Emily Chappell on winning the Transcontinental, crying with joy on the streets of Paris and learning how to enjoy non-extreme cycling

[birds chirping] [gentle music] Endurance cyclist Emily Chappell, winner of the 2016 Transcontinental, a 24-hour mountain bike race in Scotland, and countless others, has covered most of the globe on two wheels.

But cycling has opened up the world to her in a less literal way, too.

So when I was, you know, back in my courier days, I'd sometimes meet people in cafes who were, you know, serious cyclists wearing Lycra, and they would talk about, "Oh, yes, you know, the Galibier, the Tourmalet," and these were all just, like, magical names to me.

I'd seen them in the Tour de France, and I didn't know how you would get there to ride up them or, you know, what it would be like or if I could.

It was a very vague, kind of inaccessible thing.

And now I know them really well.

Now I've, you know, I've been up the Tourmalet in all weathers.

I've been up there in the snow.

I've crossed the Galibier before it was open, and it's been this kind of big...

Part of this big progressive opening up of the world to me that I've, that I've had since I started cycling.

I'm Chris from Canopy and Stars, and this is A Life More Wild.

Join Emily now on a ride from her new home in Kendal as she talks about sleeping in fields, shining a spotlight on the women's Tour de France, and learning how to enjoy riding less than a few hundred miles.

[birds chirping] [thunder rumbling]