5 month Europe Cycling Tour.

mnmtours

HI everyone at Bike Radar, http://www.mnmtours.com

Me and My girlfriend are two young racing cyclists that have an ambition to do something different and inspirational. In the year of 2013 we have decided to use 5 months to discover what Europe has to offer by bike. On the 1st of March 2013 we will set off on the journey, beginning at Santander. During this trip of a lifetime we will be camping in a tent in all kinds of places around the continent.

We met in the not so hot summer of Belgium 2012. Both of us were full time racing cyclists, we became friends and found out we share the same dream of experiencing different cultures and landscapes. As the racing side of the sport has suffered a lot of bad publicity, we decided to keep our passion for cycling and use our bikes in a different way to pursue our dreams!


we have managed to secure a bike sponsor from Trek for the adventure and we will be taking alot of luggage. The trip will be mainly camping (please visit our website for more info about our adventure at http://www.mnmtours.com We would like to ask anyone with some experience or knowledge for some good advice that can help us during the trip.

Please visit our website that we have made for the trip and follow us around europe at http://www.mnmtours.com

Thank you
Mike Gregg and Marie Voreland.

mercia_man

My wife and I gave up our jobs in 1991 and spent three months away. We cycled from home in Shropshire to Dover before crossing northern France to Vezelay in Burgundy and following the pilgrims' route aross France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela. We then toured Galicia and the Picos mountains of northern Spain and caught the ferry back to UK from Santander.

We had a wonderful time. And we were surprised how many other couples we met who were doing similar lengthy cycling trips. It was always great to have a few drinks and swap stories.

My top tip for camping for an extended period is to have a comfortable sleeping mat. A foam pad just won't do. I can definitely recommend the Exped Synmat UL 7 and Exped pillow pump for a good night's sleep. And a chairkit to convert your mat into a seat with backrest is brilliant.

It's worth cutting back the weight you carry to an absolute minimum. By the time we reached Canterbury, my wife posted back home a parcel weighing 10lbs of stuff she'd originally thought she couldn't live without.

Sounds like you'll both have a great adventure.

MichaelW

N Spain is a great introduction to bike touring, the scenery is great, plenty of campsites and you are in cycling country.
The Picos de Europas are pretty, you can even take your bikes by a cable car to the top and cross over.
Your bikes may decide to lose items that it finds too heavy. Generally you can do without these things.

RowanM

Sounds like great fun, and the blog looks good. I rode around Spain last year following the Vuelta (you can read about it at http://www.tourletour.com) and it was fantastic. Great people, great countryside, and unbelievably good food. Also, nice and cheap.

One thing I found though was that although I had my tent with me I quite often didn't use it, staying instead in the ridiculously cheap pensions that I found. I was doing quite big distances so I was finishing late at night, and it would be different with more time, but I recall one occassion when I was in a built up area with nowhere to camp in the wild, the only campground I could find wanted 14€ (5€ just for a space, 4€ as a per person charge on that space, and then 5€ more for the bike, thank you very much!) while the pension 200m away had a nice clean room with a bed and sheets and towels and my own bathroom for 10€. No competition. Although my favourite night of the whole trip was still the one I spent in a field under the stars, with not a single other light that I could see.

And I second Mercia Man's thoughts on taking nothing that isn't absolutely essential. A camera is, of course, absolutely essential. Enjoy!