The Age: Profile: Kate Leeming

Pedal power pushes this athlete across continents and to her limits. Ask Kate Leeming about the biggest challenge of her nine-month, 25,000-kilometre bike ride through Australia and she initially talks of Western Australia’s Canning Stock Route. The route crosses four deserts and about 1000 sand dunes, some as high as 16 metres. Leeming spent 28 days in 40-degree heat completing the 1800-kilometre track at a tortuously slow eight kilometres an hour.

“It was the first crossing by a woman and there’s a good reason for that,” says Leeming, 40, who describes it as like cycling in soft sand on the beach. “It pushed me physically, emotionally and mentally to the maximum.”

Later in the interview, however, it becomes clear that the toughest stretch was the final few weeks, from Adelaide to Melbourne then on to the Canberra finishing point. Physically it was a doddle but Leeming was an emotional wreck, after hearing from her husband that he was leaving her.

“I thought I would be cruising into the end, then suddenly ‘bang’,” she says. “It’s taken me a long time to get over it.”

In the two years since her Great Australian Cycle Expedition (GRACE) ended, Leeming has immersed herself in a new challenge, writing a book about the adventure. Now, she’s set her sights on preparing for another long-distance cycling feat, across an as yet undisclosed continent.

The expedition was Leeming’s second: in 1993, she was the first woman to cycle across the “new Russia”, from St Petersburg to Vladivostok. The 13,000-kilometre trans-Siberian cycle expedition took five months and raised money for children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

“What I learnt with Russia is there is a lot more there than just satisfying my own sense of achievement,” Leeming says. The Australian expedition also had an ulterior purpose, to raise awareness of sustainable development.

Leeming’s interest in cycling emerged in her twenties, when she travelled to London to compete with a University of WA hockey team. A couple of the team cycled in Ireland for five days and Leeming realised that this was a good way to travel.

“In a car you can be in a climate controlled bubble,” says Leeming, who stayed overseas for 12 years, working in London fitness clubs and travelling. “On a bike, you’re very close to the land and the wildlife - it gives you an incredible sense of place.” So, while others were criss-crossing Europe by train and car, she clocked up 15,000 kilometres on her pushbike, from Spain to Turkey and just about everywhere in between.

Leeming says her interest in exploring the world was piqued by a map of the world hanging on the kitchen wall of her childhood home, a WA sheep and wheat farm. As for cycling, genetics may have something to do with it; her great-great-uncle, William Snell, cycled from the WA goldfields to Melbourne in 1897, taking just 26 days to complete the second bike crossing of the Nullarbor Plain.

There’s also her athletic and competitive nature. As well as the bike-riding exploits, Leeming has been a top real tennis player for more than a decade, after learning the game (formerly known as royal tennis) while she lived in London. She is the Australian women’s singles champion, ranked No. 3 in the world, and works as a club professional at the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club.

Leeming says finishing the cycling challenge has made her a much stronger tennis player and has also helped her coping skills in real life. “It’s given me a good sense of what’s really important. I don’t get too stressed about small things and I feel quite strong and secure within myself.”

Out There and Back by Kate Leeming (self-published, $49.95) was released last week.

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Biggest break Meeting Robert Swan, the first person to walk to the north and south poles. He gave me the confidence to create a whole project, to raise my sights and see the value in what I was doing and to package it and market it, rather than just travel for myself.

Biggest achievement Finishing the GRACE expedition. I was under a lot of stress, because of the emotional side - that last bit was an incredible struggle. And writing the book.

Biggest regret In following the things I do - travelling, living overseas for 12 years and now living in Melbourne - I’m always away from my parents and where I grew up [in country WA].

Best investment I’ve invested all my money into each expedition and I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Worst investment I don’t like wasting my time. The times I’ve felt worst in my life are when I’m not working towards something.

Attitude to money You need it. I’d like to have more, that’s true. It’s important for security and I’d like to own a house one day.

Personal philosophy For each challenge, I want to look back and be proud of it and know I’ve given it my best shot.