Today marks the start of Sarah Ruggins' One Way Challenge. She will begin to take on one of Europe's most demanding cycling feats, pushing herself far beyond her limits both mentally and physically.
Image of Sarah Ruggins, courtesy of James Busby
Off the back of becoming one of the only few women to claim a world record for a feat of endurance over male competitors, breaking the men’s world record for cycling by 7 hours, Ruggins will now face her biggest challenges to date.
She will attempt to break the world record for cycling from Europe’s southernmost point to the Arctic Circle in Nordkapp, Norway.
From her preparation days, determination, and her community supporting her every step of the way, we followed her footsteps leading up to one of the most demanding challenges in European cycling.
Crep Protect: Sarah, we’re excited to be speaking with you ahead of your upcoming continental crossing challenge. To start us off, how has 2026 been treating you so far?
Sarah Ruggins: It's been a measured start to the year, but momentum is building, and I’m busy convincing my mind and body that this is a sensible thing to do. I’ve replaced most normal adult activities with riding a bike and talking about bikes, which is arguably a pretty rad side quest.
There’s something oddly settling about preparing for a challenge that may or may not make history. It has a way of stripping everything back to its purpose. If something won’t directly influence our chance of success, we leave it and move on. There is a lot of quiet work being done by a lot of people behind the scenes, and I have a growing appreciation for how thin the line will be between success and failure.
CP: For those who may be discovering you for the first time, could you tell us a little about yourself and what drives you as an athlete?
SR: My name is Dr. Sarah Ruggins, and I worked in portfolio management in London after obtaining my PhD in finance. Against all early-life expectations - which included going from an Olympic hopeful in track and field to almost full-body paralysis - I learned to ride a bike three years ago.
Last year, I became one of only a few women in history to claim a world record for a feat of endurance over male competitors, breaking the men’s world record for cycling the length of Britain and back - a record that remained unbroken for almost a decade - by almost 7 hours. And in the last 3 years, I’ve raced across more than 20 countries in Europe and Africa, braving extreme temperatures, wildlife, and isolation, learning how to master problem-solving under intense pressure and severe sleep deprivation.
What drives me as an athlete is not achieving world records (though that’s always nice!) - it’s about going to the edge (physically and mentally) and learning what lives there.
"It’s showing that women don’t need to wait for an invitation - we can enter the room like we belong, because we do."
And I purposefully attempt to surpass competitive men’s world records to show that anything is possible for us if we dream big, do the work, and talk to ourselves like anything is possible, even if the odds are slim.
Image of Sarah Ruggins, courtesy of James Busby
CP: Where did your love for cycling first begin? Was there a defining moment when you realised this was more than just a hobby?
SR: Cycling for me was never a hobby. I was preparing to attempt a world record run in 2023, to be the fastest woman to run from Lands End to John O’Groats. But I fractured my leg in several places in a freak accident, and I wouldn’t be able to recover it in time.
So, I pivoted. I bought a bike, learned to ride it, and 5 months later was accepted to compete in some of the hardest self-supported endurance races on the planet. I went from not knowing how to change a tyre to racing thousands of kilometres across countries and continents - sleeping outside mosques in Turkey, in ditches in Albania, in the farmlands of Rwanda, seeing the best of the world as I moved through it, and I haven’t looked back since.
CP: For extra context for our readers, what is the continental crossing challenge, and what does it involve?
SR: We are calling this project OWN2026, which stands for One Way North. I will be attempting to be the fastest human in history to cross the continent of Europe on my bicycle, from the southernmost to northernmost points.
We’ll be starting in Tarifa, Spain, on 5 June, and not stopping until I hit the Arctic Circle in Nordkapp, Norway, some 6,000km away.
I intend to test the limits of human endurance and have a team supporting me in every way. This record will require me to sleep less than 90minutes per day for 2 weeks, riding 21 hours per day. I will need to consume over 11,000calories a day, and ride over 500km per day in temperatures ranging from +35 to -10 Celsius. I will only be allowed off my bike in 10-minute intervals every 4 hours to stretch and eat.
CP: As you gear up for another record-breaking attempt in 2026, what does your weekly training schedule look like?
SR: With all respect to my coaches, my training schedule could be considered what nightmares are made of! Right now, I tend to train 6 days per week. This involves about 5 hours per day riding my bike with my cycling coach, and three to four times a week in the gym lifting with my strength coach. I burn over 4,000 calories per day on most days.
I have been fortunate to remain injury-free and remain motivated to continue pushing myself in this way with three months to go. It is the privilege of a lifetime to be able to see what I’m made of, and something I never take for granted.
CP: Your upcoming One Way Challenge will demand around 21 hours of riding per day. Do you have a daily strategy or structure in place to manage effort, nutrition, recovery, and sleep?
SR: My coach says endurance athletes are like containers of water. Over time, small holes appear, and water slowly drains. It is my job (and my team’s job) to patch those holes with nutrition, rest, and pain management. If we get it right, my container will empty only at the event’s finish. It’s a delicate balance that requires discipline and self-awareness.
We have a rigid process that is tracked hour by hour. I will ride 4 hours at a time, being allowed a 10-minute break to stretch, before another 4-hour segment, for the entirety of the 6,000km journey. The only time this pattern breaks is when I’m allowed to sleep 90 minutes every 24 hours.
Image of Sarah Ruggins cycling, image courtesy of James Busby
I’ll be eating over 11,000 calories per day - 5x the daily recommended intake for women. This takes practice and training to achieve and will likely be the cause of my success or failure.
In order to manage effort, efficiency is everything. All I’m focused on in my training is finding the maximum speed for a set level of effort. For me, this looks like riding around 28km per hour, close to 24 hours per day.
Said like this, it all seems impossible. But I want to use this challenge to show that if you surround yourself with the right people and talk to yourself like anything is possible, you can achieve the absurd. This isn’t my first time doing this; it’s what got me my first world record. It also got me the fastest 1,000-mile time in history. We know the system we’ve created works.
CP: How important is your support network in a challenge of this scale?
SR: To be perfectly clear - this challenge would not happen without my community and my team.
"They say behind every successful person is a community, and my entire life is proof of this."
When I was hospitalised and learning to walk again and use my hands again, the charities helping me and my family were that community. When I embarked on my career, my mentors were that community.
And now, athletically, I have a team of 12 people who have come together to help me set another precedent not just for women in sport, but for sport. And it’s the privilege of my lifetime to support them in their endeavours, too, and use my time to advocate and fundraise for those who need their voices amplified in our society.
CP: What helps you keep focused during these challenges? Do you have a particular playlist that keeps you motivated?
SR: People think I’m certifiably insane, but I did my last world record ride (5 days, 11 hours) without any music or podcasts. I was incredibly sleep-deprived- I slept just 6 hours over that entire week - and felt overstimulated by almost everything. Interestingly, I even found the noise from the traffic to be hard to listen to after day 2.
When I’m training, though, I always have music or pods - I’m a fan of Kendrick Lamar, Telefone, and, for the harder sessions, Rage Against the Machine.
CP: And for the next generation chasing big goals, especially young women stepping into competitive cycling and looking to overcome adversity/challenges (whether that be physical or mental), what advice would you give them?
SR: Find those who are achieving what you want to achieve. Reach out to them. Learn from them.
You’ll be surprised how many doors will open for you when you adopt a beginner’s mindset. Particularly in endurance sport, our legacy is not to hold onto our records; it is to enable the young women who come after us to surpass us.
"And equally important - be patient with yourself - you will fail more times than you succeed, and progress takes longer than you expect. You have time; it’s not too late. It will happen for you if you refuse to quit."
CP: Sarah, it’s been a pleasure. As you prepare to take on this next monumental challenge, what message would you like to leave with the Crep Protect family?
SR: I’ve found the secret to improving your life is simple. You first need to identify what brings you joy. And then you need to ask yourself the question: what would you do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?
…. then go do that.
