66-Year-Old Adventist Sets New Guiness World Record

Christopher Bennett, a 66-year-old Adventist from New Zealand, set a new record in the Guinness Book of Records for the fastest known time for a veteran, becoming the oldest person to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle. Not only that, but Bennett is also the first person with a disability to complete this challenge. 

The feat was achieved as Bennett competed in the Tour Divide Race—riding a bicycle for 29,000 kilometers (about 18,000 miles) around the world while unsupported by other riders or vehicles. The Guinness Record requirements for cycling around the world require traveling 29,000 kilometers in one direction and passing through two antipodal points of the globe. Riding unsupported means that Bennett had to carry all his gear and supplies on his bike, with no crew or support vehicle to travel with him. 

Bennett suffers from post-concussion syndrome after a traumatic brain injury in 2018. During the Tour Aotearoa bicycle race in 2018 across the length of New Zealand, he crashed his bicycle. Not knowing how the accident happened, he remembers only waking “up in the forest lying in a ditch with my face torn open and a broken helmet.” Bright lights and loud noises can overwhelm him, and he experiences bad headaches, migraines, and panic attacks, and occasionally loses the ability to speak.

Bennett started his Tour Divide race on May 1, in Nukus, Uzbekistan, and traveled 8,500 kilometers (about 5,280 miles) across Asia to Shanghai, China. From Shanghai he flew to Darwin, Australia, and rode down to Port Macquarie before flying to Wellington, New Zealand, and riding to Auckland, traveling a total distance of 3,500 kilometers (about 2,175 miles). He then flew to Anchorage, Alaska, United States, and rode 10,300 kilometers (6,400 miles) across the United States of America to Nova Scotia, Canada. His final leg of the journey was across Europe, starting in Lisbon, Portugal, and riding 6,700 kilometers (about 4,160 miles) to Vantaa, Finland, where he finished on September 7. In total he rode 29,051 kilometers (18,052 miles) across the world, with 156,888 meters (about 514,724 feet) of climbing distance, crossing 16 countries in 129 days, and traveling a maximum of 605 kilometers (about 376 miles) in one single push.

During the race Bennett averaged around 220 kilometers (about 137 miles) of cycling each day. He had to deal with injuries, bike repairs, health scares, panic attacks, headaches, and brain shutdowns completely on his own. He stated that at one point, he had to “lie down on the side of the road and cover my eyes for two hours just to reset my brain and calm it down.” He faced multiple hurdles during this race aside from just health challenges. In Kazakhstan he rode through massive storms with nowhere he could seek shelter for about 40 kilometers (about 25 miles). In China, police stopped him from cycling through a restricted region and placed him on a train to go elsewhere.

Although Bennett’s terrible bicycle accident changed his life significantly, he didn’t lose his love for cycling. Riding his bicycle is his “happy place,” and he relishes the freedom of the open road and the challenges involved. He couldn’t continue work after his crash; however, he maintains a healthy mindset, stating that “recovery isn’t about getting back to how things were. It’s about finding what you can do.”

Bennett attempted this record for the people that he identifies with, “people with disabilities, people over 60, people who think adventure ends when you get old.” He expressed the importance of individuals with disabilities, especially brain injuries, redefining what is possible and working around challenges that arise. “Either you master your disability or it masters you.”

For Bennett, cycling is a key part of his Christian walk. It is a way for him to witness to others, being able to interact with people he would not have the opportunity to interact with otherwise. “Although these are bikepacking races, as a Christian we have a different philosophy toward competition. . . . You have an opportunity as a Christian just to show God’s love to people, and that’s what we’re supposed to do.” 

The original version of this story was posted on Adventist Record.