IN BRIEF
Lael Wilcox abandoned her attempt on the outright round-the-world cycling record on 21 June, after 14 days of racing and 4,948 kilometres covered since Chicago.
The American was targeting Mark Beaumont’s record — 78 days 14 hours, set in 2017 — having set off on 7 June. Europe’s second heatwave of 2026, with temperatures approaching 40 °C in southern France, got the better of her health.
Daily nausea, and vomiting on the morning she pulled out: her team decided to stop the attempt to keep her safe. Wilcox summed up the experience as “another lesson in climate change”.
On the morning of 21 June, somewhere north of Fontainebleau, Lael Wilcox’s team took the decision to stop. The American rider was coming out of the forest, nauseous for days, after being sick within the first hour of riding that morning. Her team brought the attempt to an end.
Wilcox had left Chicago on 7 June to try to beat the outright round-the-world cycling record, held by Britain’s Mark Beaumont since 2017: 78 days 14 hours. She was the first woman to attempt this non-gendered record since her own ride in 2024 — when she set the women’s record in 108 days.
Two heatwaves in two weeks
After crossing North America in the rain and into the wind, Wilcox set foot in Europe and dropped straight into the season’s first heatwave. The second arrived before she could recover from it. Europe was living through its second heatwave of 2026, with temperatures forecast to reach 40 °C in southern France.
Her team had tried to limit the damage: 4 a.m. starts, ice packs on the neck, forced hydration. None of it was enough. “It’s almost a miracle that I didn’t just collapse,” Wilcox told Cycling Weekly.
4,948 kilometres in 14 days
The numbers remain impressive: 3,075 miles (4,948 km) covered in 14 days, at an average of 25.4 km/h. Record-setting pace, cut short.
To match Beaumont’s 78 days, she would have had to ride roughly 29,000 kilometres in total, an average of about 372 km a day. The Chicago–Fontainebleau leg alone is already an extraordinary feat.
“Another lesson in climate change”
Wilcox did not try to play down what had happened. “Every year I learn more lessons about climate change,” she told road.cc. “This attempt is another one.” The ground on which ultra-distance cyclists operate is shrinking as favourable weather windows close.
Escape Collective reports that she has not said anything about her future plans. What is certain is that Beaumont’s record — one of the last great cycling records still standing — is there for the taking.
