10 000 km, wheels keep on turning !
Now right in the middle of Turkey, we’ve just reached 10 000 km !
10 000 km, it’s 1800 more than as-the-crows-fly Paris-Beijing ! However as we do not yet fly, as we always take the long way around, depending on the encounters, and as we tend to prefer the narrow moutains roads, we haven’t yet reached the middle of our journey !
Paris + 10 000 km
10 000 km and 113 000 m of positive height-difference, or more graphically put :
– 6 months of journey
– 150 cycling days, for 617h spent on the saddle
– 41 days of “rest” (rock climbing, hiking, visiting)
– 128 bivvy nights, 44 nights under local welcoming roofs, 11 nights in official campsites, 8 nights in hostels/hotels
– 10 000 L of tea/ayran/coffee/beer/raki drinking invitations depending on the country
– 10 000 kg of inhabitants’ various gifts (bread, fruits and vegs, water and cold drinks, meals and even bike spare parts)
– 11 kg lost (or better, transformed in propulsion) for Sego !!
Distance:
– 67 km / (fully or partly) cycled day
– 80 % of the Earth diametre (12 756 km)
– 1/4 of the Earth circumference (40 000 km)
– 2,6 % of the Earth- Moon lenght (384 400 km)
Height difference:
– 753 m / (fully or partly) cycled day
– 2,3 % in average of uphill gradiant
– 375 times the Eiffel tower (301 m)
– 24 times Mont Blanc (4810 m)
– 13 times Mont Everest (8848 m)
Countries:
– 11 cycled-through countries
in BLUE: Days in RED: Hundreds of km
V.I.P Stages:
– 130 km in one day, in Turkey
– 2000 m of level difference in one day, including parts riding on the snow in Montenegro, in the Durmitor National Park
– 77 km/h speeding downhill in Italy, the old Peugeot bike lacks in rigidity at this speed…!
– Some well-known passes, though not the toughest we encountered : Lautaret (France), Sestriere (Italie), Vrsic (Slovénie)
Mechanical problems:
The morale challenging part ! Especially for Alex, who concentrates 95% of the mechanical flaws!
– 12 flat tyres (mostly due to Turkish thorns)
– 1 rear tyre
– 15 spokes (100% from Alex’s rear wheel GRRRRRRRR)
– 2 chains
– 1 broken fork
– 4 pairs of pedals
– 2 sets of deraileurs (1 front, 1 rear)
– 1 crank, broken then weld, still holding
– 1 brake cable
– 1 front luggage rack fixation anchor
– 1 mudguard thrown away
– 1 broken pannier anchor (hit by a mad Mercedes driver…)
– 10-ish braking pads, of various quality
…And still enjoying the show !
From now on we will have to get on 2nd gear, keeping in mind that we ought to cross the Pamir (Central Asia) before the winter snow settles. With the visa management seeming quite like a brain-teaser, the story can be labelled as : “TO BE CONTINUED“