Omar di Felice begins 1,600km ride across Antarctica

Italian adventure cyclist Omar di Felice has begun his long-awaited ride across Antarctica, getting his fat bike expedition underway on Monday with a short but significant first leg of 10.5km.

Di Felice plans to cover almost 1,600 kilometres on snow and ice, amid temperatures as low as -40° Celsius, as he ventures from Hercules Inlet in Western Antarctica to the South Pole at 2,835 metres above sea level, then to the Leverett Glacier in the Transantarctic mountains, and back to the South Pole.

It would be the longest solo crossing of Antarctica by bicycle, and it would be with the aim of – as well as pushing himself to new limits – raising awareness for the dangers of climate change, with Di Felice previously completing numerous ultra-endurance rides as part of his own ‘Bike to 1.5’ campaign.

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The 42-year-old flew from southern Chile to Union Base Camp on Friday, before catching a small plane on Monday to drop him off at Hercules Inlet. Mounting his Wilier fatbike, loaded with bags and towing a sled, he began pedalling.

“FIRST STEP: it is without any doubt the most difficult to move,” Di Felice wrote on Instagram. “Shaking off fears and difficulties is not easy, especially when the postponements force you to wait without having much else to do than ‘thinking’.

“But finally, at 15.00 local time, I started cycling: after greeted [sic] the Union Glacier base camp I started the first very difficult ascent from the sea level to 800 meters (altitude gain to be covered in about 30km).

"The first 10.5km are done."

© ESA (Data source: GEBCO 2023 Grid, REMA)

The map of Di Felice's route

The delays Di Felice refers to are both recent, waiting for a decent weather gap to simply get to Antarctica in the first place, and longer-term. In fact, this is the second time he has begun an attempt at an Antarctic crossing.

Last year, he set out from Hercules Inlet but decided to stop the ride after eight days and 100km, owing partly to family issues back home.

“Turning back last year was the greatest act of courage I have been able to do. Choosing to return, however, is the right choice to respect that dream that I’ve always carried within me,” Di Felice said last week.

“I’ve dedicated my entire life to be here.”

Di Felice dabbled in a career in pro racing as a youngster but decided to prioritise his studies and his passion for long-distance riding. He has since become one of the most prominent two-wheeled adventurers in the world, winning the 6,800km Trans Am Bike Race earlier this year.

Previous journeys through the Arctic Circle, Canada, and Alaska will have braved him for the sub-zero conditions, while climate activism has long inspired his rides, notably a 2,000km trip from Milan to Glasgow for the Cop 26 climate summit in 2021.

The AntarcticaUnlimited project was born out of a desire to push both Di Felice's own limits and the boundaries of exploration of the inhospitable continent, which is essentially 14 million square kilometres of ice that sees precious few humans and even fewer bicycles.

“For human beings, it represented the last bastion of modern exploration, for athletes and sportsmen it is still the field on which to measure their limits and ambitions, for science it is the best place on Earth to study,” Di Felice recently wrote in National Geographic. “But for me it represented first and foremost a mental refuge, a place where I dreamed from a young age, of being able to set foot. Or rather, the wheels of the bicycle.”

“A way to bring science and sport together along the fundamental and now essential path through which there is a need to increase people's awareness of issues related to the climate crisis. The emergency we are experiencing, and which will have a strong impact on future generations, requires all our commitment.”

Wilier Triestina

Wilier Triestina is an Italian manufacturer of road bikes, mountain bikes, gravel bikes and e-bikes, based in Rossano Veneto in northern Italy.