
Last week, Lael Wilcox became the first woman to win the Trans Am Bike Race, a grueling, 4,200-mile slog that takes cyclists from Astoria, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia. In addition to offering no prizes, the race is totally unsupported, meaning the participants are responsible for carrying everything they need—from food to camping equipment—for the duration of the ride.
“I feel like for people to see an example of a fairly normal person—I’m normal height, normal size, I’m a woman—winning. I’m not this super human, and I won.”