Life Cycles

"A wonderful, vivid account of a record-breaking, 18,000-mile adventure" Cycle Active

An incredible record-breaking journey around the world in 169 days - solo and by bike - by the Stanford Dolman Prize-winning travel writer.

When Julian Sayarer learns the world record for a circumnavigation by bicycle has been broken, and that adventure has been bought by banks and big business, he leaves his job as a London bike courier and sets out determined to take it back.

Riding an average of 110 miles a day and as much as 240, he lives six months on the road and on a daily budget of 8.84. His route leads him through Europe and Russia, east to Shanghai, before reaching the jungles of Malaysia, the hills of New Zealand and the deserts and plains of North America. Twenty countries pass beneath his wheels, rolling through hurricanes and alongside homeless cycling tramps.

Life Cycles is not only an account of incredible physical endurance but also a roadside view of a changing world. From US trailer families to Chinese factories and Kazakh nomads, this thrilling tale of discovery and adventure is a reminder that the world is out there and waiting for us.

Life Cycles is On the Road for the Occupy generation. It's an adventure and a quest with a political heart, and the love of the world shines through (almost) all the encounters that the open road and Julian's own openness invite time and time again openDemocracy
Sayarer's love of the open road and his ability to evoke the beauty of travelling by bike are a potent combination that makes you itch to go cycling ... A wonderful, vivid account of a record-breaking, 18,000-mile adventure Cycle Active
This is a very inspiring tale that says alot about the human race, its hopes and expectations, and there is even a bit about the bicycle, especially spoke breakages -- Mike Burrows, Designer of Chris Boardman's 1992 Olympic-winning bicycle

JULIAN SAYARER cycled a half dozen times across Europe to his second nation of Turkiye before before breaking a world record for a circumnavigation by bicycle, and going on to write Life Cycles (2014). He is the winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Writing Award for Interstate (2016), an account of hitchhiking through middle America, and is the author of Messengers (2016), All at Sea (2017), Fifty Miles Wide (2020), Ondaatje Prize-longlisted Iberia (2021), and Turkiye (2023). Julian combines a background in political science to create a critically acclaimed travel writing style - politics at roadsides. In this 12mph view of the world in passing, he uses human stories and journeys to document global issues for a broad audience. His writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the Guardian, Financial Times, Aeon Magazine, and in numerous cycling publications.

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