The stark effects of climate change and the rigours of riding a bike very fast butted heads once again at the weekend, when ultra-endurance cyclist Lael Wilcox was forced to abandon her around-the-world record attempt after suffering from heat exhaustion in France.
The 39-year-old Alaskan was 14 days into her bid to beat Mark Beaumont’s outright record for circumnavigating the globe by bike when she was encouraged to stop by her support team, after days of feeling nauseous while riding through Europe’s second heatwave of the year.
“It’s kind of a miracle I haven’t just passed out. I’ve never tried so hard,” an emotional Wilcox said in a video posted on her Instagram account on Sunday. “I was hammering the food, trying to bulk up my body. I even shaved my head and everything!”
In 2024, Wilcox set the women’s record for cycling around the world, completing the 18,125-mile ride in 108 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes, beating Jenny Graham’s previous marker by more than two weeks.
This time, she was aiming to usurp ultra-cycling legend Beaumont’s 2017 mark and set the outright Around the World record, which would have meant cutting just under 30 days from her 2024 effort.
As part of her bid, Wilcox – whose sparkling career has also seen her set the fastest times at the world’s most important endurance events, such as the Tour Divide, Trans Am, Baja Divide, and Badlands – carried out wind tunnel testing at Specialized’s Californian headquarters, organised a full support crew for the first time in her career, and even shaved her head for comfort and efficiency.
She set off from Chicago, Illinois, on 7 June, battling a headwind and rainy conditions as he completed the first leg of her ride across North America. However, after arriving in Spain earlier this week, into what she described as a “heat dome”, Wilcox began to suffer in the oppressive temperatures currently hanging over Europe.
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On Saturday, she posted a video on Instagram showing her battling the extreme conditions – with the aid of a seemingly unlimited supply of ice socks – after a day she described as the “most humbling ride of my life”.
“I’m just getting hosed every day. You think a bike ride is going to be easy,” she laughed. Despite the best efforts of her team, a nauseous Wilcox began to fall behind the pace required to eclipse Beaumont’s record as she suffered in the heat, leading her to being physically sick early on Sunday morning.
And later that afternoon, 14 days and roughly 3,000 miles into her ride, in Fontainebleau, just south of Paris – and with the heatwave expected to follow her during her ride across Europe – Wilcox called it a day.
“I’m the strongest I think I ever have been, but it’s just not coming together. It’s okay, it’s a bike ride,” she said in the video.
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“We tried to do a lot with a little, and we already did do a lot. You know what, I feel fine, it’s not the most devastating thing. This one, I feel, is another climate change lesson and every year I’m having more and more of those.
“With this, my biggest concern was smoke in the west, and we’re two months away from that. This is day 14? We were expecting a big challenge but not health problems.”
After being told by one of her crew that she was displaying all the signs of heat exhaustion, Wilcox said: “I don’t take enjoyment out of how hard it is, I just try to survive. But each day I think, this could be the last day. And I guess today is the last day.”
In a post shared on social media, the ultra-endurance star continued: “The heatwave will continue in Europe for the next week, traveling my route’s trajectory.
“I’ve been nauseous every day and finally threw up in the first hour of my ride this morning – heat exhaustion got the better of me. Concerned for my health and safety, my team asked me to stop my ride.
“Honestly, I’m amazed I’ve endured the past 14 days. Conditions have been really tough. I hate to quit, but it’s the right choice this time. I just can’t manage race pace in the heat. It was nice to finish the ride going past Fontainebleau in the centre of France with a sweet crew.
“We’re heading to Switzerland and then back home – maybe adding a quick stop in Lithuania. Thanks to everyone for cheering me on and riding with me, truly great to see people coming together and celebrating the sport.”
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The spectre of climate change and rising temperatures has haunted cycling – a sport played out in the great outdoors – in recent years, with races increasingly susceptible to extreme weather conditions.
In February, a new study published by researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health warned that global warming and extreme heatwaves may soon make many July afternoons too hot for racing at the Tour de France.
The researchers looked at the future of European outdoor summer sporting events through the lens of the past half century of the Tour de France, the country-crossing bike race acting as a near-perfect case study for the impact of climate change and extreme heatwaves on summer sport.
Looking at the analysis, the study suggests the Tour has been, thus far, actually quite fortunate to avoid the July days historically featuring the highest heat. This is, of course, down to chance and ASO cannot hope to continue to be lucky enough to avoid extreme heatwaves and the most dangerous conditions.
“With record-breaking heatwaves becoming more frequent, it seems only a question of time as to when the race will encounter the extreme heat stress days that will test the existing heat safety protocols,” the research noted.
For example, while hourly heat stress values for Paris have crossed the high-risk threshold (as per the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature heat index) four times since 2014, this has not yet coincided with the Tour’s visit.
While mountain stages and locations “largely remain safe”, the study highlighted increasingly notable episodes of dangerous heat levels that are becoming most common around Toulouse, Pau, Bordeaux, Nîmes and Perpignan.
However, other locations such as Paris and Lyon are also starting to cross the 28°C WBGT threshold more frequently too.
To combat this, researchers advised extra caution when planning routes, emphasis on hot-weather protocols, and even the idea of scheduling stages for the morning to avoid concerning midday and afternoon temperatures.
3 thoughts on “Lael Wilcox abandons Around the World cycling record attempt after “another climate change lesson” amid European heatwave”
Unfortunately its only going to get worse because we don’t seem to be overly concerned about climate change do we.
On an unrelated note, I’ve never quite understood “around the world” records as they seem to have such loose rules that its almost pointless to compare different attempts.
@mctrials23 the rules aren’t really that complicated:
– at least 18,000 miles
– pass through one set of antipodal points
– travel in one direction
– only use scheduled transport
that’s basically it. what makes the whole thing a mess in my opinion is that there aren’t *enough* rules, so me trying it on my own with panniers is effectively going for the same record as lael is with a full crew
@dave atkinson Thats my point about loose rules, its possible to have two attempts with massively different routes which change the actual feat by a huge margin and yet the two attempts are considered comparable for the sake of the record. I don’t understand it.
You wouldn’t have that in almost any other record. I understand that ultra distance events are a little different but it still feels like there could be more constraints/categories.