Times have changed quite tremendously since Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout (and Jackie Chan) tried to circumnavigate the world in 80 days. Sam Sunderland hopes to pull it off in 19.

At the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Thursday, Sunderland announced he will try to set the world record for circumnavigating the globe on a motorcycle. The current record is 19 days, 8 hours, and 25 minutes set by married couple Kevin and Julia Sanders on a BMW R1150GS in 2002. The Sanders are also helping Sunderland prep for his journey.

“Records are meant to be broken,” said Kevin Sanders. “We did this more than 20 years ago; Sam’s going to face a whole set of new challenges compared to back then. As people with a business within the motorcycle community, it’s always exciting to see riders take on new challenges or challenge old ones. We’re really keen to see how Sam does.”

Sunderland obviously knows a thing or two about long-distance riding as a two-time Dakar Rally winner and 2022 World Rally-Raid Champion. Of course, this is a much more daunting task as he’ll have to travel roughly 19,000 miles in two-and-a-half weeks. For comparison, the 2026 Dakar Rally is 14 days long but “just” 8,000 miles in length.

After starting in London, he and his Triumph Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer will cross the width of Europe into Turkey. From there, he heads into the Middle East through Jeddah in Saudi Arabia (the current Dakar host) to the Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. Once that leg is complete, he’ll take a flight to Oceania where he’ll cross Australia and New Zealand. Sunderland then heads to North America, riding through the United States and Canada, before crossing the Atlantic into Africa starting in Morocco. Finally, he’ll return to Europe via Spain and make it home to the UK.

In total, his journey will span 15 countries, five continents, and 13 time zones across 19 days. He must complete at least 18,000 miles including starting and finishing at the same exact location in London, and he has to touch two antipodal points (locations that are directly on opposite sides of each other on the Earth). The plane flights across oceans, where factors are outside his control, will not count toward his final time.

“I know this challenge will test me to the core, physically and mentally,” Sunderland stated. “There will be days when I’m out there for 15 or 16 hours in the cold and rain, heat and humidity, fighting the wind, battling exhaustion, and mental fatigue. This, plus jet lag and crazy time zones, it’s going to be brutal.

“But that’s exactly why I’m doing it. I thrive on the unknown, figuring things out as I go. I’m not here to just edge past the record. I want to set a new bar, one that makes the next person really earn it, just like I have to now.”

Sunderland retired from rally raids on two wheels last July, but returned to Dakar this year as the navigator for fellow bike-to-car jumper Toby Price. In February, he became an off-road ambassador for Triumph Motorcycles where he’s assisted in developing their non-pavement bikes. Later in July, he’ll head to Romania to compete in the Red Bull Romaniacs on a Triumph Tiger 900.

The Triumph Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer is an adventure bike like the Tiger 900, albeit sporting a 1160cc engine. It is

“This is a hugely challenging undertaking for Sam and the Red Bull team, who are attempting to beat a record that has remained unbroken for more than twenty years,” commented Triumph’s chief commercial officer Paul Stroud. “Sam’s determination and focus will be well matched by the performance and capability of the Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer, which is the ideal ride for such an epic adventure. We wish him every success as he travels across the globe.”

Featured image credit: Mark Roe / Red Bull Content Pool