Indian man's record dream comes true after he cycles over 150 km without his hands
An Indian man with a passion for cycling has seen his childhood dream come true after breaking a Guinness World Records title.
Vaibhav T. Rajamani set the record for the greatest distance cycled (no hands) with a total of 151.33 km (94.03 miles).
It took him 7 hr 18 min 13 sec to cover the distance in Porvorim, Goa, India, on 17 December 2023.
The 22-year-old trained for the attempt for five years after finding this record category on our website and deciding to go for it.
He beat the previous record of 130.29 km (80.95 miles) set by Robert John Murray (Canada) earlier in the same year.
“Ever since I was a kid I’ve really loved cycling and going to different places and meeting new people, so cycling was something to allow me to do those things,” Vaibhav told us.
He started cycling without his hands as a kid, after getting his first bicycle at the age of five, and said it was something that came “very naturally” to him.
Looking back on his attempt, he told us: “When I started the record there were a lot of things going on in my mind, like ‘how am I going to do this?’, ‘how was it going to happen?’, ‘will I be able to do this?’, ‘will I break the record?’
“And the thing is that there were a lot of people who supported me throughout this journey, a lot of friends and family who were involved.
“They showed up during my practice sessions and there was a lot of pressure to not let them down.”
Vaibhav had also organized a crowdfunding campaign to help him stage his record attempt, so felt extra pressure to achieve his goal.
He continued: “When I started cycling all these things were going on in my mind but after 10 km I got into the flow and I stopped thinking about them all.
“I made a playlist before the attempt and had music playing in the background so I could focus on my path and listen to the music. That’s how I ended up breaking the record.”
Vaibhav says he started struggling around the 140-km mark, with his legs starting to shake and hurt.
“I just had to push through and couldn’t give in because I’d already put in so much effort and I couldn’t let other people’s efforts go to waste too,” he said.
“I kept pushing through and I increased my speed a little. I kept my hands on my legs to support them and keep peddling.”
After officially breaking the record and bringing his attempt to a close, he felt “relieved”.
He explained: “All the people who believed in me and supported me through this whole journey, I finally had something to show them that I’d done it, I’d finally broken the record.
“I felt really grateful that I got to attempt the record and really happy that I broke it.”