Belgium is a great cycling country with lots of cycling history and heroes. There are many well organised events and the bicycle is king. We live nearby the sea ("het Meetjesland" & "Zeeland") and crossing these lowlands will ever remain a very best ride...
on this wonderful ride I met a kind of brother, Kevin
Kevin told me that for him, life it is all about the BIG YES
whatever is not a big yes one should consider it a NO
this is so true
over the past years I had given a big yes to cycling the Great Divide one day, high altitude through the immense Rocky Mountains
in 2020 we were ready for take off, Marleen to join for part of the ride, but Corona/KLM canceled the flights
as for some other places that I cherish, I kept following up on the weather in Banff, Yellowstone, Steamboat Springs, Abiquiu, Silver City
and on that sunny Saturday morning Sept 16th, Marleen saw me watching the weather app and asked, where are you?
I said that the weather was good all along the Divide trail
so you should go, don't wait any longer, just do it
it was Marleens big yes to me, that it would be fine
one week later I started cycling from Calgary to Banff and here we are now, 4000km south along the divide on the Mexican border, thankful for 30 unforgettable cycling days and more happy than ever to fly home again
Ya, BIG YES is what makes our life so wonderful❤️
First driving by car from Belgium to Michiel&Alice in Spain for a check-up of the mountain bike. Next heading to Marocco, passing by Arjen in Marbella, sailing the street of Gibraltar and crossing the majestic Atlas Mountains to Ouarzazate, the starting place of the Roc du Maroc 2022. At this place I left my bag with the cycling luggage I would need during the upcoming mountain bike marathon and I continued my car drive to the finish location of the RDM near Merzouga.
Here I finally left the car at a friendly hotel. The entire staff wished me good luck on my cycling trip, first 4 days heading back to Ouarzazate and next participating to the 7 day RDM .
Cycling in Marocco was a great experience… breathtaking trails, amazing views and wonderful people all the way!
800k - 9 days
We started in Nurnberg and followed part of the Romantische Strasse to find our way to the Via Claudia Augusta
https://www.viaclaudia.org/en/bicycle-tour/cycling-the-via-claudia-augusta
Start to finish a beautiful track, through Southern Germany, over the Fernpass into Austria, following the Inn River, climbing into Italy by the Reschenpass and last but not least a long way down along the Adige River. The Via Claudia Augsusta has a track to Venice or the one to Verona which we took to Lake Garda.
The Via Claudia Augusta offers the best a ride can bring, magnificent views and cultural highlights all along the way.
Thank you Via Claudia Augusta and thank you Michiel and Alice for sending us that way:)
Queensland is magic for cycling off the beaten track.
As ever, the Crocodile Trophy was pure and tough and filled with lots of friendship. At the finish I packed my mountainbike with tent and matress to make my way up from Port Douglas to Cape York. It became a best ride ever, 2000km in 3 weeks, never to forget...
Thanks to the http://www.cycletrailsaustralia.com website for being a trustworthy source of inspiration.
Cycling the beloved country…
My first discovery of South-Afrika was in 2017, riding the Cape Epic with Mathias. The Cape Epic is a super professional full-service race, meaning that everything is taken care of from the start, for the pro’s but also for the many amateurs (https://www.cape-epic.com). Participating to the Cape Epic event was a never to forget mountain biking experience and it left me with the desire to come back to SA one day.
As such it was wonderful to gather with some 23 Belgian mountain bikers for the 2019 Joberg2C. The J2C is a non UCI multi stage mountain bike event, starting in the south of Johannesburg and finishing nine days and 900k later on the KwaZulu-Natal coast along the Indian Ocean: a spectacular ride in a true family spirit (https://www.joberg2c.co.za).
Once the ‘race’ was finished I packed my mountain bike with 2 Ortlieb bags and headed for 2000 more kilometers on a solo ride through the beloved country...
I started by heading north again over the magnificent Sani Pass into Lesotho. The track through Lesotho was filled with contrasts and emotions: the altitudes, the loneliness, the living conditions, the feelings of being “fragile but privileged”.
I entered South-Afrika again at the Sephapos Border Gate in the west of Lesotho and from Boesmanskop I followed gravel and tarmac roads through the Free State, the Karoo, the Garden Route and the unforgettable Mitchells Plain, all the way to “Cape of Good Hope”, a life changing ride…
1000k through open space - PURE nature & people - http://www.mongoliabikechallenge.com - mountain bike race - group of 80 riders at the start - one group at the finish - TRUE ADVENTURE cycling hosted by Willy Mullonia
For the people loving cycling (or walking) along a river, the Thames path (https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/thames-path/) is definitely worth it. We cycled no more than a London section of the path, kind of 3 days down the river from about Richmond and Brentford to the Angel Inn at Bermondsey Wall East and back upstream to where we started.
“Following the greatest river in England past water meadows, unspoiled rural villages and all through the heart of the big city” as the website indicates. Even though the path is mentioned to be walking oriented, it was easy cycling. We never had the feeling to be wrong cycling this path. If needed/wanted there are plenty of alternatives and countless wonderful places to stop and visit or stay.
The pictures are not in the chronological order and mixed cycling down and upstream. A ride like this doesn't need any preparation apart of keeping an eye on the weather forecast…
We look forward cycling the entire path one day.
An 18 days solo ride full of surprises… from the house of Michiel & Alice in La Nucia to Alicante, Murcia and all the way along the Sierra Nevada to Granada. Next Sevilla before heading north into the desolate beauty of Extremadura: Zafra, Merida and over the Béjar mountain range to Salamanca. Last but not least further north into the Picos de Europe, which were my source of inspiration for this ride. All I had heard and read about the Picos is true, it is one of these places where you meet eternity… The Atlantic Costa Verde days - where I expected the most rain - were all sunny:) I speeded home in 5 days through France, still in lockdown. The winds blew all the good memories with me so to never forget...
1800km - 10 days - home to Michiel & Alice - beyond imagination, riding through France / Paris / Tarbes-Lourdes / Pyrenees / Spanish Plaines and down to the Alicante province… - all kinds of weather - magic rivers - all kinds of nature - all kinds of people - all kinds of food - all kind of thoughts…
2000 k - first ride with the LEGOR Globe Tractor traveler - WARM people & places & roads - the Alpujarras and the area of Playa de Monsul are top of the list - great tapas in the smallest villages, feeling at home...
From Lago di Garda to the North Cape… 4351 km self supported all the way through Italy, Austria, Germany, Czechia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland to the tip of Norway.
The http://www.northcape4000.com/en was a magic Ultracycling Bike Adventure and another best ride ever.
Each and every of the 125 riders in an own style and pace. As I took the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, the first were close to the North Cape while others were still enjoying Czechia.
Amazing views all the way and nice meeting some other riders once and a while, as well as teaming up with the reindeer:)
The 2018 North Cape 4000 ultra ride was simply fantastic and so I subscribed right away for the 2019 version. This time the track was climbing up north to Scandinavia passing Belgium, Germany and Denmark.
As I could not make it to do the entire ride I choose to start in Frederikshavn taking the ferry to Oslo and following the 2019 NC4000 gpx track uptil Narvik.
I traveled solo with my trekking bike and tent, averaging 170km per day. Sweden was a great place for cycling and living in the open. Next, heading into Norway again and passing the Arctic Circle the landscape was changing a lot, entering the Hidden Valley Mountain range to Bodø. Last but not least the ferry from Bodø to Moskenes opened the doors to the many superb spots and scenery of the Lofoten.
I hope the pictures give a glimpse of the extraordinary beauty along these roads.
Marleen was flying into Narvik, north of the Lofoten.
“Places and moments where all parts of nature vibrate at exact the same frequency, times of freedom and wholeness”, as a friend once wrote to me…
"People don't take trips, trips take people..." (J. Steinbeck)
A magic ride, from NY,
along the 'Great Lakes' (Lake Ontario/Erie Canal, Lake Erie, Lake Michigan/Chicago);
along the 'Great Rivers' (the Mississippi and the Missouri River)
along the 'Going-to-the-Sun Road'/Glacier NP;
along the 'Great Divide' in the Canadian Rockies;
along the Icefields Parkway;
through British Columbia to the Pacific;
and last but not least along the 'Inside Passage' to Juneau and Anchorage...
so many miles and even more Smiles:)
best trip ever!
THY people, THY mother nature and THY dearest LegorCicli 'Globetractor' bike!
2750 k - following the Pacific from Vancouver to San Diego - 2750 pictures:) - North to South is best direction - mostly wind in the back - AMAZING places & views - Our favourite place might be the wonderful area of BIG SUR in California, WILD flowers & a WILDEST coast line...
1100 k - Paris to St.-Tropez - this ride or whatever route you draw through France - whatever season of the year - all alone or being part of one of the many gran fondo or MTB rides... FRANCE is MAGIQUE!
600k Brompton Ride - Tour of the Island following the itinerary of the http://www.vueltapr.com - EASY GOING COLOURFUL FEEL GOOD TRIP
350 k Brompton Ride - Adana Tepecikören Kozan Kadirli Karatepe Osmaniye Yumurtalik Karatas Adana - the parfum of CITRUS, Adana Kebab:), the MEDITERRANEAN CHARM, very special people, a very special tour...
500k - the MAGIC Wallis/Valais area - no words can express the beauty of the Grimsel, Susten, Gothard and Nufenen pass as indicated on the map + do not forget the Furka Pass to be drawn right in the middle - Obergoms, at the very end of the Rhone valley, is nice place to stay, even if you do not know all people in this small village as my friend Piet does:)
