Two-time Dakar winner Sam Sunderland is in the heartbreak hotel after his world record attempt came to a sudden stop on September 28, when his pre-production Triumph Tiger 1200 suffered a technical problem just 23 days after he set off. Sunderland was on track to beat the fastest recorded time to circumnavigate the globe on two wheels, which has stood since Kevin and Julia Sanders set it in 2002.
There's no public information about the specifics that ended Sunderland's record attempt, but we know some of the circumstances surrounding it.
Somewhere in the Central Australian outback, Sunderland's Tiger 1200 sustained some damage. The British rider later admitted that he had tried to fix the damage himself so he could continue the record attempt, much like he would if he had to fix an issue during a rally raid just to finish the stage. It seems that Sunderland's repair attempt got him a bit further, but eventually the bike came to a complete halt, and then the situation was even worse than a basic mechanical issue due to where he was stranded.
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When the bike eventually came to a stop and he had to call the support team, Sunderland hadn't seen anyone for hours—he was as in the middle of nowhere as it gets. But here's the interesting thing: mechanics attempted to repair the Tiger 1200 but couldn't get it done within the roughly 24-hour window they had before Sunderland was truly out of contention for the record attempt. But for a team of mechanics who are there specifically to fix this bike should a problem arise, not being able to repair something within 24 hours begs the question of what the issue was.
Sunderland was on track to comfortably beat Sanders' record of 19 days, 8 hours, and 25 minutes before the mechanical issue, which makes it all the more heartbreaking for the British rider. What it also puts into perspective is how impressive the current record is, as Kevin and Julia Sanders did it two-up on a 2002 BMW R1150GS without a support team, and here we are more than two decades later with the latest machinery and equipment still trying to topple it.
