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Video: Australian woman attempts to become first person to cycle across the Antarctic continent

Kate Leeming shows off the custom bike she will be using for her epic trip

Later this year, Australian adventurer Kate Leeming will attempt to cycle across the Antarctic continent via the South Pole. If successful, she will become the first person to complete the 1,800km journey. Leeming says she will be using the expedition to raise funds to fight AIDS in Africa.

Despite a history of exploration and adventure, Leeming says in a recent Guardian video that she isn't in it for the thrills.

“I wouldn’t call myself a straight thrill-seeker because I don’t think I’m much of a risk-taker actually. I’m a risk mitigator.”

There is a short window in which to complete the journey. The trip has to be done in the southern hemisphere’s summer during December and January, but even then there are a number of challenges.

“Obviously the Antarctic weather isn’t that predictable, so if there’s a storm you can just hang tight for about three days – they tend to last for three days maximum. There are crevasses, but we kind of know where the main ones are and we’re planning to avoid those crevasse fields.”

The first thing Leeming had to do was work out whether she was capable of dealing with the cold – but also whether the bike was capable of coping with it too. She is therefore using an all-wheel drive fatbike, so that she can drive both front and back wheels on the tough terrain.

Front wheel drive is achieved via rods running through the top tube and down the fork to the front wheel. The mechanism can be switched on and off as and when she needs it. The 12cm wide tyres ensure a large contact area with the snow to ensure traction.

Leeming says that mental strength will be the quality she relies on most, but believes her previous epic cycle journeys have helped her develop this.

In August 2010, she completed a ten month, 22,040km journey across Africa from Point des Almadies, Senegal, to Cape Hafun, Puntland, Somalia, during which she explored the causes and effects of extreme poverty.

She has also completed a 25,000km ‘Great Australian Cycle Expedition’, including 7,000km off road. That trip entailed crossing the Canning Stock Route – 1,800km long with approximately 1,000 sand dunes – the first time this had been achieved by a woman. In 1993, she also completed a five-month trans-Siberian cycle expedition from St Petersburg to Vladivostok in aid of the children of Chernobyl.

Her latest expedition will be used to raise funds to fight AIDS in Africa. Writing on her crowdfunding page on Pozible through which she hopes to raise 80,000 Australian dollars, she explains:

“As I learned about many of the poverty-related issues during my Breaking the Cycle in Africa expedition, a 22,000km journey by bicycle from Senegal to Somalia, I often felt frustrated and powerless to do anything about them and vowed to do my best to make more of a difference in the future.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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3 comments

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brooksby | 8 years ago
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Well, yeah, but if someone off blue peter did it, it can't be so difficult Can it?  39

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chokofingrz | 8 years ago
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She only done half, innit?  26

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brooksby | 8 years ago
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I thought that some woman off of Blue Peter did it already?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Skelton

Quote:

In 2012, Skelton raised more money for Sport Relief by becoming the first person to reach the South Pole using a bicycle. The bike was custom built for her trip, with 8-inch-wide tyres. She also used skis and a kite to help her pull a sled containing 82 kg of supplies.[19]

She covered 329 miles by kite ski, 103 by bike and 69 by cross-country ski. She is also the first person to claim a world record for the fastest 100 km by kite ski, in seven hours 28 minutes, which was set during the trip (subject to verification).[20] A degree of controversy surrounds the speed for distance claim but Guinness World Records defended the award saying "We are aware of explorers who have achieved longer distances, but Helen Skelton’s application was the first that Guinness World Records had received specifically for the 100-kilometre distance".[21] Blue Peter also made five six-episode specials for this event.

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