In an ongoing drive to raise funds for the underprivileged, Kate Leeming has taken Breaking the Cycle into Canada’s Yukon.
A professional athlete, Leeming’s love of cycling has seen her ride extensively in Europe and Africa – the latter experience being the first Breaking the Cycle expedition, which rose funds and awareness for communities impacted by HIV/AIDS.
For Breaking the Cycle South Pole, Leeming has partnered with YGAP, with money raised going towards supporting access to education in Kenya and South Africa.
Leeming is also running a global education program with the Victorian Department of Education.
Her major goal is to undertake the first bicycle crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole in a journey spanning 1,850 kilometres and around 45 days.
A trip to Greenland last year was undertaken as training, as is the latest journey to Canada, but Leeming admits there are other benefits.
‘I am very keen to explore the region, meet some of the local Vuntut Gwitchin people in Old Crow and learn about some of the culture and traditions, see wildlife (caribou, arctic foxes, maybe even polar bears) and witness some spectacular evening displays of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights),’ she wrote in a recent dispatch via the ExpeNews website.
The Yukon trip is set to be a four-week training expedition, beginning with a 400-kilometre acclimatisation ride north up the Dempster Highway, before heading cross-country to Old Crow.
Taking onboard her feedback from the Greenland expedition, Steve Christini has developed a third version of the bike that Leeming describes as an “all-wheel drive fat bike”.
“I am going to be trialling a small ski with an adjustable height that sits on either side of the front wheel,” she recently explained to Wild. “Picture a paddle steamer.”
The skis are believed to help support and stabilise the bike when ploughing through thick snow.
The next phase of Breaking the Cycle is now underway and readers are encouraged to stay up to date with Leeming’s dispatches and occasional videos, which can be received via email subscription.