Sarah Ruggins, a Canadian wealth manager now residing in Gloucestershire, has set a remarkable new cycling record, riding from John O’Groats to Land’s End and back — a distance of 2,700 km (1,677 miles) — in just five days, 11 hours, and 14 minutes.
At 37, and with only two and a half years of cycling experience, Ruggins averaged 500 km (310 miles) per day and managed on just over four hours of sleep per night during the endurance challenge.
Her time surpassed the existing men’s record — held since 2017 by James MacDonald — by six hours and 43 minutes. She also broke the women’s record, held by Louise Harris since 2023, by an astounding four days, 17 hours, and 40 minutes.
“This ride was a celebration of life and it was a gift to myself and hopefully a gift to others who need motivation,” Ruggins told the PA news agency.
She emphasized that the experience taught her to believe in herself and underlined the importance of women being taken seriously in endurance sports. “I’m one of the first women to break a men’s endurance record. So it shows that we can take up space in the sport, and we need to be taken seriously.”
Ruggins, who grew up in Montreal, had once been a promising teenage track athlete with Olympic aspirations. But at the age of 16, she was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that left her unable to walk or move her hands without assistance.
“My Olympic dream and everything I thought my life was going to be basically just evaporated overnight, and it took many years of rehabilitation to get my movement back,” she recalled.
Although she later explored returning to athletics, she found her body could no longer handle running. That’s when she discovered cycling.
After moving to the UK ten years ago, Ruggins initially trained with the goal of breaking the running record between Land’s End and John O’Groats. When it became clear her body couldn’t endure the physical demands of long-distance running, she switched to cycling instead.
In 2023, she bought her first bicycle. With fewer than six months of experience, she entered the Transcontinental Race — a self-supported 4,000 km (2,485 miles) ride across Europe — revealing her natural talent for endurance cycling.
The John O’Groats to Land’s End challenge gave her the chance to confront her two biggest fears: failing publicly and relying on others.
“I really wanted to make an impact and use my story to help others,” she explained. “Even when the ride got really painful, it was a celebration, because it was my choice to do this, coming at it from a place of strength.”
She hopes her journey shows that while life can change unexpectedly, it often opens new doors to joy and purpose.
Ruggins used her record-breaking ride to raise funds for two charities — The Bike Project and Bikes for Refugees — which provide bicycles to people rebuilding their lives in the UK.
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