch the Guinness World Record, she had to travel 18,000 miles in one direction, go no more than five degrees off course, and pass through at least two diametrically opposed points on the globe (Madrid, Spain, and Wellington, New Zealand), per Outside.

"Every day is like a marathon," Wilcox said of the trip, which involved cycling up to 14 hours a day and recording a daily 15-minute podcast. "It's just a tremendous effort to be able to do that day in and day out for 108 days straight," Anne-Marije Rook, an editor at Cycling Weekly magazine, tells the BBC. "It's the most amazing thing to see women out there pushing their sport the way they want to," adds Graham, who describes herself as "a massive fan." Wilcox's wife, photojournalist and filmmaker Rugile Kaladyte, plans to release a documentary about the ride by the end of this year. Wilcox's record could be stolen before then. As the BBC notes, Indian cyclist Vedangi Kulkarni, 25, is currently 65 days and some 5,000 miles into her attempt at the record. (More cycling stories.)