Fast Forward

Ultra-long-distance bikepacker Lael Wilcox has spent six months of each year pedaling around the world and drinking in the bounty of travel from the special vantagepoint of her bike seat. “It’s kind of like a feral existence,” she says. In 2015, she started racing in bikepacking events. That year, she shattered the women’s course record by two days in her first-ever attempt of the epic 2,745-mile, self-supported Tour Divide — a mountain bike race that traces the Continental Divide from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. Following that win, she attempts to break the women’s record for the 800-mile Arizona Trail, a recently designated National Scenic Trail. Fast Forward follows Wilcox as she pushes her limits in the Arizona desert.