On the evening of Friday 16th May 2025, Dr Sarah Ruggins arrived in John o’ Groats after departing from the same spot five days, 11 hours, and 14 minutes before to claim a remarkable outright JOGLEJOG world record, riding the length of the UK and back again faster than any person before her.
Meticulous planning from Ruggins and her crew, including a live tracker that was followed by countless dot watchers over the past week, has given us valuable insights into how a record-breaking ultra ride is executed, as well as helping to ratify the achievement beyond any reasonable doubt; and despite having only recently purchased a road bike, Ruggins left no stone unturned when it came to the kit, equipment and nutrition that would give her the best possible chance of success.
Members of Ruggins’ JOGLEJOG crew were kind enough to provide road.cc with some more details about the bike, gear and nutrition choices that powered her into the record books with around seven hours to spare. Making some purchases inspired by what’s mentioned below won’t turn us all into record breakers any time soon, but perhaps it could help you plan for an epic ride of your own…
Ruggins was riding Liv’s 2025 Envi Advanced Pro 0 AXS, the brand’s aero race bike, throughout the whole attempt. Incredibly, it’s her “first ‘actual’ road bike” having done all her riding up until a couple of months ago on a Cannondale Topstone with chunky gravel tyres.
> Why the aero road bike is making a comeback
Pete Alfano was on the road with her, doing valuable work as a mechanic, but is also founder of Alfano Frameworks. He explained how Liv has been a “fantastic supporter of this project throughout” and provided the bike and Giant’s SLR carbon wheelset (plus a spare pair), and also explained how the aero set-up was made comfortable enough for the brutal 2,700km distance.
“We’ve found the bike to be spectacular,” Alfano told road.cc. “This is her first ‘actual’ road bike, and first that’s been aero optimised. We chose it to get every aero advantage we can whilst maintaining comfort for her over such a sustained effort. The clip-on tri bar kit from Liv has been particularly useful — plus AeroCoach armrests were gifted to us by a friend and have provided a really good stable base for her.”
The groupset is SRAM Force, as specced when buying an Envi from Liv, and her gearing is 48-35 on the front, with a 10-36 cassette on the back.
“She’s motoring up the climbs and the range has been brilliant,” Alfano continued. “The SRAM groupset has been absolutely faultless and the ability to swap out batteries at stops and recharge them in the van has been hugely valuable for keeping her moving.”
On the kit front, Ruggins was all aeroed up in Nopinz gear, wearing the aero specialists’ skinsuit, overshoes and gloves.
“We chose to go with Nopinz as it’s the best kit out there for maximising efficiency through the air”, Alfano explained. “I’m pleased to say it’s performed spectacularly out on the road and withstood an absolute beating. The sleeves and overshoes have been invaluable in this hot weather — both to protect her from UV and to allow us to keep her cool more efficiently. We’re wetting her sleeves and the back of her kit to help cool her down.”
This being May in the UK — and despite the settled, warm weather much of us have enjoyed this spring — riding the length of the UK twice, pushing on at all times of day (and night) across a variety of terrain, requires extra layers, in Ruggins’ case the new Gore Windbreaker jacket. The plan was originally to Land’s End to John o’ Groats and back, but storms in Cornwall earlier this week meant a change of plan and the ride starting and finishing in Scotland instead.
When it comes to her shoe choice, as with the jacket, Sarah got on well with her Specialized gravel shoes (with SPD cleats) at Transcontinental last year so stuck with them for this — her team saying the familiarity of kit and nutrition has been “invaluable” when taking on such a demanding challenge against the clock.
Her helmet is Ekoi’s Racing Aerodinamica Ltd Holo Gold (for the aero gains), and she used Ekoi glasses too. The combination is aero-optimised to work together as a system.
“The glasses have been great as it’s easy to change lenses depending on conditions,” Alfano explained. “We’ve had all weathers and all light levels, and we’ve had the right lenses to match whatever’s been thrown at us. Sarah’s also found them really comfortable which is key.”
On the nutrition front, Ruggins was cramming down 60-100g of carbs via Precision products, accompanied by 500ml of electrolytes every two hours. To top up her fuelling she drank Huel’s meal drinks and ate bagels with cream cheese for a bit of real food.
> How to eat right for long rides
The morale boosts were provided by a copious supply of Mars Bars, while there was also a daily morning ginger shot too. There you go, a good excuse to take a Mars Bar next time you’re out on the bike…
Andy Blow, Precision’s founder and CEO explained the work that went into the record attempt to dial in the nutrition and hydration side of things.
“A sweat test showed she loses an average amount of sodium in her sweat (901mg per litre), and she tolerated a session in the heat well, losing 1.35 litres of sweat in an hour during a session in the heat chamber,” he said. “Armed with this information, Sarah knew how much sodium and fluid she should be aiming to drink to stay hydrated throughout the challenge.
“We used the fuel and hydration planner to work out her ideal carbohydrate intake,” using a mixture of gels and chews to get the carbs in, the real food supplemented to prevent flavour fatigue.
Sarah’s team added white reflective tape strips onto her bike “to add visibility at night and she’s got great lights from Exposure”.
With front and rear visibility covered by the lights, “we concentrated the tape on improving her side-on visibility for boosting safety when crossing junctions etc.”
They “also made for some cool night shots,” which is always an added bonus.
Ruggins’ story is pretty extraordinary. As well as attempting to set a new record, she is also raising money for The Bike Project and Bikes for Refugees, two charities important to her, and explained how she has “seen first hand how a bicycle can change people’s opportunities and quality of life, in a way very different to but resonating with the way it has changed hers”.
In her childhood, Ruggins was a promising track athlete with aspirations of the Olympics and representing Canada, however at 15 she developed an autoimmune condition known as one of the world’s most painful diseases, which ended her running career.
She lost the the ability to walk, was transferred abroad for urgent 24/7 care, and would spend years fighting to recover.
“I want to show that just because life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad life,” she said.
“My future was bright, but I developed a disease where I lost my ability to walk and use my hands. I had gone from Olympic hopeful to requiring 24/7 care. My family was incredibly supportive and we were fortunate to find a charity that helped us stay together when I was transferred to another country for medical care. Thankfully, intense rehabilitation helped me recover and return to school.”
Having returned to running she set her sights on the LEJOG running record but, a few weeks before, suffered a significant injury. “My new body was just not strong enough to run again,” she explained.
“Not wanting to lose what I had worked for years to rebuild, I purchased a bicycle. I just had to learn how to ride it. In five months I went from novice to competing in some of the hardest ultra-endurance cycling races in the world, and in a surprise to everyone including me, achieved a finish near the top of the pack.”
She’s now set the outright JOGLEJOG record, completing it faster than any rider of any gender has before, to raise funds for charity “and to close the chapter on all the versions of my life I did not get to experience”.
We’ve attached a link to Ruggins’ fundraising page here. A remarkable ride, chapeau from all at road.cc…
11 thoughts on “All-out aero and a lot of Mars Bars: the bike, tech and nutrition used by Sarah Ruggins to smash the John o’ Groats to Land’s End-and back cycling record”
Superhuman achievement Ma’am.
Superhuman achievement Ma’am. Thank you for the tech details too and a big shout out to the crew and manufacturers that supported her ride. 🙏🏼
I’ve had several days of
I’ve had several days of sleep deprivation and one can barely function. I’ve even fallen asleep riding a bike after doing shift work. So I’m skeptical this can be done clean with something like the mooted 48 hrs no sleep and then just 15 min naps every 4 hrs or whatever it was.
As long as a doctor is
As long as a doctor is involved… it’s OK 😉
Don’t the junior ones train
Don’t the junior ones train this every day (and night)?
So I’m skeptical this can be
So I’m skeptical this can be done clean
I’m not.
I’ve climbed a 2000m+
I’ve climbed a 2000m+ mountain on foot and it left me exhausted to the point where I could barely get back down safely. That doesn’t make me doubt that people can climb Everest without drugs. I’ve cycled up Britain’s highest paved road and that was pretty knackering, that doesn’t make me doubt that people can cycle the eight times higher Mauna Kea without drugs. I just accept that there are some people with far greater physical capacities and mental toughness who train far harder than I can dream of (Sarah was apparently close on 40 hours a week training before this attempt). If I assume that everyone who can do something that I couldn’t manage is on drugs then at least 80% of the world is on drugs (which would actually explain a lot).
This is what the fastest RAAM
This is what the fastest RAAM riders do every year. It’s not uncommon for those riders to ride for several days before their first “real” sleep. It takes practice and discipline and some people cannot do it, but some can.
Her team reported she was
Her team reported she was having up to 2 hours of sleep each night and power naps when needed, all very clear on her instagram posts and stories.
she’ll also have had months if not a year of sleep deprivation training. This is all well documented on her instagram account, too. You don’t go into something like this if you haven’t prepared for EVERY possible situation.
You can’t train away a need
You can’t train away a need for sleep or bank sleep.
Nighttrain123 wrote:
No you can’t but you can train yourself to resist your body’s demands for sleep temporarily even though you will be building up a deficit and will crash hard once you’ve finished. In addition some people are simply genetically disposed to need a lot less sleep than others.
Apparently you can: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19294951/
She has a doctorate, not a
She has a doctorate, not a medical degree. And she was certainly under careful, including medical, supervision. Well done Sarah, and all involved.