how everything began...
Amérique du Sud à vélo
The dream team
She is optimistic and happy, under almost any conditions. But we'll see if that's still the case when she coping with a 4500m high pass in the Andes !
What is quite sure anyway, is that she will get rid of those 4500m high passes ! Maybe she won't believe it in the last few kilometers, but despite of this, there is no doubt that her legs will take her to the top.
You'd rather having Pauline as a coach than as a GPS : if her good mood and her energy are contagious, she will hardly lead you on the good road to take !
In the In Bike We Trust Team, she wears a hat as the Organisation Chief, requesting her managing skills. One last piece of advice : you don't want to make her waiting for you !
One good thing to know is that she will be pleased to hydrate and repair her quadriceps with a beer at the end of the day. But on the flip side, bugs and other crawling and flying insects will not have a place next to her when stopping to bivouac.
To know more about her professional background, click on her picture !
PAULINE
A cheerful chick from the North
Pauline grew up in Lille, in the North of France. Up there, she developped a great energy and a capacity to encourage everyone to "come on board" ! And that's a chance, because she's on board all the time to discover the world !
The adventurer within him took him for some hikes from the snowy cones of Ecuador to the rugged Australian outback, and from the Himalayan giants to the arid plains of the Senegalese Sahel desert.
Thanks to his pilgrimage all around the globe, he will wear a hat as a Logistics chief of the In Bike We Trust Team.
Our two Bike-trusters will also rely on Clément for the DIY, for repairing the bikes, for his great sense of direction and for planning the muscles stretching sessions.
However, you don't want him to be on time : punctuality is not in its genes.
Athlete until the top of his fingers (yes, he's indeed also a climber !), he wants to shake anyone who's lazy to lead them in some sports chalenges. The first one who dares to watch TV will be taken out for a trek or a run. All of this is quite encouraging for a bike road-trip in the Andes Mountains !
To know more about his professional background, click on his picture !
CLéMENT
A contagious hyperactive dude
Clément was born next to Paris. But far from the self-centered clichés of the Parisians, he already wandered all around the world, and set foot on every continents.
ROUTE
February - March - April
We plan to visit Montevideo for a while in February
March
Hiking session planned in March
May - June
June - july
August
September
Bicycle touring for dummies
What is that ?
Like the new concept of "Slow Food", bicycle touring (also referred to as cyclo tourism) can be defined as "Slow Travel" : Grab a bike and bicycle panniers and hit the road ! That's the whole concept !
Much more than a simple means of transportation, the road-trip on a bike is a very interesting means of discovering the world and meeting people according to a different life rythm...
Characters
Along with the growing worldwide phenomenon of bike touring, many associatins, networks and dealers appear around the world. This promotes and creates an environment conducive to the growth of these alternative means of transport.
- Warmshowers : worldwide network, similar to the Couch-surfing network (this website provides a platform for members to "surf" on couches by staying as a guest at a host's home), but dedicated to the meeting and the sharing with other cyclo-travellers.
- Adventure Cycling Association : ACA is the largest recreational bicycle organization in the world.
- Casas de ciclistas : South American network offering hostels specialised in greeting cyclo-travellers all around the continent.
- AF3V - French acronym for "Association des véloroutes et voies vertes de France". This website maps out all the cycling roads in France, and offers different kinds of services, from acomodation to bikes mechanic along the road.
- CCI - Cyclo-camping International : French association gathering the French cyclo-tourists.
The bicycle touring economy
Bike touring answers to the current "darks sides" of our western societies : it's a wonderful antidote to urban and professional stress. Travelling by bike also brings an answer to our growing needs of freedom, nature, and adventure, and is the best way to meet the inhabitants of our worldwide village.
By visiting regions all around the globe on our bikes, we are in tune with time, we learn to follow a natural life rythm, away from any modern transports. It's a perfect way to open our minds to human, social and cultural environments, like no other "average" tourist would do.
Could we picture the inhabitants from the small villages that punctuate the argentinian and bolivian steppes without our bikes ? Certainly not if we fly over them with our A/C buses or our pressurised flights !
But bike travelling is also the perfect way to use a news means of transport, available to all of us : no age, health or family excuses. Everyone can ride a bike, provided that the rythm, the gear and the environment is adapted to every one's specific nature.