Going around the world for Caroline Soubayroux and David Ferguson is like a dream come true. It is an undertaking that combines childhood fantasy – most likely inspired by reading Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days – and the desire to cycle across the entire planet, as a sort of second honeymoon.
At cycletheworld.co, Caroline and David describe their adventure and define themselves as “a young married couple, both with busy careers but who share a passion for cycling, ultra-endurance, and bikepacking.”
Can anything be more emblematic to seal such a union than bikepacking around the world?
Of course, due to the pandemic, the timing for this challenge could not have been more complicated. Originally scheduled for April 2021, their departure was postponed to the end of September and, instead of taking off from London – as narrated in the classic adventure novel – their pursuit began in Whitehorse, Canada, along the Alaskan Highway: a legendary site of the famous “Klondike Gold Rush”.
Caroline and David will initially head south and later move west to east. Follow them almost in real-time using the GPS tracker available at cycletheworld.co. An itinerary that, on paper, stretches over more than 29,000 km, which means about six months on the saddle of a Jena carbon gravel bike made for adventure.
It will be amazing to track their journey on the move, where you can already begin to admire the striking images of sunsets along British Columbia Highway 99, just a stone’s throw from the border with the U.S.
However, the aim of this challenge isn’t just to earn a place among Guinness World Records holders as the fastest couple to complete a trip around the world on a bike, unsupported. Most importantly, it is to achieve a charitable goal.
All those who cheer on Caroline Soubayroux and David Ferguson in their ultracycling endeavor can also support better health for East London with a donation to Barts Charity, following the example of cyclist Francis Cade who in April, 2020, completed a Double Everest on Zwift, raising over £17,000 for the NHS.
So it should come as no surprise that, before leaving for the Great Canadian North, Caroline and David got Francis Cade’s blessing.