Outskirts 3: The Shadow of the East

Outskirts is a series of films that follow extraordinary adventures on iconic roads. The third and final film in the series sees EF Education First professional Lachlan Morton rejoin his brother Angus for one more trip, through eastern Europe from Montenegro to Istanbul. Five years after the first Thereabouts film, they travel together through seven countries and cover thousands of kilometres, discovering a part of the world rarely seen from the seat of a bike.

The first time Lach and I took a
trip like this was five years back. Since then, we’ve ridden and
raced alongside each other almost every day. But with Lach returning
to the World Tour and me hanging up my race wheels, we don’t get the chance to
ride that much anymore. And so we thought, with
so long between drinks, it was time to get the
band back together, this time to take a ride somewhere
neither of us had ever ridden before, the Balkans, for a 1,600 km journey
into the shadow of the East. Gus had the original idea. He sent me an article
on the Albanian Alps which I never even
knew existed, really. So I read that and I was like, ‘Yeah,
that actually sounds really cool.’ It’s one of the last untouched
mountainous areas in Europe, and then we thought we may
as well go to Istanbul because that’s the
gateway to the East, and so what better way to
finish your trip across Europe than by leaving it or
reaching its edge? We’d go through Kosovo, brand
new country, crazy history, and then it’s like
Macedonia, same thing. I actually have no idea what
that’s going to be like except for, like, Google Earth view. And then up through Bulgaria
into the mountains, and then into Turkey
and across Turkey to Istanbul. I never even knew all these countries
bordered each other, you know? You’ve heard of them all
separately and you realise, wait, they’re all next to each other. You just have a preconceived
notion of what Eastern Europe is. I think that preconceived
notion is like I don’t really feel like going there
to ride my bike, but-, Yeah, I mean, I guess we’re ready. Everything packed, it seems like
we’ve got enough gear. But I’ve been out of the
game a little while so I don’t know,
I can’t really remember what I need. Team Edition shoes in case of snow. Should we get spikes? – How much grip have these got?
– They’ve got a fair bit of grip. I’ve been walking around in them all
day and I haven’t fallen over once. We’re gonna know the exact moment
when we didn’t buy those and in two days
we’re gonna be like, ‘Fuck!’ The bike box came pre-opened. At least it came, though. Well, we’ve arrived. We’ve lost a bag so Gus
doesn’t have any clothes, and we got the rent-a-car which
we were supposed to now drive into Albania,
which is only 60 or 70 km, but we’re not going to fit
our bikes in the car. We didn’t really think
about that, to be honest. So now we’re just gonna ride there
right here from the airport. Seems simple enough. Look, do you have certain
spots where you want to stay? No, we don’t know. I mean, we have an idea of the
route but we don’t know which-, it’s more or less take it-, – So tomorrow we are Theth? Yeah. This is the new road. This is the easier. Easier? We go the hard way. Femi the fixer. We found Femi in the
most roundabout way. A week and a half before the trip, we get a call from an
Australian friend of ours who lives in Italy who
was working in Istanbul. He had a colleague who was
from Kosovo who had a cousin, and his cousin was having
coffee with a translator. That translator was Femi. Femi speaks five languages. He’s from Kosovo, has a
Macedonian passport, and has never been a fixer before. It’s 90 km. We’re going 90 km straight
up into the mountains. I think it’s a lot of climbing so
it’s gonna be longer than it sounds. And then Theth’s a tiny village,
a hundred and something people. It was snowing there yesterday,
we’ve been told by Femi, so it’s a beautiful sunny day now. I guess we should enjoy
it while we have it. This is the cycling capital of
Albania, I read it last night. So far I’ve seen four
people on bikes. There you have it. We’re in the Mecca of cycling and we
didn’t even know it, accidentally. We are about halfway on the
road to Theth, not quite. Maybe like 30 km out of town. This is an amazing road
that is just incredible, but it’s just like we’re
immediately way the fuck out here. This place is proper, like-, super friendly, super nice,
but a heavy scene. This dog has obviously not been
patted in a very long time because he’s in absolute
heaven right now. Can we get through on this road? Where are you going? Theth. You can’t pass. You won’t get past
with those [bicycles]. But you can continue,
that’s not my problem. – He says that there’s no chance. Just go to the end of the
asphalt road, and you’ll see. We spoke with this guy and he told
us it’s impossible to go with a car this way, with this car. Because afterwards it’s
snowy, the mountains, and it’s impossible to
get there with this car. So I think you guys have
to go down and go around. Move around the other way. And then we’ll go through this way. If you can, but you have
snow on the hard way. – Snow on the road. First aid kit, tubes,
tube covers, gloves. We’ll race you. I feel like we could be
in the dark in here. Potentially. Ask him if he can put
a live location or something so we can go with someone. No, they are joking. – This is night.
– Where are you? Are you serious? Um, do you see lights,
do you see towns? If it’s up the valley-, if you’re in the valley,
– Near the river, just follow it up. You’re in the valley,
down the valley, right? Yeah, share your location.
Is your brother okay as well? Okay, we’re coming. Okay, we’re coming. Try to share your location, yeah. The update is that they’re
lost and don’t see the towns, they don’t see lights because I think
they’re down in the valley, and he just told me that he’s fucked. I mean, I can’t understand it, and
then they don’t know where is it. They don’t know where is this place. So they’re going to share their
location with us and then-, – Try to find them.
– Yeah. So we can use his phone
because it’s better. – It’s higher?
– It’s higher. He uses it for all these roads. He’s asking for €40, €50
to go to the concrete road. – Tell him that we’ll give
him anything, that’s all. Just ask him if he saw them. Yeah, but maybe it’s fine. We needed a car like this. – There they are.
– Yeah. – He was fine, he was like,
Come and pick me up.’ Do you want water? Those M&Ms saved my life. All the roads were like this one. Yes, yes, all the roads. It was impossible. It was just so bumpy,
I was just burning along. It feels like we were
going pretty hard. We were only 50 km away
from that town but it was like-, You might die out here. A regular road may-, like, a regular road is
not a road necessarily. – No.
– Now you know. – We were out there.
– Ooh, yeah. Dude, I haven’t buckled like
that in such a long time. I don’t know if I just
booted myself into it but fucking hell, it
went bad real quick. It was hell out there. Your brother looks
pretty good, though. Your brother said something,
Ah yeah, I’m fine.’ I think the hike tomorrow is
not a good idea, you guys. I have to be insane or get crazy
to keep up with you guys. Cheers. What’s this, what’s the guide? Oof. It’s huge, check it out. It’s pissing down rain and probably snowing
a little bit higher. But our trusty guide’s wearing a
pair of sneakers and a pair of jeans and he’s going to go over and back
today, so it can’t be that bad. When we first wanted to go to Albania
it was because of the Albanian Alps. And when we looked at the route there was what looked like
a road that crossed it, and as we dug a little deeper, that
road diminished down to a track, to a pretty rugged hiking track. And because we’d committed to going
to Albania to cross the Alps, we kinda didn’t really have a choice. It’s, fucking-, I dunno. It’s pretty sketchy. It’s just super icy
and it’s like huge falls and the dude’s, like,
fucked off in front. – He’s gone? He’s way in front, yeah.
I don’t know where he is. I’m fully not confident now,
to be honest. It looks like it’s like
this all the way round. I mean, we can try, but I don’t like it. We just need to have a talk about it because I don’t want us fucking
sliding off the side of this thing. Let’s keep going. It’s pretty sketchy down here dude. – Yeah? Yeah. If you think we should go back-, – Pardon?
– Do you think we should go back? I don’t know, we’ll go
have a look, but it’s-, Yeah, okay, let’s go have a look. This is the exact story
you get when it’s like, oh yeah, people went hiking in the
Albanian Alps and just disappeared, never saw them again. You know you’re really cold when, like, 500 metres from the hotel
you just piss on your hands and it’s still…
like, I don’t regret it at all. Ugh. I’m not sure if I’ve ever
been so cold in my life for such a long period of time. I’ve been in, like, full shiver mode for two hours, I think. Ohh. We look like the sorriest souls. We had to borrow some
cash to pay the guide and then we were like,
We don’t have any clothes,’ and then the hotel manager
just knocked on our door with five sets of clothes. Now we’re all coordinated. This is the best person we’ve
run into the whole trip. Bringing hot food, the man
bringing hot food and music. – Ah, thank you. And we’re wearing his clothes. Yeah, he gave us his clothes. In Albania, you have
good person anywhere. If you need something, the
people help you all the time. – Yeah. And if you have some problem
or something like this, the people who are working, I stop what I work and
I come with you and I help. It’s different from
anywhere in the country, this. Yeah. We hiked over to Valbone from Theth which was considerably more
epic than we expected. Yeah, it was a little bit like-, it was the hiking equivalent
of yesterday’s ride. We didn’t plan to have a guide and then it was, like,
7:30 last night and it was looking like
it was going to be snow, and the guy who owned the cabin
on the other side was like, You definitely need a guide
because if there’s snow, you won’t know where to go.’ So he organised super last
minute to get this guide and he just casually
strolled up at 7 a.m. and it’s like, ‘Alright, let’s go.’ And the guide, he was pushing
ahead like Gus said, but at the crucial moments, he was
absolutely nowhere to be seen. We crossed one waterfall and
he was just absolutely nowhere so for all we knew,
he’d been swept down. If you were someone who hikes, you
would have looked at us today and been like,
These fucking idiots.’ The other thing was we ran
out of cash this morning and we didn’t realise that
there’s nowhere to withdraw money in a lot of these towns, they
don’t have that facility. And so we arrived, we ended up having to borrow
money from the guy at the hotel so that we could get over to here to borrow money from
this guy at the hotel to go back to pay the guy back
over in Theth and the guide, and then hope that Femi can get
some money out down the hill and bring it up to pay this guy. And because Femi’s driving
all the way around he’s going to be, like, four
or five hours behind us. He’s had to go into two other
countries in order to get here. So we have no dry clothes and the guy who owns the hotel
just rolled into the room with all his great clothes. Yeah, dude, I’m wearing
Calvin Klein jeans. The clothes I’m wearing
right now are better than the actual clothes that
I was wearing before. But he knows we’re all full commando
in these, no one’s wearing underwear. Yeah, he didn’t give us underwear. – He knows that.
– He knows that. He knew that but still
gave us his clothes. What a legend. That’s my favourite chord. It’s called the top notch. This thing’s probably pretty old. Proper workout. Today, yeah, we go down
out of this valley to, like, 20 or 30 km and then we’ve got to cross
the border into Kosovo, and then we kind of skirt along the
edge of the mountains to Peja. On the map, they all
look like good roads. Yeah. But then so did the other day’s. What’s the name of the
town again, whereabouts are we? Sabita. Sabita. I tell them. I know, I forgot. What do you do for fun here? Play ball. Do football. Soccer, this is your field. – You guys have got to go in.
– Yeah. It’s time to go back in, guys. Nice kids. They’re up on the second floor. Think we caused a bit of a
ruckus at the old school there. Let’s go, they’re coming back. Get back to school. I think a lot of people always
expected me to do a lot in cycling but I never really
believed a lot of it. A lot of it was just hype
and I always knew that. Even when I had third
in the World Tour, I didn’t think I was good
enough to really be there. So now I’ve done four
seasons in the World Tour and I haven’t won a lot but I’ve still achieved a
career of sorts, you know, which is kind of funny. I’ve enjoyed World Tour racing. It’s a really different lifestyle. It’s very singularly focused
around one sort of thing and I know the level of
commitment that it takes to be in the top of the World Tour, and then I know how much
commitment I’m willing to give without impacting the rest of my
life or relationships and stuff, and those two didn’t really line up. If I was like, okay, I’m gonna
be a World Tour cyclist now for the next ten years and
go down that rabbit hole, I would have destroyed a lot of
the other things in my life. It’s pretty cold. – Cheers, man.
– It’s nice, this stuff. I’m going to get a taste for it. Yeah. I just love it that
we haven’t checked in, we just arrived, and this is
the first thing he offered us. I’m all about it. It’s what the doctor ordered. Kosovo. It’s beautiful. I hate guns. – The boss puts some music on
because it’s so quiet in here but we’ll make some noise. Yeah, I’m nervous too. Especially knowing, on top of that,
that someone shot himself right here. Yeah, that’s kinda heavy. Look at the bullets now. The trigger’s lighter. I thought it was going
to be you’re like ‘boom’ but it’s just, you’re like,
Holy fuck, it just went off!’ I’m like-, You hear about guns every day,
you’re always around guns, but you never actually hold them. And when you hold them, when you
shoot them, it’s petrifying. I think the weirdest thing is
that this is under a hotel. I would never go to a shooting
range unless it’s under the hotel, and then you have to go. You can’t go to the hotel that
has a shooting range and not go. This is when we worked out that
Femi isn’t actually a translator, he’s an assassin or he’s like-, he works for the
government for something. You watch, he just goes
do-do-do-do-do’. I have, like,
two bullets in one hole. This is not a problem,
shooting is only the eye. So we’re at this little
tea shop in Peja and it was recommended by a local, so we stopped in and we just
sat down with the owner. How long have you had the shop for? How long have you owned this place? Six years. – Six years. Six years he’s been
running this place. Did you grow up here? So did you grow up in Peja? I’m from Rugova. – He is from Rugova. My father is from Rugova. I was born there but grew up in Peja
and I’ve lived here ever since. – His father is from the birthplace. – He is born there
but grew up in Peja. Never left. I was here during the war. I was a sniper. I have my discharge papers,
diploma, everything. – He used to be a sniper. No shit. – In the army?
– He was in the army during the war. I was left without
work after the war. And I didn’t have any opportunities
so I had to start my own business. It’s not so good
but it’s okay, he says. This place is so dark
and so grim-looking. It’s easy to dismiss
it on that face value, but there’s such a
warmth underneath that. It’s a very thin veneer and the
people so far have been incredible, literally willing to give you
the clothes off their back, willing to lend you their cash, willing to work based
off of the trust that you will pay them at the end, despite the fact that you’re not 100%
sure how that’s going to happen, and that’s incredible. You take for granted, maybe, our past and our future
are pretty certain, and then you go to a place
like that and they’re like, Yeah, we’re due for a war,
we’re due for a good war, because statistics say that
for the last 3,000 years, we’ve had one roughly
every 25-30 years and we’re coming up on that date.’ In a place like this, life just goes
on despite all these years of war and all of these years
of turmoil and struggle. That climb was amazing, man. This is like being in the Alps, man. It’s just like, we climbed
over 1,000 metres in about 20 km or so. Drink? Amazing. – That will keep you-,
– Yeah, put it in the bottle. – Make you strong like bull. It’s like a blackberry concentrate. – He picks the blackberries there,
– From up here, from you? and then they mix it with sugar? – Sugar too. Otherwise it becomes like wine. Yeah, right, otherwise it
becomes sweet berry wine. – Smoking, do you smoke?
(both) No. Where are you going? Istanbul. They’re in Istanbul. Eventually. Thank you. Why are they filming us? For our passports
or driver’s licence? Tell me about 2019. I’m gonna be racing
with EF cycling team which is actually where
I started my professional career. We’re basically gonna mix
the World Tour racing with the adventure stuff
and alternative racing, so it’s kind of like
the dream scenario of the things I’ve
always wanted to do, so I’m really excited. The opportunity to combine my
two passions within cycling and do it at the highest
level of both of those, that opportunity I don’t
think will come again. It’s easy to complain about
a lot of things in world cycling. I feel like I’ve spent
enough time talking about the stuff I don’t like about
professional bike riding to where it’s like, okay, now I can
actually do something about it. If you didn’t do that, you’re just
kind of like a hypocrite really. I would like to have some sort of
impact on the sport as a whole. I love the sport, I love
it, but it’s kind of, in the professional arena,
it’s a little bit fucked. Like, it’s a bit shit. Things have been done the same
way for a really long time and I like the tradition
of the sport, but it’s also what’s
holding it back massively. My motivation with racing now is it’s not to go and try and
win the Tour de France, because I think some people who
win the Tour de France now don’t impact the sport
in a positive way. So I think the contribution
I can have to it through a different way
that’s not really results, that’s kind of what motivates me. I’m looking forward to the challenge
of combining those things and hopefully along the way just making cycling
a cooler, more popular sport, because I feel like it should be. Take a look at this. – What, how did you do that? Might be able to. If I bend it, it might just snap. I just wanna make
sure it’s not gonna-, – Yeah, you just don’t use it. Yeah. – You can pedal? No, I can pedal. – If you can pedal, I don’t
think we should touch it. Check these out. They’re new but they’re,
like, twenty years old, but they’re brand new. These are like the
shoes I started with. They’re, like, brand new, dude. This speedo-, Don’t really want this. – It’s no problem. So how long have you
had this place for? One month. You’ve only been open one month? Yeah. Where’d you collect all
these cycling jerseys? Like, where’d you get
all the old stuff from? I keep from Europe,
from Swiss, from Denmark. – You’ve just collected
it over the years? I have friends from everywhere, and they’re searching for me. After snapping my chainring today, we went into this little cafe and
met a whole bunch of new friends and they saw that my
chainring was bent and they’re, like, amazingly
insistent that they get it fixed. So this is the first stop, and
they said if we can’t fix it here they’re gonna drive it 50 km
to another town to fix it. It was one of those
things where I was like, Don’t worry guys, I’ll
be able to work it out,’ but they were on the bike,
bringing it here and going hard, so here we are. It looks like the local shop,
this looks pretty epic. I think the intent is there. Um, I don’t-, yeah. I would be very surprised if he could
hammer this chainring straight, but you know what, stranger things
have happened already today. This shop, man. Is there a lot of people riding? – Not too much. No, not too many people are cycling? No shit, what year is this? It’s brand new, man,
it’s never been used. You’re gonna bend the small one.
I think I’d rather not-, because you’re bending
the inside one and then I really will be fucked. Honestly, this chainring, I’m
gonna change it in two days. I’d rather he didn’t
touch it anymore. The problem is now he’s
bent the inside chainring. It was straight before
so it’s worse now and now the small one’s bent, and if that’s bent
then I really am in trouble. Even if he gets it straight,
it’s going to bend again because the chainring’s-,
– Yes, it’s already bent. So it’s better he doesn’t-,
there’s no point. It’s only if there’s a new
one then I can put that on, but I can get one in Greece
so let’s just leave it now. I appreciate you helping but-, but even if he gets it straight,
this one’s useless. – It’s gonna bend again.
– Is it safe to-, Already 100 km like this today,
it was fine. I’m not gonna use it, it’s like-, no, it’s fine. It’s fine, guys. No, no, no.
We’ll leave it. It’s better for sure, but-, in two days I’ll change it. I’m just glad it’s not
raining or snowing so I’m happy. But yeah, some days
less so than others. Morning coffee schooner. I’ve been doing instant
coffee all year, actually. I just had this brainwave moment
when I was trying to do an AeroPress and I was like, I waste so much
time first thing in the morning, trying to make this stupid AeroPress when I could just get some hot water,
pour it in a cup and drink it. You just grow a taste
for it, I think. If people complain about it, you’ve
just got to give it a bit of time. Just accept that that’s how
coffee’s gonna taste from now on. It’s about experiencing different
countries through riding a bike which I think is the best
way to explore a country. For me, I enjoy exploring by bike, to get a slow feel for it
as you travel through it. That’s the big appeal of these trips
is going into a place, doing something you love
while discovering something new. You would never do something
like this otherwise, you know? I spend my days back in Girona
still exploring on the bike and still finding new places
every second day. I would never come to any of these
countries otherwise, to be honest. It never would have been on my radar. It pushes you to do something new, and that doesn’t have to be physical. It just takes you to
a total new place and every time you push yourself,
I think something comes out of it and eventually it’s the positive. So yeah, if I was trying to win
the Tour de France next year I probably wouldn’t come and do this,
but I’m not. So it’s a memorial for this-, I guess this town was the first town
to revolt against the Ottomans. When was it? I think it was like 1903,
1902 or something, and then they got taken over by
the Ottomans so they failed, but it sparked off the rest of the-, the rest of the
independence movement. And so this and the rest
of this, kind of, hill are in memory of that, I guess. Must have been pretty important
because this is pretty big and we haven’t seen
many nice buildings since we’ve been on this trip at all. No, there’s been no monuments of any
kind except for mosques and churches. Like sure, those churches
were super nice, but this is a new influence. Look at this thing. – Sit.
– Thank you. Just tell him to do what he
feels like except shave it. Let’s just-, yeah. I don’t know how to communicate. How long has he been
a hairdresser for? I’ve been a hairdresser
about 40 years. – 40 years.
– Wow. This shop was opened in ’67. – This shop was from ’67, 1967. Holy-, Actually, I would say observation
is probably the first thing. – Observation.
– Yeah, for sure. And then they had to
have gone back and forth agreeing on what haircut
he was going to get. Negotiation. Then there was the
cut, then the shave. No, there was cut, then layer. – Yeah. Shave, two stages of the shave. Then there was the-, Now there’s a hair dryer. – When was the last time
you had gel in your hair? Oh, dude, like in sixth form. In sixth form I had
frosted tips, I think. – Do you like it?
– Perfect, this is so good. Yeah, okay. Nice one. No, back down. Oh, the back, yeah. – The final station. Oh dude, the back’s good too.
There’s a bit of body there. – Side view.
– Oh, side view. There’s a bit of body in
the back, I like that. Yeah, the back’s my favourite bit. Can I stand up? Thank you. I’m just gonna try and get there
as easy as possible today. As easy and as fast as possible. – Where are the parts kept? Because, yeah, when I scheduled this trip, we were supposed to have a day
off, like, the day after tomorrow, but somewhere in the process
we’ve lost that day. So we’ll try and take it easy
because tomorrow’s really big. Actually, it’s pretty much
they’re all big days now until we get to Istanbul. This is a traditional
ancient Greek jewel. This is a jewel, this is like
the gladiators going to war. It’s old as the Olympics. We’re suffering for
other people’s pleasure so I hope you fucking appreciate it. Greece today, we decided that
we’re gonna race the mountain which is 1,800 metres tall. We’re gonna climb to the
top of it from sea level. I have a ten-second-,
ten-minute head start. – Ten-second.
– You wish. The loser-, so if Lachy
doesn’t catch me then he has to swim in the ocean. If I am caught then Fem-dog
and I have to swim. Femi and I have to swim,
and Femi’s just already really fucked off
with that, actually. You’re gonna swim twice, man.
One for me and one for himself. I will report you to the authorities. I will turn you in. Brother versus brother. It seemed like a much
better idea yesterday. Strava record’s an hour 28. – Three, two, one, go. Ooh fuck, the chainring. – Starting off hard.
– Yeah, he’s going full. Ten minutes is a very long time and just riding over here,
I realised how cold it is. I really don’t wanna swim. What’s worse, swimming in the ocean or just going flat-out up this
hill for an hour and a half? – You’re going flat out up this hill. But what’s worse? Gus brought this on himself. 2:23, that’s it, so we’re not even-, I think if we force Femi
to swim, he might quit. He’s so far gone. – Two minutes?
– Three. Three? Damn. I could have made 60 instant
coffees in this time. – Fifteen seconds. – Go?
– Five seconds. Five? I don’t wanna jump the start. I don’t wanna be DQ’d on this. – Go! I think I can catch him but I think it’s gonna be
actually really hard. The other day we finished up
that climb and we had the race, but this is gonna suit Gus
better ’cause we’re fresh so it’s like
there’s no riding before. I think it’s gonna be
an evenly-matched event unless Gus just immediately
took a wrong turn and is currently time-trialling
his way across Greece. That’s also very possible. Ha! – One kilometre.
– That’s it. – That can’t be it.
– That’s it. – How much? No. I already crossed the
top, the top was there. No, the top was here. Sorry, mate. Ahh, you stopped pedalling too. – No, no, you guys are even, I think. – Into the ocean?
– Yes. No, I’m not calling that a loss. – That’s a loss.
– Yeah, you lost. That was a fucking epic climb. That was such a hard climb. Holy shit. As much as I hated riding
that hard up there, I’m quite glad we did that. Oh dude, I’m so glad we did that. We could’ve very easily
just been like-, It was nearly too hard. But-, And we both broke the record. Did we? You gut it. This is the catfish? Yes, this one, and this, all of it. It’s all catfish, and this
has just come from here? – Yes. And we’re gonna eat this now? Huh? Is this the fish that
we’re gonna eat? Yes. – So we’re gonna eat this.
– Yes, yes. – What is this? Catfish. – This is the catfish
we just saw outside? Yes, we saw it. Fried in, like, ten minutes later. I’m gonna go from this end. – Careful of the bones. There’s a lot of bones in here. Fuck, that’s pretty good. – Yeah?
– Yeah. – It’s good? Better than the little fried
things we had before. Here we have Intenso
Gold instant coffee. Not my preferred Nescafe but
it’s getting the job there. Most people waste time with
actually pulling the top off. Don’t worry about that, just
stick your thumb through. As long as you can free pour it
out, save a bit of time there. A lot of other people also
like to waste their time scooping it out with a spoon. You’re definitely
gonna lose time there so just go with the free pour. Just eye it, you know? It’s an experience
thing, trial and error. You know, just feel it out. You want a decent amount, you don’t
wanna be skimping on the strength. But do be warned, they
are quite strong. I prepared this kettle earlier
because there was one available here. I’m not against a kettle
but you definitely don’t need one. Warm water out of the tap
will do just fine also. You can give it a little stir,
it doesn’t need a stir. If you’re feeling fancy,
just stir it on up. If you don’t have a spoon,
just use your finger. Have you crashed? Yeah, I crashed the first day. We’re at the Kavala
international airport. – International?
I thought it was domestic. Or domestic airport. Picking up Juan Antonio Flecha. Here I am. Who I think his name speaks
for itself, but yeah. He wanted to come, couldn’t
come for the first part, so he just text us and said,
I’ll be in Kavala on this day.’ Here he is. I’ve never been out on a bike trip. Every time I was out for
cycling, it was either competing or for work. So this was more like a fun bike
ride with some mad people to do. I’m amazed you’re so just willing
to come and do this with us. Basically, we’re gonna ride along
the front of these mountains here and then just turn left and
go straight up into Bulgaria. Rookie mistake, you didn’t
take the pedals at night. There you are. Well, it’s good to know that you
definitely belong on this trip then. Yeah. In Argentina, cycling back then
wasn’t such a popular sport. It wasn’t a sport that
you could watch on TV or even read about in magazines. I’m Juan Antonio Flecha,
I come from Barcelona although I was born in Argentina, and I work on TV now
covering bike races. As a kid, I remember moving
around a lot on my bike in town, so going to places by bike, and it
was for the fun of it, just cruising. I was maybe seven years old,
I got my road bike for Christmas and I started racing. It was all about freedom, I think,
freedom and going to places. My dad died when I was four years old then my mum met, married
someone who was Spanish, so then they decided
to move to Spain, and that was when I realised
how important cycling was and that’s when I decided,
That’s what I want to do.’ Back then I couldn’t imagine
myself doing anything else, so it didn’t matter how good I was. It was just like, ‘This
is what I want to do so I’m going to keep doing it
no matter what the outcome is.’ I was not convinced until maybe
my second year professional or third year. I was always thinking and considering
that there might be a chance that I will go back to
uni after two years. It was not just signing the contract and saying, okay, that’s going
to be for the next ten years. That was the goal but I didn’t know,
so there was always room for that, and it ended up being
fourteen years there. I was treated as a fool in the
Spanish cycling scene, let’s say. When I signed up for Banesto,
it was the team presentation and I was young so this famous
former cyclist, Pedro Delgado, he was presenting it. I walk on stage and he took
the piss out of me big time because he said, ‘Okay,
what’s your favourite race?’, and I said, ‘I wanna be good
in Roubaix and Flanders,’ and he started laughing at me. And everyone there on stage,
everyone there was like, It’s not gonna happen, man.’ I mean, come on, you’re Spanish.
You’re never gonna be good there.’ At the end, it happened.
I went to be quite decent on that. The first results that came
to my mind are podiums there, three times in the podium. – Was it the one that got away? Definitely, but that was it, and maybe I wasn’t that
good enough to win it. I don’t regret that at all and I cannot deny being at the
podium was another nice thing. That was wonderful, it was
great, but that’s not the point. The point was the race itself
and the love for Roubaix, for the cobbles, more than
what you were achieving there. That’s so much fun. It was tough because it was more
climbing than I personally expected but it was beautiful. Some stunning roads and
great company, obviously. I might have eaten, like,
five Snickers today so I’m looking forward for some
proper meat and a good meal. The shower’s exactly like the
first few nights we’ve had where they just have a shower
head in the middle of the toilet. – Like a camper van. It just goes, you know, so in theory you could take a shit
and have a shower at the same time. – Have you tried that yet? But it’s hot and I don’t think
this hot water’s gonna last long so I’m just gonna use it immediately.
– Go for it. Oh actually, give me this kit. It must be such a
different experience if you start cycling at a young
age in Europe, you know? – Totally, yeah. I’m kind of proud about
having started somewhere else because it’s like,
it was quite unique. When I got to Europe it
was like, oh, the bikes, you can actually shift on the bikes. Seeing the speed and how do they
work and all the rest. Rules as well. Like, Europe was way more regulated. I remember going to
the bike race like, oh, socks have to be white. They cannot be a different colour. Yeah, you can’t wear black socks. – Make sure they have
to be that length. – Do you ever go back?
– No. 2003 was the last time. – Really?
– Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. Fucking lamb. So big. Today we’re crossing into Greece
and then into Turkey, to Edirne. It’s about 150 km, 140 km.
Fuck, who knows? No one knows. The Bulgarian lamb’s got him. Big time. Any luck? – Better.
– Better? Yeah. – It was just here.
– Weird. Yeah, like rising lamb. – Twelve hours later.
– Just came out looking the same. This lifestyle’s not for everyone. – Fuck.
– You look a little pale. I need water.
I bet I do. Oh well, better out than in. Did it taste as good the second time? We still have some in the
car if you wanna top it up. You can top up. No, please. We’ve still got, like, two kilos. I don’t wanna get
anywhere near that lamb. There’s an amazing amount
of parallels, I feel like, between Flecha’s
career and then mine. His first massive win was
in the 2003 Tour de France and I was there with
my family on holiday, and that was the first time
I saw how big cycling was and the first time I realised
that could be a career, you could do that for a living. So that’s when I decided
that I wanted to be a professional bike rider and then I spent,
I guess, all those years getting to a level where
I turned professional to where our careers
crossed for one year. We used to emulate his victory
salute with the bow and he was just a hero. To have him here on a Thereabouts
trip is kind of really funny because he’s saying he’s
inspired by what we’ve done when the whole reason
I turned professional was through experiencing
the highs of his career, so it’s this weird crossover. So to have him riding along
here wearing a t-shirt, it’s really funny. You know, it’s kind of weird but it’s
amazing at the same time. Some bubbles. Lots of sugar. – What’s going on? I feel, like, sick still. I feel like my stomach
is just, like-, Poor old Juan has succumbed.
I’m surprised he lasted this long. He’s succumbed to the lamb. Should be alright. I’m just thankful it’s
not me, to be honest. Hey, if I’m really gonna
be totally honest. – Selfish prick.
– Exactly, mate. I feel great, I feel fine. It’s not good. No bueno. Gah. Get pulled up at the
border and strip-searched? Course we will. Someone was writing a
book about Flanders, I can’t remember which year,
and he started interviewing me like, ‘What do you
remember about that race?’ What do you remember about-,’ Honest, I couldn’t remember anything,
and I was like, ‘Hold on a second.’ Tour of Flanders was one of
my main goals of the season. How come I cannot remember
anything about it? I couldn’t. So that’s it, right? Competing is nice and it gives you
a lot of adrenaline sometimes, it gives you many nice things, but that’s not the point really
at the end. The way I see you guys riding, it’s
the factor number one of cycling. All the rest are important
but that’s the priority. That’s something that
never should be damaged. All that soul, all that sense of it,
that’s what is nice about it. And I could feel it in the first day
we were riding, it was there. It’s just being connected with that
and experiencing that, it’s the nicest thing
I’ve done in years. – Rain. Oh wait, aren’t we
staying on the sea? – Yeah, we are. I’m gonna swim in it. Finally Gus is gonna swim. Oh my god, it’s gonna
be freezing cold. It’s gonna be cold, that’s right. How do I look like today? – There’s far more
colour in your face. Okay, although I’m still cold. – There’s far more
colour in your face and far less lamb in your throat. That’s good, that’s good. Yesterday we encountered a
little trouble at the border. They had to x-ray our car and then Sami and I had to
drive 30 km to another border where they put it in
a giant x-ray machine. No good, or-? Why do I have to leave the camera? I don’t understand. It’s a problem. Camera’s a problem. Well, it’s not a problem. I travel all over the
world with the camera. Turkish rules, problem. Okay, so I can leave then? Leave… Yeah, yeah. Without the camera. So, what is it? What? Do what? Just leave the camera? And pick it up when
you, when you go out. – Turkish rules, camera problem. Um… Okay, okay. You just wanted to hang out. I guess the border patrol
agent had a turn of heart and decided that he liked us, and as a result of making us go
through all this annoying process he said, ‘I’ll pay you back.’ And so when we got back,
the border agent, full straight face,
just went to Nate, You and the camera go, or the
camera stays and you can go in.’ And Nate was like, ‘What the fuck?’
and Femi wasn’t translating it. It was, ‘What are you
gonna do about it?’ So it was cruel but
funny, ultimately. So yeah, it took us a few hours.
Didn’t get in until late. Torrential rain last night,
there was partial flooding. And this morning fortunately
some blue skies, so on we go. Second last day of the trip. What do you reckon,
we get that bus to drive us? It’s the sort of road you hear, like,
someone getting hit on and you’re like,
Of course they got hit.’ Having a day of fun then all of
a sudden doing something like this, you’re like,
I think I missed the point.’ – Yeah, exactly. You’re just chopping off or trying
to motor-pace and you’re like wait, we’re just trying to
get to the destination. The whole purpose is the journey. – Exactly, exactly. The second that stops,
just what are you doing it for? Missed the point. We’re trying to negotiate
with the taxi driver to drive us from here to Istanbul, which is more or less 100 km. Initially we were going to ride from
here another 50 km on this highway to a spot on the coast
then catch a ferry in, because apparently it’s a shitshow
to go into Istanbul proper on a bike. But it turns out, even at
100 km out or 90 km out, it’s also a shitshow
riding on a bike. So yeah, we’re gonna try and get
a taxi, we’ll see how it goes. There’s a bit of
negotiating going on, a bit of haggling at the
gas station counter, and obviously we don’t speak Turkish
so we don’t understand any of them. So yeah, that’s where
we’re at right now. We’re in Istanbul, we’re
with our friend Mark. When we told him that we
were doing this route, he suggested we come and finish here as this is kind of the historical
end of this bike route. And because we never made it, he felt
that he should bring us down here to the grand mosque to
ceremoniously complete the route. So in this beautiful rainy, windy
day, that’s where we’re headed. Yeah. – Then that’s the trip, that’s it.
– We’re fucking done. Getting so close to Istanbul and then not actually being
able to ride in kind of sucks. In the end, Istanbul was just
a point that we picked on the map because these things
have to come to an end, but the reality is that it’s what
happens as you’re going along that’s important. It’s not like we were
climbing Mount Everest or we were crossing Antarctica. It’s not the destination,
it’s not the feat itself that’s important for us. It’s that experience that you have
and it’s what goes on on the road that shapes the journey and
that gives it purpose. You have this idea of, like,
Albania and Bulgaria, these countries that you would
kind of only ever read about, and they don’t really seem like
the places you really want to go. But the people along the way
were just amazingly welcoming which I didn’t expect at all. Everywhere you go, people are
good or there are good people, which you kind of forget sometimes
and that becomes a massive barrier to coming to do something like this,
I think, because you’re like, I don’t wanna get rolled by some
guy in Bulgaria for all my shit.’ But the reality is the guy
we stayed with in Bulgaria was one of the nicest
people you could meet. I took a lot from that. Once you get out there and do it, it’s a big world and there’s a lot of excuses you
can come up with not to do it, but the reality is
most of it’s bullshit. There’s also one thing left. I’ve still got to swim. You knew. It ain’t over ’til the fat boy swims. So we’ve left Istanbul and we’re currently driving back to
Montenegro to return the hire car. And as we drove out of
Istanbul yesterday, we sort of felt like the
trip hadn’t ended properly. I guess the premature finish, the chaos of the weather and
everything in Istanbul, meant that we didn’t really have
a ceremonial end to the trip. I couldn’t work out why
that feeling remained and then I realised that
I still had some unpaid debts from earlier in the week. I lost the bet to be the first to
the top of the mountain in Greece and as a result, I was
supposed to jump in the ocean. And so here we are
on the Greek coastline. It’s five degrees Celsius and I’m gonna go and
jump into the ocean. I never pay on time but I always pay.