How This Woman Rides 20,000 Miles a Year on Her Bike

[Lael Voiceover] My name is Lael Wilcox.

I'm from Anchorage, Alaska,

and I'm a bike rider.

[Narrator] But Lael isn't just any bike rider,

She rides a lot.

For the past three years,

I've ridden 20,000 each year.

[Narrator] That's right every year she puts

more miles on her bike than most people do on their cars.

Which is pretty insane.

[Narrator] Think about it this way,

the circumference of the Earth is 24,901 miles around,

so for each of the last three years,

Lael has, nearly, ridden around the globe.

Sometimes, it can painful

riding that much.

Riding that much is never boring for me.

I'm not sure if I feel obsessed with riding miles,

I just wake up in the morning and that's what I wanna do.

You know, the other way you could look at it

is people are obsessed with their work.

They wake up and they go work,

and they wanna go to work.

I guess I wake up and I wanna ride my bike.

[Narrator] Lael is an ultra-endurance bike racer,

and she's one of the best.

I started racing about three years ago.

My first race was a 400-mile road race.

A friend put me up to it.

I signed up three days before,

and I won the race, unexpected.

I was borrowing my mom's road bike,

and I just never really got tired.

I rode through the night,

and I actually picked up my pace as I finished.

[Narrator] She's since ridden some of the longest

and toughest races.

Like the 2015 Tour Divide,

which runs 2,750 miles along the spine of the Rockies.

To start it, I actually rode from Anchorage

down to Banff, Alberta to the start.

[Narrator] No big deal.

She only added on an extra 2,100 miles.

That year, Lael clocked a new record for women,

17 days, 1 hour, and 51 minutes,

but she thought she could do better.

So, later that summer, she rode back to Banff

and retraced the route,

finishing in 15 days, 10 hours, and 59 minutes.

She was just getting started.

The next year, she raced across the country again

from west to east.

That was the Trans America bike race

from Oregon to Virginia.

4400 miles.

And I won the overall race, men and women.

I caught the leader in the final night,

and beat him to the finish.

It took me 18 days.

Yeah, I mean, I just stay on the bike.

That's how I win.

But I'm just pretty relentless,

in not wanting to waste time.

[Narrator] That's because these races

are completely unsupported.

There are no team vans,

no catered meals,

no massages.

So, you're, basically, on your own.

[Narrator] To win, Lael pretty much never stops riding.

She keeps everything she needs packed in bags

all over her bike.

Extra socks.

(laughs)

Long johns.

Sleeping bag.

[Narrator] She has shelter.

Here is the rain fly for my tent.

[Narrator] Food.

A jar of peanut butter.

Some snacks and coffee.

[Narrator] And essentials.

Bike tool.

Dental floss,

toothbrush,

toothpaste, and a spoon.

My wallet.

Pocket knife.

And that's it.

[Narrator] But Lael doesn't carry shampoo

because showering is wasted in a race.

The longest I've gone without a shower is 17 days,

and my hair was like one single dreadlock.

And I went in a gas station in Montana.

I had taken my helmet off,

and I went up to buy my three breakfast burritos

and two gallons of chocolate milk,

or whatever I was eating,

and the woman was like,

Hun, you really have got that windswept look.

(laughs)

I went to the bathroom, and I looked in the mirror

and my hair was like.

Sticking straight up.

So, from that point on I did not

take my helmet off in public.

[Narrator] It's just what you do if you want to win.

I'm very good at conserving time.

I, also, don't need to sleep that much.

And that's another part of these races.

Most people sleep four or five hours max.

Everybody's body is gonna hurt,

things are gonna go wrong,

not every moment's gonna be fun,

but you are gonna see a lot of beautiful

things along the way.

[Narrator] Now, Lael is preparing for a new series

of challenges including a thousand-mile race

across Switzerland,

and another in Kyrgyzstan.

And when she's not racing, she's still riding.

She guides cycling camps,

she established a new route in Mexico's Baja peninsula,

and then, there's her personal project,

to ride every road in her home state.

My summer project has been riding

all the major roads in Alaska,

and I'm almost finished.

At this point, I think I've probably ridden about

42 or 4300 miles.

I probably have another 500 to go.

[Narrator] Lael knows most people don't, entirely,

understand her love of pedaling,

but that doesn't bother her.

Well, they do think it's crazy.

Yeah, I'm not recommending other people ride this much.

I'm not telling everybody they should do what I do.

I just do it 'cause I want to.

Racing, I'm driven to do my best,

to try to win,

but otherwise, I just wanna be out there.

(upbeat guitar music)