This Road I Ride by Juliana Buhring

This Road I Ride: Sometimes It Takes Losing Everything to Find Yourself by Juliana Buhring is an inspiring memoir about resilience, endurance, and self-discovery through extreme adventure. The book follows Buhring’s journey as she becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle, covering 18,000 miles across four continents in 152 days—despite having little prior cycling experience.

The author begins her story with her unconventional and difficult upbringing in a restrictive religious cult. After escaping that life and experiencing personal tragedy, she embarks on a solo cycling journey around the world, driven by the need to prove to herself that she can survive and thrive on her own.

Along the way, she faces physical exhaustion, dangerous roads, extreme weather, illness, and loneliness, but also encounters incredible kindness from strangers across the world. Her journey is not just about breaking records but about reclaiming her sense of independence and strength.

Many members of our group enjoy riding bikes and could relate to the joy of bike travel. Some of us have even embarked on long tours and could further empathize and understand the difficulties.

Questions for our book club were as follows:

• Did we appreciate the brevity of the book? Or did we wish for more details?

• She had very little cycling experience; do we think we could do a trip like this?

• What were the main drivers leading her to take on the challenge?

• How much did growing up in a cult affect her desire to do this ride?

• What are the barriers for women taking on feats like this?

As a whole, the group only moderately enjoyed the book. Those who loved biking wished for more information: Buhring glosses over many technical details that we would have liked to know. Furthermore, detailed descriptions of the people, places, and experiences were lacking, making it difficult to feel as if we were there with the author. We agreed this was an impressive feat, and it was empowering to read about a woman solo traveling and accomplishing a massive record. However, the writing could have been improved to make a more enjoyable memoir.

Group rating: 6.6/10