Attempting to cycle 2700km across a continent in 3 weeks – Velo Iberia

“You don’t ‘find yourself’ on trips like this, you build yourself”

Wise words uttered by Tim as we lugged our tired and sodden carcasses across the northern reaches of France. The fourth in the ‘Velo’ bikepacking series by Friction Collective, Velo Iberia sees 3 mates and a guest appearance fly to Porto, Portugal and cycle the entire 2700km back home to Bristol, UK.

Crossing the soggy Portuguese hills, into the barren plains of northern Spain and across the frankly daunting Pyrenees, the journey was fraught with mechanicals, lack of sleep, belly laughs, frozen bivvy spots and incredible scenery.

By far our hardest journey so far, this is Velo Iberia.

Supported by: @Restrapltd
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Previous Adventures:

VELO VIETNAM: https://youtu.be/XMPDTxHNOgI?si=urUOJ9iVgQSw9v0i

VELO MALAYSIA: https://youtu.be/z_nuMKKGHe8?si=niL9PGzTt-UsM-RH

VELO EXMOOR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6ARfB4Ws9c&list=PLuVzQtbgHDs1kymw7DpmbRowHl6U-CQFp&index=3

VELO WALES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF8tj4eeq2s&list=PLuVzQtbgHDs1kymw7DpmbRowHl6U-CQFp&index=4

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WEBSITE: https://frictioncollective.com/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/frictioncollective/

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A I kind of forgot what it’s like to live with those two again absolutely horrendous pretty R I love him flipping out is a hard route it’s actually Frosty look literal frost on that grass we are for a really cold night full game over oh my God

Portugal wasn’t what I was expecting at all you know I’ve been there a couple of times before but not sort of in my adult life and you know we landed and just due to like schedulings and timings and where we were flying from and stuff Jack

Wasn’t there with us on on the first day which we had for setting up so we started setting up Jack’s bike and we noticed that I’m not going to say he packed it wrong but he didn’t pack it right and um his derailer was very bent

When it came out or like it wasn’t usable so you know the idea of how we were going to be spending that first day of Portugal quickly changed from being oh go ride to a coffee shop and have a chilled out time in Porto and do something cultural to let’s find any

Bike shop shop that’s open that’s got der [ __ ] turns out there wasn’t any N speed N speed nine 9 8 7 uh B twin sixspeed it doesn’t look like they have it [ __ ] H okay that’s not great what do we do now it was such a specific thing uh

Needed to be like an 11-speed deria Shimano to have that in stock you know if you’re at home you could order it online and you’ve got a week or whatever until it arrives but we like needed it instantly uh which just added to the stress really but luckily Tim managed to

Find on Facebook Marketplace a guy uh who was selling a Shram which was different to what Jack needed but it would with some compatibility issues it would do him good so yeah then we spent a good deal of time cycling across the city to meet this random guy 40 years

Later we got this it’s a short cage and it’s sham and Jack is a medium or long cage and and he’s got a cassette that might be too big for this shifters that w’t work with this but it’s better than a completely busted um dur I can start at the moment

So hopefully this might save the day a lot of people ask like why you do these trips a lot of people sort of have the perception of like when you go traveling and stuff and people are trying to find themselves or learn about themselves and quite often some people

Are running away from something or running to something or trying to change some Elemental perspective of their life in some ways it doesn’t feel so Grand as that for me like I have to go and find something here you know I’m not ripping up my playbook in order to do this

However I do notice that I get a bit itchy I get I start drawing in the margins of my playbook I’m start scribbling and coming up with ideas and I suddenly have this excitement and wanting me to go do something so well I might not be ripping up the Playbook

Starting again trying to toine myself and maybe tearing out a page and trying to see what comes next and that’s what these trips are they’re opportunity to go adventuring not wandering I’m not I’m not on the road forever this is this is leaving my comfort zone for a little bit

Finding what’s good out there and what I can bring back into my life that’s why I enjoy these trips that’s what they offer me all right here we are uh at the Atlantic Ocean the next time we’ll be at the ocean be in nor English Channel That’s 1K done 2,699 to

Go so yeah this trip was designed probably like 4 years before we actually did it 3 years before we actually did it co and a whole load of other things gotten the way but eventually we got to fly to Porto on uh the coast of Portugal it was essentially just cycling back

Home yeah just made our way back gradually across Portugal Spain France and then a little bit of the south of Britain it was a 201700 km trip back to the UK back to Bristol so our previous trips were all all about going places seeing things eating things smelling

Things that we’ve never seen eating or smell before this one was a little bit different for us this one was about testing ourselves as cyclists testing our ability as athletes if you like we wanted to really just find the limit of ourselves physically as well as emotionally this

Is not to say that we didn’t enjoy or in fact we loved passing through the countries that we went through it was less about the exploration in a geographic sense and more about the exploration personally a personal journey of taking ourselves to the limits and then trying to enjoy those limits support

Lumpy we’re about 3/4 of the way through day one it’s slow going cuz there’s a lot of lumps and they’re like proper size climbs you spend like 30 minutes climbing and then 10 minutes back down the other side and then 30 minutes climbing we got like five of those done

Today and I’m right at the end of the about 150k into our ride or so um we we climb for about 600 M 650 M so it’ll be about an hour and a half climbing so the final climb Tim It’s the final climb this is like four climbs rolled

Into one though this is 22k something like that and 600 and something met of climbing I going to bed yet really near the top now man we’re getting there yeah come on in Cru world uh it was day two morning A day two we’re just um they just packed up

From the hotel what’s your thoughts about stay time um yeah I mean I’m pretty excited really cuz we’re going to be right at the border of Spain two days yeah of course so uh that’ be nice we’re on day two just just set off um I just

Um pulled out the road a little bit from the boys uh just kind of forgot what it’s like to live with those two again absolutely horrendous I shared room with Jack last night and he is just snoring his ass off all the time Tim was in the room opposite there was a

Bit of a hot room we didn’t have any air conditioning so we had all the doors open and all I could hear was just Tim farting away uh yeah day two already already sick of them um roll on day 19 I think really we were just in this small town

Quite a nice town you know this is one of our few stops of that day and we’re like great let’s ride let’s crack on we’ve got a lot of miles a lot of Hills do yeah and just heard this Almighty snap all game over oh my God fly [ __ ] that is not

Good we are 100k from where we’re supposed to be and miles and miles of miles from anywhere sensible [ __ ] hell do you want to explain what’s happened so it was just running Along on our way out of time we just stop for a snack and they changed

Gear and the new deria that we put on Pau in the wheel and [ __ ] tore itself to Pieces we’re in a fairly decent town I guess so it means might be able to find a light shot Maybe that might that might be optimistic might be optimistic right

[ __ ] Al so we’re sort of stuck in this town there was a taxi rank that was very nondescript and trying to find a taxi in Portugal in a small town a very weird time of day where no one spoke English and I spoke a tiny bit of Spanish didn’t really work out very

Well piing out what’s happening then Jack uh so bike’s broken um which means I need to get to a bike shop there’s not a bike shop in the town that is broken in so I need to get a taxi so I’m going to put the bike in

The taxi or try to get a taxi to there’s like the next to over it’s about 40 minutes north of here I’ve been messaging a guy he’s there’s a bike shop there which he says will’ll be able to fix my bike hopefully so now the next

Hard do is to try to get a taxi but I think because we’re in the middle of the day and um it’s Portugal uh the taxi companies aren’t picking up so 20 I think 20 okay um and I’d like all of a sudden we were a man down it also started

Raining as well it was a bit of a a bit of a bummer you know just we were just worried whether Jack could actually get it sorted and when we see him again you know um and then I’d be stuck with Tim forever which I don’t think I could have coped with

Hopefully hopefully he’ll uh be able to get the problem solved and where he’s going is a bit of a detour he’s then either going to have to jump in another taxi to then get to where we are once his bike’s fixed or knowing him we probably try and cycle it

So I mean it is now 20 to 5 at 20 to1 my deria basically threw itself into the back wheel tore itself to pieces and wow yeah 221s to the day my ride was over pretty much I gotten a taxi from one small town couldn’t tell you the name of it we were

Right in the middle of nowhere no bike shop in that town so we had to I had to rely on and getting a taxi the boys carried on riding they stuck on the same route they had about 90k 96k to do I think from that town whereas I got a

Taxi and went 50k north um to another town where there was a bike shop and thank God they had the right deria so so on bike you’re the guys somehow managed to to make it here right I’ve got uh some hours left to do on the bike 2 5 hoping I’ll get in

Before dark but I’ve got a lot of climbing to do it’s Super H route so maybe not flipping hour is a hard route it’s like 600 M climb 600 M descent 600 M climb 600 M descent no flat in the middle I mean this is the first flat

I’ve been on and that flat leads to Spain there in the distance is Spain it’s been quite nice riding by myself no no offense to Tom and Tim but it’s just nice to get in a bit of a Groove and just power on it in your own

Speed for a little bit and and uh yeah and kind of have your own your own thoughts and feelings and emotions Etc yeah it’s been a it’s been a it’s been a hell ride I’m really looking forward to get to the hotel um put my feet up for a couple of

Hours and then back out on the bike in the morning for a massive like 220k day or something so yeah I need some sleep tonight I think just happy I got the bike fixed though day three and we’re doing I think 225k I think today so is that Spain over

There then literally I think it’s like as soon as you cross the dam see there’s a building there on the left yeah white one I think that used to be the old checkpoint we done it we’re in Spain I need to take me I can’t myone I think

It’s a thorny nightmare there’s seven thorns in Tim’s wheel and I’ve got puncture on the front and a puncture on the back it must be Cactus stores or something on this road and was just nailed us and the boys got some punches on a bit of a gravel section so that

Immediately flatted I think we had four flats burnt through all of our tubes there were like seven Fs in each tire so it’s essentially unrepaired with patches so you have no choice but just a used tube that used all our tubes up and we were then pretty worried like what if

That happens again you know we’ve got no tubes so there was this whole ordeal of you know we might have to go off route to go to another bike shop because I think the next town that we went through was like three days away that would

Would have a bike shop on Route yeah that that day sort of gave us the Willies a little bit being like God we’re not going to be able to get Inu we’re going to constantly get punctures the whole way through Spain but it turned out in a absolutely nothing

Village there was a bike shop so yeah we went to a bike shop we managed to stumble across on not too far down the road actually and we managed to get more tubes which good news so I think we buy seven in a tubes that day

So yeah that was that was a bit of a eye opening day all the time make you now go yeah so this trip these sort of trips they they come along with a lot of offerings there’s lots of things that you can pick up and put down sometimes it’s quite

Hard to have a distinctive moment from it like I’m doing this for adventure or to please my soul these are the sort of things that you hear quite a lot and you sort of expect to experience through you know we’ve done quite a few of these

Trips now you know you go in there with some preconceived notions of what’s going to happen one thing that I really didn’t expect on this trip was waking up what day five after we bivi out in sort of this like Oak Forest thing in the middle of the night I woke

Up a bit scared and it was strange because I was imagining myself doing this suddenly I realized you’re going to be able to do this and that terrified me and I don’t know why I think I spent so much of my life having potential and also having a lot

Of ambition so you never really realize what you’re capable of or doing or appreciate the things in the moment because you’re always looking too far forward you’re never looking at what is for once I was in this scenario in my life where everything is present and

Very immediate and close to you I just had this overwhelming sense of I’m achieving something right now I’m doing something for me I now just have to get it done because I can do it I can fulfill something that I was going to do there’s multiple places where you could

Hop off on this ride you know something went really wrong I really thought one of us might leave and Bill b someone might leave in two L you know one of us slips out and has a crash are you warm wet where are we SP it’s a long way but all of a

Sudden I was just like we’re all going to get this done and now we got to do it and I’ve got to face up to that reality I still can’t understand really why I woke up so scared from it but that was one of the most interesting realizations

Of the trip and something I had to ruminate with and one of the learning that came from it I suppose d hola chos so we are morning of day five day five yeah day five we started this morning in a little mountain town um about 1,100 m above sea level we stayed there

Uh and we’re now well we were right on the edge of the Picos the Picos de EUR Europa de Europa we didn’t do a piece to camera this morning cuz Tim was very cold because when we woke up it was very cold cuz it’s very high above sea level

The Picos are like they’re a pretty big mountain range they’ve got the highest peak is 2,600 M and they’ve got Bears actual Bears living in them and wolves uh we haven’t seen any bears yet other than Tim we haven’t seen any wolves s uh we have seen vultures there’s some

Vultures up there actually the only bear you could describe me as this morning it was a winie the Poo yeah it was a bit you a bit grumpy this morning weren you I was so grumpy I could have quit I could have just hide in that

Hotel also I wasn’t winning the poo this morning I was more like the miserable donkey it was it was really strange it was it just the landscape changed so much big like riding days like again 200k plus days each day but it just changed so much it was really baren to

Start and then as we made our way towards the peos it was it was very wet and very spiky mountains sort of surrounding us and then into the bus country as well which was very Alpine and uh lush green fields which sort of reminded you of uh

The UK a little bit doesn’t really feel like we’re in Spain actually does it no not at all it feels like we’re in the AL or something great yeah it’s good and it’s nice it’s um I don’t like what where Tom put Sun cream in my hand why you over there that’s so

Weird yeah just leaving that for you yeah it’s nice though isn’t it is very Alpine yeah we’ve all had been dis baying a lot like you know the on your family holiday to their usual suspect places and I think we’re all kind of taken back by like how different like this part of

Spain that we did was to what we we thought Spain would be you’re here with friction sports reporter Tim leges or Tim plz as they would say here for the Infamous game of el scko el metal puos throw from 20 M try to hit it it’s a thrilling game

We’ve been here for 45 minutes so far it’s happened twice they’re not very good at it it’s a local game and I think it’s local for a reason blood it’s the third time it happened this is exceptional stuff it’s got another throw he’s he’s got a bloody love on him he’s

Got he’s got some mean it might be open later we don’t know is it recording yeah we are in where are we sanqua sanqua and there’s a fiesta going on at the moment very picture of traditional Spanish Fiesta and you’ve got it White costumes red ties and red

Elements it’s a lovely little town it’s beautiful and there’s a lovely campsite as well that seems quite quiet cheap and you know we can saw ourselves out there quite happily but it’s a Sunday everything is Flo well there’s bars are open and there’s clearly a bit of a party atmosphere but

The one place that we know that the vegan food is closed all the supermarkets are closed seems like all the shops are closed so we’re just going to have to navigate our way through this as best we can get on the beers or just

Get on the beers but we do have a hard day tomorrow so it was a Sunday so which we did again didn’t even think we completely forgot as you do when you’re bike touring you don’t even remember the day and the time and we arrived at this place and just

Everything was shut and there were just us three Hungry Boys we found a chipper a proper British chipper far from the British chipper it is um churos and chips and yeah Tom and I are going to have cold chips in the morning so we’re ordering three packets

Of chips now and we’ll have a packet and a half each in the morning and Jack will have churros I think it’s going to work out you want me to talk don’t really want to we’ve got no shops open today well they they weren’t open yesterday so we got no breakfast

So we got cold chips basically because of where we were situated we then had to ride I think like 80k knowing that there was not going to be a shock it was this huge gravel section to start which is like 20K and then just put us just right in the middle of nowhere

Basically behind us you can see the Pyrenees um this is our first like proper view of the mountains and you can like in the in the haze you can see them disappear all the way down the east of the country which is pretty rad we’ just come up a

900 M elevation uh climb for breakfast because we haven’t had any breakfast yet the boys have had chips and I’ve had three Digest and three four four olives what are you talking about we don’t have uh we don’t have any breakfast um and the shops just shut in

The time this morning so we’re on our way to the next time but the next time is a long way away and we’ve got another 900 M climb to go over to get there first um so yeah we’re kind of against the clock a little bit this morning before our bodies crack I

Think just like proper Savage up and down never flat really really like [ __ ] up road surface gravel and [ __ ] and for 45k or something may 50k with 1200 M of elevation in it there was no shots and we started with no backf so yeah I think that’s kicking my

Ass and we’ve still got a panes to climb yeah basically got from here 57k of climbing to go all the way to the top of former girl um which would get done you know but first I just need to sit in the shade consume lots of liquid and lots of sugar

Hot today too it’s like 27 28 maybe yeah D how you feeling Jack chug chug chug chug chug AIT like that bit juicy a bit juicy yeah by the time we eventually arrived at a supermarket um we were pretty hungry and burnt through all of our food uh

Reserves and then just spent I think like an hour just outside the supermarket just you know like refueling all that sort of thing because then we knew that we had a pretty hefty uh coal that we had to get up and then to France before the end of the day that

Ladies and gentlemen is our first time for France almost there now not going to lie this is a tough time this is a tough climb especially after quite a big day and yeah tough and a big head with as well which sucks we’re in France by 10 yards by 10 yards we just

Crossed the border uh we went up a hell of a climb there that was probably 2 hours worth of climbing wasn’t it it was crazy in the end it’s been a big day been a big day how’s been a really big day St with gravel started with hunger and now we

Need to race to another Supermarket so let’s rail this descent yeah big descent now so hopefully that will uh push us on nice and quick we are morning 9 this morning and we’re in France we made it over the Border last night and this morning we have the

Biggest day of climbing on this trip it’s like 3,000 something M total uh we go over three coals Tor Malay being the biggest baddest of them all but excitingly also we got to see Sam today Sam’s flown out and he’s going to join us for part of this trip he’s is going

To join us for the next like week or so which would be really nice we get to ride with him for a bit some Sicky specs what all this said Prett R I love him joh reckons I look like Chini I think you look like Aaron Thomas it’s a Sam doing

Man what’s up man how are you well nice to see you man I mean yesterday like riding into the Pyrenees like it they sort of felt like intimidating as they rose up either side of us and we’ve been climbing already for 30k and they were still going and

Still going and still going it’s like [ __ ] these mountains are huge going to realize just how big these bad boys are but yeah it should uh hopefully hopefully be some sort of fun can’t take a picture my hands are shaking the Pyrenees were this kind of big looming mountain in the middle if

You like the first 10 days before we got to the Pyrenees were almost a buildup to that point I think for all of us once we crested those mountains and we had made some probably some of the most difficult cycling Days of Our Lives so far oh she’s a steep

One oh yeah it very much changed the uh the thought train of okay all I’ve got to do is make it over the Pyrenees and and we can make it home once you’re over the other side it’s right okay we’re making it home I was really hard that’s was my

First ever time above 2,000 M and what a privilege it was to do it on a bike under my my own power that was hard that’s a really hard Mountain no wonder it has its reputation what a thing to do on on an afternoon God like it took so

Long to recover afterwards just gasp it the whole time I mean what a beautiful part of the world this is great what a good day it was an ace feeling the day we rode back down out of the Pyrenees there was some incredible riding in the

Pyrenees but to know we’d done it to know we’ kind of completed it was a real milestone in the trip I hadn’t really necessarily considered it was going to be such a milestone now let them say it is everybody don’t let anyone interrupt you is everybody make sure you know that right three

Two is everybody loving it is everybody loving it yeah we’re loving it yeah I go through a period today of like enjoying myself because it’s beautiful here and hating it because I’m so bored of being on my bike today well you know you know what they

Say about love don’t you what’s that if you got if you’ve got to force it it’s probably [ __ ] they say you have to work at it shouldn’t you said love is like a f say not what they say about love [ __ ] sake right just come to the top of I

Think one of our final Foothills um of the Pyrenees so behind me where the boys are right there you’ll see the Pyrenees over in the distance all right Lads and over here is the great expanse of France that we have to cross bye-bye to the mountains hello to La Valley hello to

Too hello to the Normandy Coastline bit of Britany so over there is 1,000 km of France that we’ve got to cross yeah looking forward to it should be good bye Sam by everyone bye bye bye Sam tell me over your emotions leaving Sam we’re all quite hardly even time because as he mentioned

Earlier he’s the but of all the jokes so now that he has gone we just end up fighting between each three of us cuz we’ve got such high egos none of us can accept that we are the like the Lesser whereas Sam knows he’s the Lesser sure that’s how he CED it that’s

Why I’m leaving that’s exactly his words yeah was close enough I really wanted to do a trip where we cycled home all right Bud welcome to veos hilarious on those low moments like where my back hurt a bit and you know when I didn’t have any music

You just kind of have to put all that aside and sort of just like go well you’ve got no choice here you’re in the middle of France or you’re in the middle of Spain the only way out of this is just carrying on cycling because it’s

The only way that you’re going to be able to get home like when my back hurt quite a bit you just kind of have to sort of try and put that pain at the back of your mind and just think keep paddling to be honest I was feeling

It as well my back was hurting today that was a tough one mainly cuz it was stacked on top of yesterday’s ridiculous Shenanigans we have now done two 200 something kilometer rides back to back yeah both of them uh have been really Pokey and quite difficult just a bit annoyed really

Annoyed yeah hav you done enough sing no I’m just it’s just like when it rains like that it just piss it it like goes straight to my back I know it sounds really it sounds like I’m a snake it sounds like you’re an 80y old yeah

Yeah but it just go straight to my back and then I get really angry like very angry sure and my only way of getting around it is by riding as hard as possible realistically in that moment the only means of transportation I had to get myself back home was my bike one

Of those things isn’t it I guess some sometimes it will hurt some other times it won’t yeah and you at least you got to day whatever we’re on 17 16 without it hurting too much comes in waves basically just a bit of a bad wave today yeah toy three your

Breakfast Tom what we got here I’ve got two baguettes peanut butter and a chip ton of bananas and some so many bananas well they have fried bananas as well and yogurt and bars and Oreos that’s for rides no thanks you’ve dribbled back into it about a thousand

Times okay okay okay I’m okay okay I’m okay so ultimately we were just riding home and that sort of changes your mentality when things get tough you don’t have any other option you just have to keep turning your pedals easier to keep going than it is to turn back

You know what have we got to turn back for nothing it’s just the tight Road Walker philosophy isn’t it yeah you’re in the middle there’s nothing for us back there only forwards only forwards constant forward progress stop preer this Transportation my head exp fling in a direction in a

Direction making connection long time cominging in the earth bre IS F uhoh don’t to AC we yeah no mate sorry please please D doesn’t want to do this anymore which is fortunate cuz we’ve already got what 200 kilm left to do 23 I like bik no what’s the first bike CR you’re going

To do when you get home um I’m not do not I’ve given up selling all your bikes uh I just give them away northern France is basically quite a hilly it just does this so we’re like in the dip of a we just come down here it goes straight

Back up up there and it doesn’t stop doing it never look on the elevation map you’ll see when I zoom in all those little Wiggles they are what you’re looking at here and there’s we’ve been over maybe 50 of them already and there’s hundreds to go and we’re just over halfway on the

Ride I think I’m writing saying we all fairly over it mhm m yeah they aren’t the steepest Hills we’ve done they’re by not by far bumpiest roads we’ve done in France it was meant to be raining there was Blue Sky we are all capable of getting to the finish some [ __ ] positive I’m

Sorry I don’t tell myself these things I’ll just cry and never return home I to learn French and so get marry a lovely lady called Elise or something like that I don’t know rename yourself Jean Pierre Jean Pierre yeah had by bar and some self- regret and make some art that no one

Understands the stop stop me help give this smile we come here light from this smile will make you proud and show you how be something funny oh God as we were rolling into shb and we saw that we were coming down like a massive Hill into sherbo and we saw

The sea like for the first time since Portugal I mean that felt pretty cool really like we had nearly cycled all the way home sea boys that was the bloody sea was it let’s go get a look at it yeah if that were like a pretty big achievement

You know I suppose like I quite often compare like experiences to past experiences and I suppose in that moment I thought like quite a bit about cuz I cycled Across America years ago which was obviously a bigger a much bigger tour but it I don’t think it had the same impact on me

As the process of cycling back home and in that moment like looking down on sherg in the sea and feeling like oh yeah you know like I’ve I’ve done this you know yeah well good look what’s that water when’s the last time we saw that Portugal Pages ago 2600 km ago right

Yeah yeah we need a boat now how good does this feel this feels great our phone knocked off a little bit cider cheers mate here a good [ __ ] ride here’s a great trip we thought we’ve got to have one last bivvy on the trip it’s like it’s sort of right the

Passage of away one last little Adventure before we make it back to Bristol the following morning looking at the bike computers realized it’s about half the outside temperature that was forecast when we got off the fair we like this is a bit nippy this is quite

Cold it was said it was supposed to be about 12° Centigrade it was actually about 6 or 7even we’ve got some a bivy kit you know like proper thin sleeping bags and a camping mat and that’s it and it was lit dropping degree by degree as

We rode out of pool and this freezing frog started rolling in and it started going from 7 6 5 4 3 I think we saw as low as 2° before we found our bivy spot that night we were [ __ ] freezing our sleeping bags are rated for 7° so we’re for a really cold

Night yeah it’s going to be fun okay so it’s like 5:30 in the morning um all of us just had a shivery lie down for 5 hours nobody really slept unsurprisingly I think I went in and out for a tiny little bit but it’s [ __ ] impossible to Brea in those bivvies when

They’re done up it’s probably 3° maybe I’d say toes are fully numb shivering it’s going to get light in about an hour none of us have like proper winter gear so we’re going to we’re going to go to tesos which is just up the road luckily we’ve only got 100K to ride

Today on no sleep and I’m feet why do we do this stupid [ __ ] we have got basically summer biying equipment summer sleeping bags sum summer gloves summer coats summer socks summer socks on his hand socks on your yeah it’s actually Frosty look literal frost on that grass welcome back to Wi

Right we’re going to Tes let’s [ __ ] do it it was a really strange me it was surreal we’ve been looking forward to getting home the whole time we’ve been on the trip you know that was our kind of goal that was where we had been aiming for but at that point the trip

Was coming to an end and there was a lot to unpack there was a lot of venture had to unpack and a lot of emotional stress Falling Away of would we make the fairy on time would we make it over the Pyrenees would we make it across the the cactus strewn

Desert of Northern Spain you know all of those types of things were all falling away and we realizing we were going to make it did we want to make it at that point did we want the trip to end at that point I don’t know if we really did fre let’s go

Go I think we could have quite easily carried on riding as a trio and and ridden all the way up the country and and still loved it at the same time it felt amazing to be home I think we should just count ourselves lucky for what we’ve got you

Know friendship most erections thanks erections a good thing on to that when we’re in bad weather the climbs are steep I was struggling a little bit he said oh it’s all it’s all just character building which is uh very true there a really good statements as well not because talking about character but

Because of building I don’t think you find yourselves on a strip play this you build yourself you know you add bits this’s this isn’t a journey of Discovery it’s a journey of making for me at least uh got a bit emotional actually to be honest which i’ never normally do not

One for emotions I mean I’ve done bigger trips but in the past but I think there’s just something about I guess all of the all of the stuff we had to deal with a lot of things thrown in our way and uh yeah I think also just the fact that we

That we cycled home and I think that coupled with just generally uh cycling with your mates you know yeah so I had a little cry on the way back for a little bit till I hit a massive Hill and then had to dig deep um yeah sad it’s the end it’s

Raining so I’ll keep this brief but I’m home 20 days later about this time 20 days ago B I’m just run home how about that you the first thing I think of when I wake up at 7:30 late for work so when I get that look at me

Kind of dirty I look at pictures of us together and think I ain’t worthy and Parton me i’ been KN to get wory this little birdie told me I should tell you box and this one this extra special one although it has no label still tastes I I apprciate you holding me down

Like a block of long hours a day when I was away but she be holding me down holding me down I ain’t around holding me down she got a job working for long hours a day on they don’t know what we become since I’ve been on a run like I’m fleing

Prison just trying to see through my vision you can’t expect trip CH uh reckon that’s my calories done that’s a good one actually one of the most dangerous I have a tiny tail for my big old budny a big stinky [ __ ] that RS around I have 40 friends I big I only have

4 a big stinky [ __ ]