Axel Carion (Axel, Michael, Jacques), born July 26, 1985, in

Chartres Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as d ...

(

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) is a French explorer, specializing in extreme ultra distance cycling and the organization of ultra cycling self-supported races. He has cycled twice the length of South America in 2015 and 2017 and owns the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for cycling, as a team, the length of South America, established in February 2017. He is the founder of the

BikingMan BikingMan is a French-based organization that organises unstaged, self-supported, ultra distance cycling events, in South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It was founded in 2016 by Axel Carion, who came back from cycling across South ...

bikepacking World Series and ambassador of the French Riviera since 2020.

Guinness World Record - 2017

On January 1, accompanied with the Swede Andreas Fabricius, he attempted to settle the fastest cycle crossing of South America from Cartagena - Colombia to Ushuaia - Argentina. After 49 days, 23 hours and 43 minutes, the duo managed to reach Ushuaia in

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla G ...

. Self-supported, they had to manage food, accommodations, bike repairs and some remote sections of more than 100 km without a single village. The highlight of the route was the Paso de Jama border crossing between

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

where the athletes had to cycle at high altitude (4.800 above sea level) in the Atacama region.

Human adventure award - 2017

The team duo's expedition in South America, is listed for the 2017 VSD Human Adventure Award along with the explorers Mike Horn,

Thomas Coville Thomas Coville (born 10 May 1968) is a French yacht racer. Coville was born in Rennes. He participated in significant offshore races and record attempts. In April 2012, he achieved 7 circumnavigations of the world, on mono or multihulls, sing ...

, Christian Clot, Philippe Croizon and the astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

Uturuncu expedition, Uturuncu Volcano Climbing in Bolivia - 2018

Axel is passionate about high-altitude cycling. In August 2018, he successfully attempted to reach the summit of one of the highest road in the world: the

Uturuncu Uturuncu is a dormant volcano in the Sur Lípez Province of Bolivia. It is high, has two summit peaks, and consists of a complex of lava domes and lava flows with a total volume estimated to be . It bears traces of a former glaciation, even t ...

Volcano at 5,800 meters.

Expedition "Chaskis", in the footsteps of Inca runners - 2019

In July 2019, Axel Carion accompanied by the German record holder

Jonas Deichmann Jonas Deichmann, born 15 April 1987 in Stuttgart, is a German adventurer, extreme athlete, and holder of multiple world records in cycling and endurance. Jonas has completed a triathlon around the world covering a distance of 120 long-distance ...

, managed to cycle the 1,900 kilometers of tracks between the Inca Valley and the Sierra Blanca in Peru. They perform the feat of crossing one of the highest road segment of Peru's " Qhapaq ñan" (network of Inca trails), nicknamed the "Peruvian Great Divide" in reference to the mountain range that crosses the United States from North to South (Continental Divide). Their course was composed of 35 passes above 4,000 meters of altitude including 3 passes higher than the Mont Blanc. They linked the city of Cusco (capital of the eponymous region) to the village of Conococha which sits at the foot of the white mountain range, in 16 days. They completed this feat in tribute to the Peruvian "Chaskis" runners, who traveled very long on foot to convey messages from the capital Cuzco to the borders of the Inca empire. This course is extremely demanding due to the prevailing climatic conditions (from + 40 ° to -15 °C), the conditions of the rocky and muddy Andean tracks and the limited access to food for refueling.

World record on the Jordan Bike Trail - 2020

In February 2020, Axel Carion invited the German record holder

, to cycle the Jordan Bike Trail in record time. Starting in Um Qais (Northern Jordan), the JBT follows the ancient trade road and link the Sea of Galilee, the Dead sea and the Red sea and finished in Aqaba (Southern Jordan). It is 730 kilometers long, with 20,000m of ascent over 57 climbs. The two explorers completed this expedition in 120 hours battling freezing temperatures, snow, strong wind and extreme elevation of the trail. The fastest time before their successful attempt had been completed in 10 days.

Fastest Known Time on the GT20 in Corsica - 2020

In September 2020, Axel Carion accompanied by ultra-distance

athletes Anthony Duriani, Xavier Massart, Romain Level and Fabian Burri set the first fastest known time for crossing the Island of Beauty by following the route approved by the Corsica Tourism Agency : GT20. This course connects Bastia to Bonifacio via Cap Corse, the

Agriates Desert The Agriates Desert or the Agriates (''désert des Agriates'' in French and ''l'Agriate'' in Corsican) is an area of Corsica split between the micro-regions of and Nebbio in Haute-Corse. Geography Location The Agriates Desert is a territ ...

, Balagne and the Regional Natural Park. After 592 kilometers and 11,000m of vertical gain, Axel and his team reached Bonifacio in 35h32min of cycling non stop without assistance and two full nights spent without sleeping.

Main cycling expeditions

*2011: Crossing the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

(1,200 km) in Central Europe *2012: Crossing

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

(1,500 km) *2013: Crossing the

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

and

Anti-Atlas The Anti-Atlas ( ar, الأطلس الصغير, shi, Aṭlas Mẓẓiyn), also known as Lesser Atlas or Little Atlas is a mountain range in Morocco, a part of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest of Africa. The Anti-Atlas extends from the Atlanti ...

(1,500 km) in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

*2013: Crossing

from Mulhouse to Nice (1,000 km) *2015: Continental crossing of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

in 185 days (13,500 km) *2017: World record for crossing South America in 50 days (11,000 km) *2018: Ascent of

volcano in Bolivia (5,800 m) *2019: World record for crossing the Peruvian Qhapaq ñan (royal inca trail) in 16 days *2020: World record for crossing the Jordan Bike Trail in 120 hours (730km, 20,000m of ascent) *2020: Fastest Known Time for crossing the GT20 in Corsica - 35h32min (592km, 11,000m of ascent) *2021: Tour de France (3,100 km) *2022: Crossing the Ho-Chi-Minh trail (2,700 km) in Laos and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carion, Axel Living people 1985 births