Cape Town – In attempting to officially become the fastest woman to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle, Cristin Flynn will cycle around the world to make it into Guinness World Records.
The current record is held by Juliana Buhring and Flynn hopes to follow in her footsteps.
From East London, she said she would be doing the ride in honour of African Angels, an organisation that affords orphaned and vulnerable children the chance to go to school.
Flynn said she hoped to start her journey in June in Germany.
“A lot of the previous people who did this started that way, and I will have to start and finish at that location to qualify for the record,” she said.
She added that China was also on the route, but that the coronavirus outbreak might change that plan.
“I am feeling pretty strong. I have done a lot of endurance activities over the years. You can never really tell how it will be, but I have spoken to people who have done these challenges and that helped. It’s the mental hurdles you have to push through.”
She will be cycling through Germany, Poland, Belarus and Russia to Vladivostok, and will cover a distance of 12 500km. Flynn will then fly from Vladivostok to Perth, then cycle across Australia to Sydney, covering 4 200km.
Then she will fly to Invercargill, New Zealand, and cycle from there to Nelson where she will cover 2 000km, before flying to San Francisco to cycle across the US and cover 6 200km.
After the US she will fly to Portugal, cycle through to Spain and France before ending in Germany.
In total, she will cycle roughly 28 000km.