How I Lost My Bicycle Touring Virginity

Two years ago I had just finished my cancer treatments and had never even heard of bicycle touring. If someone had said to me that two years later I will have cycled across Europe, I would have laughed.

But then came recovery, the urge to say thank you and raise money for the Royal Marsden, followed by COVID, lockdowns and lockdown boredom.

One lockdown night, when we were drunk and dreaming of traveling again, the idea of cycling to raise money came up. Somehow it developed into cycling across Europe - if you are asking people to donate money, you got to go big!

Instead of going away, the idea grew roots, and we began watching endless videos of bike touring on YouTube. We purchased a map of Europe and planned our route.

And on the 8th of August 2021, we began our journey from Nuorgam in Finland to the east coast of Spain.

Our original plan was to begin from Nordkapp in Norway, but COVID put a stop to that. On arrival in Norway, we would have had to isolate for ten days. This was not an option. So we started from the northernmost point of Finland instead.

It would have been wise to do some serious training before we began, but in the run up to the ride, the weather in London was abysmal and I didn’t fancy riding in the rain until I absolutely had to. So other than a couple of longer rides and daily work commutes, we were rather unprepared.

Lucky then that we had our support troops - my parents - with us at the start. It meant we didn’t have to carry all our equipment with us and could get used to climbing and cycling long distances day after day. We also had a hot meal waiting for us after each day’s cycling.

But this was not to last, and after a week, they left us to our own devices.

Being bicycle touring virgins, the first weeks of our ride were a steep learning curve. We soon learnt that life on the road isn’t always glamourous (well most of the time it’s not) and that camping is much more pleasant in dry and warm weather.

The phrase soaked to the bone also got a new meaning as we cycled through pissing down rain. Each time I thought it was impossible to get any wetter, a passing car would splash me or the rain would get even heavier. By the time we stopped, I was wet through to my underpants.

You might ask why we weren’t wearing clothing suited for wet weather. The rain came down so heavy and quick we didn’t have a chance to get our wet weather gear out of the panniers before we were so wet there was no point anymore.

Getting through Finland took us three weeks. Towards the end of the three weeks, the rain gave way to some sunny warm days, but the autumnal chill was in the air especially at night, and we had some chilly nights in the tent.

Although chilly is an understatement. It was bloody freezing some nights. These cold nights stayed with us through Sweden, Denmark, Germany and France, until we reached Spain - weeks later!

We battled frustrating headwinds in Denmark and learnt that Germany is a cyclists’ paradise. France greeted us with multiple punctures, including two in one day before crossing the border to Spain.

Thanks to Brexit, we had a limited time to complete our charity ride and had to push the distance every day. We took 72 days to cycle 5,518 kilometres. That is 76,64 kilometres per day on average.

There were days we rode until dark, several days when we were battered by the rain, times when we were almost eaten alive by mosquitos and moments when we doubted our sanity.

But those times were far outweighed by the positives. On our journey, we met some amazing people who helped us and expected nothing in return. Our path crossed with other bicycle tourers, like-minded people with whom to swap experiences.

We saw wonderful scenery ranging from the arctic forests of Finland to endless fields of corn in Germany, majestic mountains in the south of France, and finally beautiful beaches in Spain.

And through it all, we got hooked on bicycle touring. We fell in love with being on the road and waking up each morning in a different place. Before the ride was even over, we had already planned our next tour.

We might have been virgin bicycle tourers when we started in Nuorgam, but after ten weeks and two days on the road, we have earned our bicycle touring merits.

You can read about the ride in more detail in our blog Cycling for Cancer.

If you enjoyed what you read, give it a like or even better, leave a tip.