Bridget McCutchen
When Bridget McCutchen set off from her rural midwestern home on a world tour, she had no idea what the next 16 months would bring. Some 451 days later, after covering nearly 50,000 miles and visiting 45 countries, the 22-year-old Wisconsin native had successfully checked off all the requirements to become the youngest person, man or woman, to travel around the world by motorcycle. McCutchen was new to motorcycling, with relatively few miles under her belt, when she began to map out her journey. No surprise, her trip wasn’t as simple as connecting the dots. In Chile, McCutchen and a friend were robbed. Later, she was hit by a car, resulting in a concussion and other injuries. And then there was the war in Ukraine, which scratched plans to travel through Russia. “Part of the reason I'm traveling around the world is to show that the motorcycle demographic is changing,” McCutchen wrote partway through the trip on her website, two-wheels-round.com. “I represent the new generation of riders. Young women who enjoy motorcycling are a growing force; they are people who want to be more present, enveloped in the world, not encapsulated in the bubble of a car.”