Edmonton simply obtained an entire lot quicker, due to Liane Langlois. The 50-year-old rider rolled again from Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats with a brand-new world record under her belt. And truthfully? That deserves far more than a well mannered spherical of applause. She’s now the primary Canadian girl—and solely the fourth Canadian, interval—to land an official Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme motorbike land velocity document. Her high velocity was 136.331 mph.
Or 219.403 km/h, should you’re counting in metric.
Now, should you’ve by no means heard of Bonneville, image it: a blinding white desert, flat as glass, stretching perpetually below the Utah solar. It appears to be like like a mirage till you’re standing on it, squinting via the warmth. For greater than a century, this salty stage has been the place the place dreamers and daredevils come to push previous purpose. Burt Munro chased historical past right here within the 60s—his story became the movie The World’s Quickest Indian. That is the place legends are born, the place data fall, and the place each run feels prefer it belongs to one thing greater than you.
That’s the world Liane stepped into.
And it wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment joyride. She’s been trekking all the way down to Bonneville each August for the previous eleven years, slowly carving her personal path into the salt. Final yr, she set two nationwide U.S. data. This yr, she aimed greater. With a custom-built bike from JKR Powersports in North Dakota, she lastly had the machine to match her cussed streak. She lined up, twisted the throttle, and rode straight into historical past.
The factor that makes her story even higher? She doesn’t really reside within the high-octane world full-time. Again in Edmonton, she serves as a senior advisor at Chrysalis, a corporation that helps people with disabilities. She laughs about her office giving her time without work to “do loopy issues like set world data,” however you may inform she means it when she says every part in her life feels rewarding proper now. Chasing historical past one week, giving again to her neighborhood the subsequent—that’s grounding.
Picture by: Liane Langlois
And her run wasn’t simply private. It ties her to a line of ladies who’ve taken on Bonneville with the identical mixture of grit and fireplace. Jessi Combs, the quickest girl on 4 wheels, tragically misplaced her life chasing one other document. Denise Mueller-Korenek, who pushed a bicycle—sure, a bicycle—previous 180 mph on this identical stretch of salt. Bonneville has at all times drawn the daring, however girls like these show that velocity isn’t reserved for only one type of rider.
So yeah, Liane’s document issues. It’s not solely concerning the numbers on a timing slip—although 136 mph is nothing to shrug at. It’s a few Canadian rider strolling into one of the storied venues in motorsport and staking her declare. It’s proof that desires from Edmonton can carry simply so far as any from California, New Zealand, or anyplace else. Bonneville is about chasing limits, and this yr, Liane confirmed the world that Canadians are proper within the combine.
In her personal phrases, it was the good factor she’s ever carried out. For the remainder of us, it’s a reminder: data are supposed to be damaged, historical past is supposed to be written, and the salt will at all times be there, ready for the subsequent courageous soul prepared to go just a bit bit quicker.
Trending Merchandise
