What are your plans this summer? Maybe a few long weekend rides. Perhaps a cycling trip abroad – Mallorca, Girona, Italy. You might even have a sportive circled on your calendar.
Amy and Kyle Hudson have had a date in red in their diaries for a while too: Friday 1st May.
Their challenge, however, is slightly bigger than a sportive. The husband-and-wife duo are attempting to break the unsupported around the world record for the fastest couple, aiming to complete it in 150 days – more than 50 days faster than the current world record set by Caroline Soubayroux and David Ferguson in 2021-2022.
‘It doesn’t really feel real that we’re doing it,’ Amy says, a week before their departure, ‘but here we are.’
The attempt has been in the works since Amy completed a solo ride of the entire men’s Tour de France route last year, transfers included, covering more than 6,500km.
Cycling has been a key part of her life since 2021, when Kyle bought her a bike from Halfords while she was struggling with her mental health. It was meant to be something simple, a way to get outside and feel better.
Now, five years on, that gesture has become something much bigger: a defining thread through their relationship, and the starting point of a Guinness World Record attempt.
More than a record
On paper, the challenge is relatively straightforward. In total, they’ll ride 18,000 miles, in one direction, with no outside support, from Australia all the way back to the UK. In reality, it’s anything but, with months of planning, training and organising before they’ve even started day one.
To hit their 150-day target, the couple will need to average 140 to 160 miles a day for just under five months, with only a small margin for any hiccups.
‘There will be some shorter days and some longer,’ Amy says. ‘One of the days in Australia, for example, will be 200 miles, and probably in Canada too. Then we’ll have days where we can do 60 or 70 miles, and we’ll have the afternoon to sort the bikes out.’
It’s a relentless schedule that will test logistics, body, mind and luck. This is not a sightseeing trip; it’s about keeping going for as long as they can, day after day.
Opting to take on this challenge at speed was a decision they both felt strongly about. Mainly because they want to raise as much money as they can for the mental health charity Shout. But it’s also about testing their own limits.
‘We just want to see what we can do,’ Amy says. ‘It’s not for me to prove anything to anyone else; it’s for me to prove to myself that I can do it. I never feel good enough really, if I am totally honest. Not that I need this to feel good, but this is for my own internal desire to push myself.’
That drive runs deeper still. Both see this attempt as an extension of their experiences with mental health, not in spite of them, but because of them.
Amy was a mental health nurse before becoming a content creator in the cycling world (@amy.cycling.adventures), but the emotional turmoil of the job took its toll, leading to anxiety, an eating disorder, and intrusive thoughts.
‘Amy always viewed her mental struggles as a weakness,’ says Kyle. ‘But we’re trying to show people that it is actually a strength, and that you can turn that around and use it in a way where you can achieve anything.’
Kyle himself has faced his own mental health battles, including a period in which he had nothing, not even a home.
It’s that shared history and how they’ve both overcome these challenges together that underpins how they expect to survive the next five months on the road.
Riding as two
Eighteen thousand miles unsupported is enough for one person to take on; add a married couple riding together 24 hours a day and the dynamic becomes just as important as the daily distance.
‘We’re going to have a code word,’ Amy says, which will allow them to cut the day short or take a longer break.
‘Sometimes I’ll say I can’t do it, but I don’t actually mean it. So, if we use the code word, it means it’s serious,’ she explains.
They’ve also learnt from experience. Kyle recalls a moment where they were doing a recce ride to their sponsor Rouvy’s head office in the Czech Republic.
‘We were riding in a horrendous storm for six days, and we purposely did three 300km days back-to-back, and after one of the easier days Amy was like, “I’m getting on the train.” I ignored, ignored, ignored.
‘When I thought that’s not working, I just went, “All right, let’s get the train,” and then I could tell like there was almost like an anger. I knew that reverse physiology worked, so I’ve learnt little bits along the way,’ he says.
Alongside code words and learnings from previous experiences, designated roles – Amy logistics and Kyle mechanics, stopping every 50 miles, checking in on food and water, and adjusting pace depending on whether one of them is struggling, are all on the ‘list of rules’ they’ve crafted to keep them happily going.
‘We’ve also both got to be responsible for keeping each other motivated,’ Amy says.
They’ve accepted that arguments are inevitable. Luckily, in their experience, these tend to be short-lived, and often over something trivial like a wrong turn or someone going too fast, mainly Kyle pushing the pace uphill, Amy says.
‘If we have an argument, which we tend to have every ride, we will give each other ten minutes at least of no talking, and then we both have to say sorry, even if we don’t think we’re in the wrong, and then we just forget it,’ she says.
Kyle quickly adds, ‘Amy finds that a bit harder than I do.’
With every relationship, communication will be key, but having those moments of silence will play a vital part in this being a success.
‘We won’t get offended if we just want to ride in silence for a bit because sometimes you just want to switch off,’ Kyle says, adding that they’ve packed a speaker for music and podcasts to create separation.
Beneath the rules and the humour about what they’re about to embark on, this familiarity as a married couple is their strength.
‘I’d say it is easier than riding with friends,’ Kyle says. ‘If you’re riding with friends, there are so many parts that you shut off. In those hard moments, how would you actually be fully yourself?’
Training for 18,000 miles
You might question how you train for such a huge distance, but Amy and Kyle say that they’ve been ‘training unknowingly’ since they started cycling in 2021, naturally favouring endurance rides.
Amy began working with a coach ahead of her Tour de France ride last year to bring structure, having previously tended to overdo training. Kyle, however, trains more fluidly, working around his full-time job as a self-employed builder.
Over the past year, their preparation has paired long-distance weekend rides with indoor sessions. Amy’s training includes one tough interval session, longer threshold work, and one strength training session.
Like many riders, Amy and Kyle both have days when they don’t feel like training. Rather than avoiding those days, they’ve tried to lean into them. For Amy, those sessions have become a way of rehearsing what the ride around the world might feel like.
‘There are going to be days when we wake up and we don’t want to ride,’ she says. ‘But we’ll have to. So doing it now, when it’s just training, matters.’
Alongside the physical preparation, there have been longer training blocks designed to replicate conditions – multi-day rides with fully loaded bikes, covering big distances, and testing how they cope with fatigue, weather and repetition.
‘You want to try and build up,’ Kyle says. ‘But you’ve always got to chuck yourself in at the deep end at some point. That’s the mentality I’m taking into this as well – we’ve got to try. If we don’t, if we’re not willing to put ourselves out there, we’ll never know.’
And that’s exactly what they’re setting out to do. After months of planning and preparation, all that’s left is to start riding – and keep going.
You can track their progress at followmychallenge.com.