Last week, Dr Sarah Ruggins arrived in Nordkapp, in the far north Arctic-tickling tip of Norway, exactly 13 days, 20 hours and 27 minutes after setting off on her bicycle from Tarifa in southern Spain. Her total riding distance was 6,042km, and just to put that into context, last year’s entire Tour de France was 3,301.9km in length, spread across 21 stages and three and a half weeks.
In completing her epic journey in such a blisteringly fast time, the Canadian-born athlete and adventurer not only smashed the existing world speed record for riding from the bottom to the top of Europe – knocking over three days and 32 off the time set by Dr Ian Walker, in 2019 – she also set a new record for the greatest distance ever ridden by a woman in a week, riding 3,364.08km in seven days.
