There is long-distance riding, and then there is trying to make the entire planet feel like one very long stage.
On 5 September 2026, two-time Dakar Rally winner Sam Sunderland is due to leave London on a Triumph Tiger and attempt one of the most extreme motorcycle journeys imaginable: circumnavigate the world in less than 19 days, 8 hours and 25 minutes.
The target comes from the 2002 ride by Kevin and Julia Sanders. The record is no longer recognised by Guinness World Records because of the safety concerns around attempts of this kind, but Sunderland is still aiming to better the benchmark.
To do it, he expects to cover at least 18,000 miles and roughly 1,000 miles per riding day.
This is not Dakar with more kilometres
Sunderland knows extreme motorcycle competition better than most. He has won Dakar twice and built a career around riding fast in places where navigation, fatigue and terrain can end a race in seconds.
But his round-the-world attempt removes one of rally raid’s biggest psychological advantages: constant stimulation.
Instead of short bursts of maximum concentration across changing special stages, the challenge is repetition. Long hours. Public roads. Weather. Borders. Paperwork. Jet lag. The same riding position. Then get up and do another thousand miles.
That might make the attempt mentally stranger than Dakar rather than simply harder.
Six legs around the world
The planned route starts in London and runs through Europe toward Turkey. Sunderland then continues through Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand before crossing Canada. The final leg takes him through Morocco and back toward London.
The rules require a continuous direction around the globe, two antipodal points, the same start and finish location and the same motorcycle throughout the journey. Ocean crossings are excluded from the timed riding total.
All of that turns the trip into a logistics exercise as much as a riding one.
There are borders that do not care about record attempts, weather systems that do not read itineraries and a body that eventually stops being impressed by motivational speeches.
The part that matters: doing it after the setback
The attempt was originally meant to happen a year earlier.
Then Sunderland broke his back in a training accident.
After rehabilitation, he is now returning to the project with a new departure date. That changes the story. The interesting part is no longer simply whether an elite rider can tolerate 1,000-mile days. It is what makes somebody return to an idea after the route to the start line became difficult enough on its own.
Adventure is often marketed as escape. In reality, the best trips usually involve commitment: to a route, to a bad-weather morning, to fixing something at the roadside, or simply to continuing when stopping would be easier.
Sunderland’s version is extreme, but the underlying impulse is familiar.
Would we want to do it?
No.
Nineteen days around the world sounds like an extraordinary achievement and a terrible holiday.
But that is also why we will be watching.
The attempt takes the romantic idea of motorcycle travel — freedom, distance, unknown roads — and pushes it until it becomes almost industrial. The distance is no longer the reward. The ability to continue becomes the point.
And somewhere between London, Australia, Canada and Morocco, there will probably be a moment when the world stops feeling enormous and starts feeling like the next fuel stop.
Sam Sunderland is scheduled to depart London on 5 September 2026.
Further reading
Red Bull — Sam Sunderland profile and world challenge
Reuters — 2026 departure update