Kulkarni has been dogged by even more unimaginable issues. She claims to have been mugged at knifepoint and was recovering from a concussion that was related to the mugging.

Around-the-world cycling trips for competition require that participants cross through two antipodal points (points on opposite sides of the world). Kulkarni has now made it to her second of the two points, Madrid (the other being somewhere in New Zealand).