From Law Student to Africa’s Most Fearless Cyclist | Tegan Phillips

She was a law student at Rhodes University when she drew some cartoons to win a bicycle. That bicycle changed everything.

Tegan Phillips is an adventurer, ultra-endurance cyclist, comic artist, and content creator who has spent the last decade doing the things most people only talk about — cycling through Africa with her family, completing a solo triathlon around New Zealand's South Island, and attempting to set the women's world record for the fastest ride from Cairo to Cape Town. That record attempt nearly killed her. In this conversation, Tegan shares the raw, unfiltered story of what happened in the Egyptian desert — losing her speech, having a seizure, and the moment she had to decide whether to call her parents to say goodbye or fight to stay alive. She also opens up about the quiet years that followed: waitressing, living with her 94-year-old great aunt in a tiny apartment, and rebuilding from nothing. Now based in Spain near Ashleigh Moolman Pasio's Rocacorba Cycling, Tegan reflects on what it means to respect risk, why comics and content creation come from the same creative impulse, and why the conversation around women in cycling needs men to do more than just not exclude.

This is a story about doing hard things, falling apart, and finding a reason to keep going.

🎒 Follow Tegan: @teganphillipscomics

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00:00:00 — "My Favourite Person in the World"

00:04:03 — A Spinning Assistant Discovers Cycling

00:06:38 — 1,400km to the Namibian Border and Back

00:09:00 — The Year That Changed Everything (Family Africa Trip)

00:13:29 — The Sedgefield 500 and Falling in Love with Ultra Endurance

00:16:52 — 10 Ironmans Around New Zealand's South Island

00:22:48 — Writing the Book About All of It

00:29:18 — "I Think I'm Going to Die" (The Cairo to Cape Town Attempt)

00:37:01 — Rebuilding in Spain: Rocacorba and a New Chapter

00:43:38 — Tempering Steel: The Lesson That Stays

00:46:39 — From Comics to Content Creation

00:48:17 — Turning Sexist Comments into Comedy Gold

00:51:42 — Women in Cycling: Why It's Not a Women's Issue

00:59:14 — Exclusion Isn't a Rule — It's Invisible Barriers