British rider Liz Dimmock aims to break round-the-world cycling record

Several interesting things about this discussion, first the unbelievable political element that SotchPotch came out with, you can't criticise someone for being well connected, if your network is pants, work on it! Nor can you blame them for leveraging it. They are all skills that make the world go round, much like banks, if she worked for HSBC so what, I wonder if the writer has a mortgage or if they bought a bike made somewhere other than the UK? Its not a fairy tale, it's real life.

Secondly I actually came across this story and was interested to see how her attempt went. All I could find was one entry on the WorldBike2013 facebook page saying it was not going ahead. There were some entries on google but at the foot of the page it said 'Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe.' I think she is relaunching in 2015 in a similar format, if she does do this I think it will be a fantastic achievement (regardless of it being supported or not and whatever PR storm she creates, that is a necessary evil that the media demand) and worthy of a lot of respect.

It all seems to be tied into her work for Women_Ahead. Good luck to her.

The small minded Socialist Workers of the world need not bother paying any attention if all they're going to do is criticise, although I must admit that the way she handled some of the sponsors could have been better. I don't know the background so I'll hold back any serious criticism.

Dimmock's challenge is a lesson in dire PR - it's amazing what a good PR company can do - not pedalled a stroke in angry and already calling herself a round-the-world cyclist. Reality is - records are hard to break, a good PR company would know that you never publicise a record until it's in the bag. This whole effort smacks of an amateur cyclists trying to rebrand herself as a "professional adventurer" without actually having achieved anything prior to this one event and trying to convince sponsors to part with their cash in order for her to drive two cars and a few support staff around the world. No wonder she is struggling to get on the road - achieved nothing significant to-date and rather than giving back to sponsors, she seems to drop one when a better one comes along. Condor built a steel touring bike she raved about, now suddenly shes raving about Bianchi. This is no way to treat sponsors and those holding the purse strings can sniff out a fraud a mile away.

And the last thing I don't understand from the above comments is how we're comparing two women between whom there is one outstanding difference: one's done it and the other hasn't.

I have the honour to have met Juliana on a flight from New Zealand. She was dressed in cycling clothes and I asked her what she was doing. She told me about her round the world journey and how she was in a very dangerous situation she'd been in, stuck in the mountains alone in New zealand in minus temperatures with over 100kph winds at night. I was surprised she was cycling alone with out support. She told me she'd started the first few thousand km with partial support, but changed ideas and was going completely alone due to lack of money and no sponsors. I started to follow her journey online after that and even donated money towards her endeavour. But the worst thing I read that happened to her alone on the road was the harrassment, sickness and cyclone in India. I believe it takes a great deal of courage for a woman to cycle around the world alone averaging over 200 km a day. I started to read more about Juliana's story, how affer a difficult life and childhood, she actually worked and lived with the child soldiers in North Uganda. Juliana was not even an athlete or cyclist before deciding to cycle the world. She raised money to help other children growing up without their basic human rights like she had through her cycle. Imho, I'm surprised nobody is referring to Juliana as an inspiration to women. The difference between these two women is in the beginning of this article: "businesswoman".

Howard: you've cherry-picked the images to suit your point a bit there, for the most part Juliana was unsupported. she had some support on the US leg, and that was it, i think. And i'm not sure buying a night in a hotel room makes a ride any more unsupported than buying food at a supermarket does.

http://julianabuhring.com/world-cycle for more details of that ride.

zanf - she'll need to spend a lot on the attempt to top the £1m she's hoping to raise. Her setup seems quite extravagant but I'm guessing the sponsors aren't asking her to pay for the jags and condor bikes and such, since that's what being a sponsor means. who knows if she'll get the £1m though. For the record Sayarer was never awarded the title; his ride was never ratified by Guinness so far as I'm aware.

Totally agree that there should be two separate records, although it's also fair to say that i don't believe Buhring would qualify for the unsupported one were that to be the case. Unless there was a stipulation of *how much* of it was unsupported, and enough of hers was. Guinness probably haven't split it because to be honest it's a bit of a minefield. the whole thing's a mess really: Guinness changed the rules recently so it's now total travel time so currently I think Alan Bate technically holds the record even though Mike Hall's ride was quicker.

Sure, the two things are different. but a 150-day holiday? Come on.

Kind of agree with ScotchPotch on some points although laying all the ills of HSBC/KPMG/global capitalism at the feet of Liz seems a bit of an overreaction. There's certainly an argument that without the global meddling of HSBC and their ilk there'd be a lot less need for charities such as War Child, which is kind of ironic. But still, I wish Liz all the best with her ride.

Those who followed Buhrings journey might perhaps have noted that much of the imagery of her ride was taken from a support car, and of her riding with no luggage - http://is.gd/Z7fjGc http://is.gd/g5sYcz - she slept in hotels and even drafted her support car at at least one point - http://youtu.be/xWDiVnPYtc8 - so I'm not sure what the unsupported vs. supported purists getting het up about here.

Regardless of how either girl rode or chooses to ride, I'm saddened by the sneering vitriol, assumption, envy and prejudice being spouted in this comment thread. Presumably ScotchPoth et al feel Cav deserved to have urine sprayed in his face this week as he worked his arse off to secure sponsors, owns five homes, earns seven figures and appears to bank offshore with, er, HSBC? http://is.gd/pJj7IL

I heard Dimmock speak at an event recently, she was open about the assistance she will receive and said point blank that there ought to be two separate records for supported and unsupported. My impression was that her ride has so far been funded by spending her entire savings, with the only sponsorship being product rather than cash. Regardless, I'm sure dealing with anonymous online disparagement and slander won't be the hardest part of what she's attempting. Haters gonna hate, after all.

I agree completely, the two records should be entirely separate. Basically this well-connected lady (and ex-w@nker banker) is going on a 150-day holiday sponsored by all these upmarket brands because she knows how to do PR and is relatively easy on the eye. She might be a pretty decent cyclist but as previous posters said, riding with that kind of support bears no comparison whatsoever with doing it the purist's way, a far tougher and more risky proposition. All she's doing is basically an extended version of the Deloitte RAB, something that will doubtless raise a decent sum for a worthwhile charity but I do feel sorry for the other lady whose records is now in jeopardy. It's like comparing a solo ascent of Everest without oxygen to one of those 1930s expedition-style climbs with an army of Sherpas carrying your kit. It's hard to criticise some of these ventures without it looking like sour grapes or even sexism but there we are.

Absolutely Sealad; two distinct records. It would do Dimmock and her team credit to come out and accept this. Circumnavigating the globe on a bike, however it's done, is a feat worthy of praise*. Raising this amount of money for charity is immense. One wonders how her slick pr machine has missed out on clearly differentiating between her and Buhring.

*but what is with the fixation of riders at every level for thinking they can only do a lengthy ride if it's for charity? Perhaps that's a topic for another thread on another day.

The difference between SUPPORTED and UNSUPPORTED is huge! TRYING to shave off only two days from Juliana Buhring's World Record ride, but being FULLY SUPPORTED, when Juliana was not, is kind of a joke.

Amazing how many accolades she is getting and she really hasn't done anything yet. Charity is great, I'm all for it, but to go after this record, in this way???

There really should be separate World records for supported and unsupported. The idea of having two Jags following you all over the world, caring clothes, extra bikes, equipment, food, checking in for you at hotels, setting up your food, etc. vs really being on your own is not in any way the same effort or record.

Juliana's record should not be in jeopardy at all from this and actually those sponsoring Liz and Liz herself should really think about why it is so important to attempt a record that is so not in the same league of accomplishment as Juliana's but yet they talk like it is.

They should come out and say this really isn't the same record at all and Liz will be the fastest supported rider, not the fastest rider to cycle the world.

A few days difference and being supported is is not an accomplishment that is deserving of the same title! I think at the least an Asterisk would be in order..

How does she plan on getting from the UAE back to Turkey? Women are allowed to ride bicycles in Saudi Arabia, but only in parks, and accompanied by a Male relative.