Jenny Graham

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Jenny Graham (born 1979or1980) [1] is a Scottish endurance cyclist. In 2018 she became the fastest woman to cycle around the world unsupported. This record was broken by Lael Wilcox in 2024. [2]

Contents

Biography

Graham is part of the Adventure Syndicate (a collective of female endurance cyclists) and a member of Cycling UK. She started cycling in 2004, [3] and was introduced to ultra-distance racing when planning a bike trip to Romania, after coming across the Highland Trail 550. [4]

Graham is from Inverness in Scotland [5] and lives with her son in the Bught area of the city. [6]

In 2017, she was awarded an Adventure Syndicate training bursary place where she met cycling coach John Hampshire. He trained her for a year for free after seeing her potential. [7] After this, she cycled the 750 mile Arizona Trail Race, finishing sixth. [7]

With the Adventure Syndicate, she cycled Land’s End to John o'Groats in four days over New Year, spending about 20 hours on the bike each day and mostly riding in the dark. She described the attempt as "brutal" and "absolutely disgusting". [8]

Record for cycling around the world

In June 2018 Graham began an attempt to break the record for a female cycling around the world, only the third woman to take on this challenge. [4] She rode unsupported and carrying all her kit, [9] attempting to break the previous record of 144 days, held by Italian cyclist Paola Gianotti, by completing the 18,000 mile journey across four continents in 110 days. [10] Her route was through 15 countries – Germany, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Mongolia, China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, US, Portugal, Spain, France and Holland, and includes four flights and a boat. [11] Graham's record attempt was covered by Dotwatcher.cc. [12]

After 23 days, Graham crossed into Russia, and had covered 5,126 miles when crossing into Khongor in Mongolia. [9] At the halfway stage, Graham was in Australia. [13] In late August or early September 2018, Graham reached the Yukon Territory from Alaska, having cycled 12,000 miles of the total journey. [5] A local shopkeeper advised Graham to acquire a firearm to protect herself from hungry bears who were down from the hills for the salmon in the river. [5] [14]

Graham's custom-built bike was donated by the manufacturer Shand Cycles in Livingston, West Lothian. [10] It has a steel frame to absorb shock on the variety of road surfaces along the route. Steven Shand has previously worked with Olympic medalist Sir Chris Hoy to design a keirin bike. [15] Graham's record attempt was also supported by London-based bikepacking bag manufacturer, Apidura, [4] many local people and businesses in the Inverness community, and by the leading US cloud solutions company, Unitas Global Inc.

Jenny arrived back in Berlin on Thursday 18 October 2018 [16] having completed an unsupported circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle in 124 Days, 10 hours and 50 minutes; Guinness World Records confirmed the attempt as recordbreaking in June 2019. [1]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Inverness cyclist Jenny Graham a new world record holder BBC News Scotland, Accessed 10 June 2019
  2. ↑ "American Lael Wilcox becomes fastest woman to cycle the globe". www.bbc.com.
  3. ↑ "Jenny Graham | Cycling UK". www.cyclinguk.org. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 "Jenny Graham; Taking on the 'Around the World' Record - Apidura". Apidura. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 "Inverness woman well on her way to breaking round-the-world cycle record | Press and Journal". Press and Journal. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  6. ↑ "Achieving record would mean the world to cyclist Jenny". www.inverness-courier.co.uk. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  7. 1 2 "Scottish cyclist Jenny Graham aiming to set new round the world record". road.cc. 7 June 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  8. ↑ "Jenny Graham Q&A: Alone around the globe in 110 days". Cyclist. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  9. 1 2 "Round the world cyclist reaches Mongolia". BBC News. 17 July 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  10. 1 2 "Can Cycling UK member Jenny Graham break the female record for cycling around the world? | Cycling UK". www.cyclinguk.org. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  11. ↑ "Scottish cyclist Jenny Graham looking to break the round the world cycling record this summer". Cyclist. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  12. ↑ DotWatcher.cc
  13. ↑ "Scots solo rower halfway across Atlantic". BBC News. 7 August 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  14. ↑ ""You've got a gun? It's bear season"". BBC News. 3 September 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  15. ↑ "A Highland cyclist is to embark on an 18,000 mile cycle around the world | Press and Journal". Press and Journal. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  16. ↑ "Scottish cyclist smashes round-the world record | The Guardian". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
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