Four feet wide and carried five above the ground by a seemingly endless series of stanchions, the Alaska Pipeline is, for most of its 800-mile route, the only mark humanity has made on the pristine wilderness of this last frontier. The only mark, that is, except for the road that accompanies the pipeline on its long journey south from the Arctic outpost of Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.
For born and bred Alaskan Lael Wilcox, this lonely road has always held a special interest. In fact, she’s ridden most of it before. But this time she’s back with a new challenge to set a Fastest Known Time, or FKT, for the route and bring a new source of energy to the road. By pushing herself, she hopes to encourage other riders, wherever they live and however long they’ve been riding, to do the same.
But this is a record attempt, not a race, so Lael’s number one adjective is to have fun. All you have to do is show up with what you have, ride with all your heart and see how it goes. Oh, and you need to eat like it’s your job! Created by an all-female crew, tune into this latest episode of Rapha Gone Racing to find out how Lael got on in the Alaskan wilderness and whether the rumors that she is quicker than crude oil are actually true.
Lael only started riding at 20 years old, and what began as a convenient way to commute soon turned into an 11-year journey around the world. Beginning in her hometown of Anchorage, she hitched rides on everything from a four-wheeler to a floatplane to ride every road in Alaska.
Next, Lael rode approximately 150,000 miles across 40 countries but it wasn’t until 2014 that she entered her first race – a 400-mile self-supported road race called The Fireweed 400. Since then, she’s set and broken records all over the world while working to get more women and girls on the bike.
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