Cooling off Rider Melissa Pritchard, who is likely to be the first woman to finish the race this year. The first woman across the line in 2016 was Emily Chappell, who finished in 13 days, 10 hours and 28 minutes. Speaking to Total Women’s Cycling after her win, she said: “I was so wrecked when I arrived that I didn’t feel like a triumphant hero – more like an exhausted, filthy, broken-down old woman. It was only over the next couple of days that it began to sink in. It’s been life-affirming, because really it was just more of what I love: riding my bike, seeing new places, meeting new people.”

Photograph: James Robertson