1. Annie Londonderry decided to cycle around the globe in 15 months…

She was, reportedly, doing it to settle a wager between two rich Boston businessmen. At the time, ‘settling a wager’ was the excuse to do something ridiculous du jour, like how people do stuff now to ‘detox’.

2. … but she was rather liberal in her use of trains and ferries.

Annie set off from Boston and went west. But it took her months to only get as far as Chicago. She ended up turning back to the east coast and heading to New York.

From there, she took a boat to France. Then she cycled through France, before getting on a boat that would eventually land her in Singapore. Sure, she cycled at some of the stops along the way (a stint in Jerusalem she raved about was an unlikely but possible stopover), but a huge chunk of her journey happened via steamer.

3. She left behind her husband and three young children to complete the ride.

When she admitted to having a family in interviews, she was quoted as saying “I didn’t want to spend my life at home with a baby under my apron every year.”

7. She was a bit of a rubbish cyclist.

In Around The World On Two Wheels by Peter Zheutlin, we are told that “Annie averaged between eight and ten miles per hour on smooth roads, and a good deal less on poor roads, very slow by modern cycling standards.”

Then, later on in her journey: “It took the more than five weeks to make the four-hundred-mile-stretch to Los Angeles from San Francisco. Had they walked, they could have made it to Los Angeles in half the time.”

Maybe things would have been different if they’d had Strava!

8. She knew that clothing was important.

Annie talked about her choice of clothing as much as possible. She made the move from skirts to bloomers to a man’s suit during the course of her journey, slowly becoming more comfortable and more of an affront to those who thought the sight of a woman cycling was uncouth.

The Omaha World Herald reported: “Miss Londonderry expressed the opinion that the advent of the bicycle will create a reform in female dress that will be beneficial. She believes that in the near future all women, whether of high or low degree, will bestride the wheel, except possibly the narrow-minded, long-skirted, lean and lank element.”

9. Her bicycle was mental.

She began her journey on a Columbia bicycle that weighed nearly 20kg and didn’t allow for freewheeling. When she got up too much speed, she had to take her legs off the pedals and pop them on the coaster brackets mounted on the forks in case her skirts got caught in the pedals.

In Chicago she (thankfully!) picked up a Sterling brand bicycle that was around 9kg.

10. She actually did it.

Annie returned to Boston 15 months to the day after she departed. And sure, she may have taken a few steam-powered shortcuts. But she cycled a hell of a long way all the same.

She set off carrying only a change of clothes and a pearl-handled revolver, and ended up seeing Chicago, New York, Paris, Marseilles, Alexandria, Colombo, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, Shanghai and San Francisco. She also become a global celebrity in the process.

“What Annie accomplished with her bicycle in 1894-95 was a tour de force of movie, self-promotion and athleticism. Though she was a skilled raconteur and gifted self-promoter with a penchant for embellishment and tall tales, she was also, as the evidence, shows, an accomplished cyclist who covered thousands of miles by bicycle during her journey.”

All quotations from Around The World On Two Wheels by Peter Zheutlin. You can buy his book about Annie’s adventure here.

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