Meet the cyclist embarking on a record-breaking world tour

In 2019, Vedangi Kulkarni cycled around the world. She covered the 29,000 km distance on Christmas Eve in 159 days. At 19, she was the youngest woman to achieve this feat. Yet, she felt she could have been much faster.

During her journey, she suffered food poisoning in Australia, a grizzly bear chase in Canada, and an assault in Spain that left her with a concussion. At the end of her journey, she felt a sense of joy and pride in what she had accomplished, but she still felt like something was missing. So she simply decided to start over.

“Six years ago, I was still a teenager and my motivations for getting into adventure were very different. My relationship with adventure has developed in a positive way over the last few years. I started having more fun. But I don’t think you can be ready to do something like that. I just felt it was time to take a chance,” says Kulkarni, 25.

On July 8, she will set off from Rambha, near Chilika Lake, in Odisha. She will travel up the coast to Siliguri or Guwahati, then fly to Mongolia and cross the country, before heading to Australia and New Zealand. From there, she will travel to Peru and then Bolivia. She will then head to Europe, starting in Portugal and heading north to Sweden, then turning southeast to pass through Estonia, Latvia and Belarus. After a short stop in Oman, the final leg will take her to Koteshwar in Kutch, from where she will head south to Kanyakumari, and finally back along the east coast to her starting point at Ramba.

“The original itinerary was much simpler, but my visa for the United States and Canada was not obtained, so I had to find a new one, although many decisions will have to be made during the trip,” she explains.

Since last year, Kulkarni has participated in numerous endurance efforts that have prepared her for her attempt at a world tour. She has completed grueling mountain bike races like the Strathpuffer, a 24-hour endurance event in the Scottish highlands in the dead of winter, and the Megavalanche in France, a 23km downhill enduro race with an elevation gain of 2,600m. She has also completed a four-day, 185km cross-country skiing expedition in Sweden and an endurance race that included distances of 43km and 37km on consecutive days. In June, she set the fastest time for a female cyclist on the Manali-Leh route that crosses five high passes.

“The journey from Manali to Leh was special. I worked hard to achieve it in a short span of time. Even though I didn’t break the record by a big margin, it made me realise that when I put my heart into it, things work out,” she says.

Kulkarni, originally from Pune, has been based in Inverness, Scotland for the past few years. She works with British coach Jon Fearne and her mentor back home, Sumit Patil. Each day begins with meditation and yoga, as she aims to train around 20-25 hours a week. Most of her outdoor runs are time-based rather than distance-based, where she heads out on mixed terrain for 6-8 hours. On the turbo trainer, she focuses specifically on her weak points.

“For example, I love pedalling up long climbs, but I don’t necessarily do it at a very fast pace. So I did short intense sessions on the trainer to help with that, which sometimes left me exhausted. It pushed me physically and mentally, so I felt a sense of accomplishment when I finished well. The data also showed good numbers, so I knew this structured approach was working for me,” she recalls.

At the gym, she focused on functional upper-body exercises, lots of strength training, and specific quad and glute work to engage them while she rode. She says her neighbors were often amazed to find her dragging a tire behind her for hours, the workout intensifying over time with the addition of a weighted backpack to build strength. All the while, she monitored her heart rate to make sure it didn’t exceed a certain threshold.

She used a fitness tracker to track her efforts and recovery before planning her workouts for the next day. To recover and build up her resistance to the cold, she relied on swimming in the frozen lakes around her home. “The last few months, I’ve been running around for fundraisers or doing other things. But I’ve managed my workouts with what I have available. So lifestyle choices like taking the stairs, waking up in the middle of the night and finishing a base workout, or doing multiple hill repeats during a cycling event where I was a spectator—I’ve done it all. And it’s made me realize that there are many ways to achieve your goals, if you want to,” she says.

The current record for the fastest circumnavigation by a woman is held by Scotland’s Jenny Graham: 124 days. Kulkarni has planned for 110 days. Her plan is to average 270 to 300 km per day, starting and finishing early in the morning. The flight time is a concern. But that just means she will have to work harder on some legs of the tour.

During all these days, she will have the company of strangers and their kindness on the road. And her trusty bike on which she can read the words of encouragement from her family and friends. The phrase that speaks to her the most is: “The further I go, the stronger I become.” It all starts with that first push next week.

Shail Desai is a freelance writer based in Mumbai.