Stacey Duffy completes record-breaking ride around Australia

Queensland cyclist Stacey Duffy has completed her epic unsupported ride around Australia, finishing in Springfield on Wednesday evening after covering 14,210km in 81 days, 11 hours and 39 minutes.

Duffy’s time smashes the previous women’s Around Australia record, set by Lesa Ashford in 2023, by 10 days, 18 hours and 53 minutes.

The finish brought Duffy’s journey back to where it began on July 3, when she rolled out from Springfield, near Ipswich, with the aim of becoming the first woman to officially complete an unsupported Around Australia record.

In lovely scenes, Ashford, who became the first woman to establish an official Around Australia record, was at the finish to hand over the record-holder’s crown, along with a bunch of flowers.

Duffy’s family and the president of the Road Record Association of Australia (RRAA) were also there, with the latter presenting her with the traditional gold pocket watch.

The final kilometres of her day were particularly fitting, with Duffy riding home post-finish alongside her father and her two children.

Duffy’s achievement is the culmination of more than 14,000km of riding across some of Australia’s most demanding roads and remote regions.

Her course included Adelaide, Brisbane, Broome, Esperance, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, which satisfies the RRAA requirements for a round Australia record while bypassing Darwin in favour of Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Crucially, Duffy completed the journey unsupported. Rather than travelling with a support vehicle or crew, she carried limited bikepacking equipment and alternated between accommodation and camping along the way.

When we caught up with her after she passed 11,000km earlier this month, Duffy was averaging more than 170km per day and had built a lead of more than 1,000km over Ashford’s record pace.

At that stage, she was continuing to target daily distances of around 180 to 200km, although the realities of remote Australia often dictated how far she could ride each day.

“It’s often determined by the location of roadhouses in remote areas,” she told us at the time.

Lachlan Davis from the RRAA described being at the finish line as a real privilege.

“The most incredible aspect is how consistent she was despite all the challenges,” he told BA.

“Her shortest week was 1,134km and her longest was 1,308km. With all the variations in weather, road conditions, traffic, punctures and several crashes, that’s an astonishingly small spread.”

“She often said, ‘I’m only slow.’ Well, maybe there are faster riders, but how many could do it all day, every day, for nearly three months?”

In typically understated fashion, Duffy described herself as “pretty tired” and added that she was “getting sick, but better now than earlier in the trip”.

Riding across Australia had given her a unique perspective on the country.

“I really feel like I know Australia intimately, I guess, very up close, in a way you can’t experience from a car,” she said.

“It’s so beautiful, but there’s also a whole lot of nothing out there.”

Her final days on the bike were made more difficult by persistent knee pain following a crash.

“I had a crash in Sydney, which was my own stupidity, and my knee blew up,” she said. “I was quite bruised and grazed, which made the last week much harder.”

With the ride now complete, the reality of stopping is starting to sink in.

“It is so sore today. The thought of going out to ride 200km again is absolutely appalling. So glad I can rest!”