The record for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by a woman has been smashed by Italian Paola Gianotti who finished a 144-day, 29,430km trip yesterday.
"The best goal of my life!" the 32-year-old announced on her Facebook face after breaking Juliana Buhring's 2012 record of 152 days.
Gianotti set out on March 8 from Ivrea, Italy on her attempt on the record, but was forced to take a break when she was involved in a crash in Arizona that left her with a fractured vertebra.
Paola Gianotti tucks into a small snack on the final leg of her trip, in Italy
That crash on May 18 meant several months at home healing, with doctors warning her that too early a return to the bike could lead to paralysis if her vertebra was not properly fused.
She got back on the road on September 16 and seems to have had no bigger obstacles on the second leg than Australia's notorious magpies.
She arrived home yesterday to a hero's welcome, as you can see in this video:
On her web page, Gianotti says she has always been adventurous, travelling to Swaziland, Venezuela and the Himalayas.
A pre-ride publicity shot
She decided to ride round the world after losing her job.
“Because of the economic crisis, my business closed and I said, ‘It’s now or never’. I rolled up my sleeves and began to plan the adventure,” she told Gazzetta dello Sport.
Unlike Buhring, who rode unaccompanied, Gianotti had a support crew in a camper van. The Guiness Book of Records makes no distinction between supported and unsupported round-the-world record attempts.
Gianotti's route
15 thoughts on “Italian smashes women’s round-the-world record”
Does that mean for the next
Does that mean for the next “Hour” Record attempt that it can be done in 2×30 Minute sessions over a period of months too?
Bit confusing. Wiki states
Bit confusing. Wiki states that the “old rule” whereby you discounted time spent flying etc doesn’t count anymore, so, by extension, it does seem weird that you can stop the clock while you recover.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the_world_cycling_record
Still, top effort mind.
These Juventus fans get
These Juventus fans get everywhere
🙂
I think having recovery time
I think having recovery time because you’ve broken your back is reasonable – most people would have given up.
markfireblade wrote:I think
I disagree. It would have been more reasonable to start again.
I think it’s very reasonable.
I think it’s very reasonable. But is it within the rules?
Yes, top effort particularly
Yes, top effort particularly given that she had to recover from such a nasty injury and presumably the gap meant she would have lost some riding fitness too.
It does seem bizarre though that the record makes no distinction between supported and unsupported attempts – having backup must take a hell of a lot of stress out of the whole thing and also significantly lighten your bike.
Tony Farrelly wrote:Yes, top
That reminds me. What happened to that lot who were doing it supported. I recall one bloke selecting Zipp carbon wheels and 23c for the trip. Or something like that….
I was on a PB for a 100 2
I was on a PB for a 100 2 years ago but did a Jonny Hoogerland (and yes the barbed wire fence did come of best). After I crossed the line if I’d have asked the event organiser to remove the 22 lost minutes (while I had been patched up, given spare unripped kit to wear and my bike repaired) from my time I reckon the answer would have been…..you guessed it. I would have to re-visit my attempt when recovered and start from….you guessed it again, the start line, so called because that is where you start from. Good effort though Paolo, it must have been heart breaking to injure yourself and have to pull out, but, when all’s said and done, you know what you should have done, start again…from the start.
This makes no sense to me, if
This makes no sense to me, if the circumference of the earth is 24,900 miles why is the minimum distance to be cycled only 18,000?
EnglishmanAbroad wrote:This
Can you cycle over water?
I follow Juliana Buhring on
I follow Juliana Buhring on fb, and her response to this claim of a “record” was to say “I am flattered it took a former Olympic athlete who trained for 3 years, with a support crew, campervan and a wealth of resources to beat a woman who had never cycled, travelling alone with her bags…by just a week.” Not to discount the fact that Giannotti skipped India and posted pics drafting behind her campervan. Her total time was over 8 months, since the clock no longer stops according to the Guinness rules. How was this “smashing” a record? What a joke.
Obviously not But the
Obviously not 😉 But the distance can be made up elsewhere. Instead of flying over India and the middle east how is it with cycling across Africa?
Call me old school, but
Call me old school, but having a support crew following you, carrying all your gear, a vehicle you can draft and a place of rest and respite is frankly cheating. The RTW race should be done solo and unsupported with a tracker to record progress. And taking 8 months off for what ever reason should mean you go back to the start.
If the record is for the
If the record is for the fastest time from start to finish (as the new rules state) then Juliana can rest easy knowing that her time has not been beaten. The world of sport is full of hard luck stories, crashes can ruin a record attempt after 30 seconds, 30 mins or 30 days; the way a true sportsman deals with the failures is as much a measure of them as how they claim the victories.