Simón and Mark's cycling adventures
2022 Paris Adventure
2021 was the year that we decided bike to Paris over the weekend in an effort to challenge ourselves and to see what we were made of. However, this decision was taken in November. To see whether it would be feasible to take on this challenge over the winter, we decided to do a test run by cycling from Utrecht to Groningen, a mere 200 km. Needless to say we picked the worst weekend to do this, with snow and sub 0 temperatures. We did not make it to Groningen.
Instead, we signed up to Thighs of Steel. This meant that in addition to cycling from Utrecht to Paris, we would also cycle from Dubrovnik to Thessaloniki, a distance of +700 km. To join Thighs of Steel it was necessary to raise a minimum of €500 euros. We decided that to raise this money we would use our trip to Paris. However, we had still forgotten an essential part of our adventure plans, the training. Here is a picture from one of our first training rides together.
Mark had been riding on an old Trek bike from 1992. Although it was a great bike, it soon became apparent that if we wanted to take our adventure plans seriously, it would be necessary to get a serious bike upgrade. A couple of logistical delivery issues were faced, but these were no issue for Simón's extensive bike network. Mark was able to get his bike 1 day before their planned first 100 mile ride, which ended up being 170 km. After this ride, which was in March, we rushed to get in as many km as possible. In total they rode 3082 km to train.
On the 27th of May 2022, almost 8 months after this great idea was produced from our minds, we set off. It must have been at least 4 am (see picture, it was very dark). We were as prepared as we could've been and were very much looking forward to starting this great adventure. Was it too late to back out? Yes (look how happy we look). Lucky for us, one of our good friends Balthasar decided to join us on the first leg of our journey out of the Netherlands. It was so much fun to have another person join our adventure. Someone to reassure us that we were doing something sensible and of course, for a good cause.
Thanks Balthasar!
Please feel free to join us again this year!
After dropping off Balthasar in Roosendaal, all the way in the South of the Netherlands, we continued on to Antwerpen in Belgium. We had many nice views. I mean look at these cool horses! However, we had really strong cross-winds which made it hard to keep on pushing forward. Additionally, we were both having pain in our knee from overburdening our legs. To relieve the pain we used Tantum cream and a lot of it... [Here is our warning, don't cycle to Paris without sufficient training, don't be like us. For coming year, we are taking the training so much more seriously and are starting to train more than 2 months in advance].
After an entire day of cycling with cross winds and next to train tracks, we were happy to arrive in France and to be surrounded by lovely fields with no cross winds. We had a few kilometers to go before reaching Lille, where Mark had booked the most budget friendly Airbnb possible. This should've been a warning. The one thing that made the night amazing was the food we ordered and proceeded to devour. Our alarm was set for 3 am. It was now 11 pm.... we did not wake up at 3 am.
The next morning we escaped around 6 am. We left Lille and found a little bakery to eat some breakfast. Although it was difficult to get out of bed, we were surprisingly very excited to get Day 2 started. It was a very calm ride towards the city of lights. Half way, in Saint-Quentin we met up with Mark's parents that happened to be traveling to the Netherlands that weekend.
The afternoon was a rollercoaster, we had a 1500 m climb. However, the downhill was spectacular. We were cruising at 35 kmh through the forest for what felt like an eternity and the outskirts of Paris were very beautiful. However, at this point, we had done our fair share of kms. We were really tired and were ready to crash. On entering Paris, we were forced to make a big detour to reach the city center which meant we were entering the city in the dark which was something we had hoped to avoid, but WE MADE IT! One mistake we had made during the planning stage was not considering that this weekend was the finals of the Champions League. This meant that all hotels were either fully booked or outrageously expensive. Via a contact of Simón's parents we found a place in Versailles. We arrived at the place at 1 am. We ordered food but it was delivered to the wrong address. Ordering again, food arrived at 2:30 am. We were running on fumes at this point but very happy to have a roof over our heads and to have reached our goal!
The next morning, on Sunday, we had to leave the house at 9 am to make sure we would be on time to taste the best croissants in Paris as well as to make sure we could catch the bus back to Utrecht. Needless to say, we had some trouble getting out of bed after sleeping 5 entire hours.
We bought the croissants, they were fantastic, and some more food for on the bus journey home. While sitting in the bus we were so happy to complete our adventure but we were so tired. The aim of this trip was to raise money for displaced people that are often forced to travel immense distances. Our trip was often difficult and challenging but not comparable at all to the immense obstacles and challenges displaced people face on a daily basis. As such we are so grateful to all the people that helped us raise €4000 euros to support grassroots refugee projects through MASS Action. Please consider donating again this year!