Strava art: World record pending for 2,000km Olympic rings

A Strava art world record looks set to tumble after a French duo produced an enormous set of Olympic Rings in a 2,000km, 10-day ride ride.

Guillaume Koudlansky de Lustrac and Vincent Brémond set off from beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris in late January and returned last week, with the art designed to celebrate the upcoming Olympic Games in the French capital and support the organisation ‘Le Sport a du Cœur’ (Sport Has A Heart).

According to the Strava file, the ride measured 2,196.21km, with a moving time of 96 hours 11 minutes — or four full days — an average speed of 22.8km/h and a total elevation gain of 14,712m.

The effort has been passed on to Guinness World Records for verification, but if all is as it seems then the duo will take the record for the largest GPS drawing by bicycle as a team.

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© Strava / Guillaume Koudlansky de Lustrac @kokogichallenges

The pair in Paris (left) and out on the open road (right)

It would be the third time in little over a year that this record has been broken, all by French teams. In October 2022, a four-man team drew a 1,024km velociraptor, while the current official benchmark was set a few months ago by a father and daughter duo who drew a giant heart and raised more than £25,000 for charity.

The heart measured 2,162km, meaning Koudlansky de Lustrac and Brémond didn’t leave much room for error, upping the benchmark by a mere 34km. It might have been even tighter, were it not for a couple of mini-detours in search of shelter and food, which threatened to throw off the circularity of the rings.

As for how they tackled the design, they set off west from the centre of the middle ring, before completing the bottom left ring clockwise and top left ring anti-clockwise. They then ticked off the bottom half of the centre ring before moving anti-clockwise round the right-hand rings and returning to tackle the final top-right quarter of the centre ring as they returned to Paris.

For that last leg, the pair even had company from former French pro Yoann Offredo, as well as numerous others joining them for the celebratory finale to the Eiffel Tower. That moment came after a tough time out on the road, with plenty of rain and some vicious headwinds reported, along with headaches finding shelter and, with one of the pair a vegan, decent food to eat.

"I think I ate fries ten times in ten days," Koudlansky de Lustrac told Strava. “I started going crazy.”

Both riders are no strangers to ultra-endurance feats of athleticism; in fact, they met at the 2021 Race Across France. Koudlansky de Lustrac is also experienced in off-beat challenges, holding the world record for the fastest marathon run backwards.

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There is also a serious side to their endeavours, with environmental concerns never far from the surface. Koudlansky de Lustrac is planning to link every French ski resort — more than 300 — by bike this summer to ”try and see what we can do to save our mountains and ski stations in the future because of the current climate”.

The ride was also linked to the ‘Le Sport a du Cœur’ organisation, which aims to use sport as a force for societal good. That, of course, ties back in to the art the pair produced in light of this summer's Games.

"Take the Olympics as an excuse to do more sports and to get moving, even if it’s to draw just a five-kilometre letter or something."

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