Lessons from Richards’ first big bike tour
Today I’m happy to introduce you to Richard “Canoe” Grieve.
Richard is cycling from his narrow boat in the UK (yep, he lives on a boat!), to meet his old rowing club in the south of Italy.
He’s 3 weeks into his journey, and has cycled over 1100km so far.
His trip took him through Belgium, where my dad and his old cycling club joined him for a ride. And the other night he had a stopover in Breisach am Rein, so I cycled over from Freiburg to have dinner, a couple of beers, and talk about his journey so far.
I’m gonna share some snippets from our conversation, some of his highlights so far, and some lessons learned that should encourage anyone reading to take their next step to going out and doing something like this for themselves.
“I’m not an athlete, never was”.
This is the first big tour that Richard has taken on, and in his own words, he’s never been an athlete. He’s not unfamiliar with some longer distance cycling, but this challenge is on another level to what he’s used to.
And yet, he’s already cycled 1100km in 3 weeks, with a fully loaded rig weighing around 50kg! That’s lesson one for next time, try and cut down the amount of gear he brings.
Now, you might still think that’s crazy, and that you can’t achieve something similar..
So let’s look at how Richard has done it, it hasn’t all been pub afternoons and river swims (but, this is bike touring, so there have definitely been a good amount of pub afternoons and swims!).
“I was crying because I didn’t know what jersey to wear”
The heat this summer has been crazy, and unfortunately that paired with a stomach virus put Richard in a French hospital for a couple of nights. (He’s doing much better now, and continuing the journey trying to take on much more fluids and food!).
Another lesson here, he’s taken out extra health insurance for this trip - which covered his hospital trip and recovery.
As he was getting ready to get back on the bike after recovering, he hit a mental block. His 3 jerseys laid out on the bed, but he couldn’t pick which one to wear that day. Stressed out, anxious, he decided it was best to take another day off, take everything to the laundrette and get it cleaned for a fresh start the next day.
“The bad moments will pass”
We talked a lot about the physical and mental challenges of this kind of trip - the mental side being the more difficult we agreed.
But, he’s realised, and would encourage you to remember, that although these lows are inevitable, you will pass through them.
And working through them will be so worth it…
“Once you do say yes, and go for this kind of trip, the universe will align and give you blackberries for breakfast”
Did you get that? How awesome!
I loved hearing that, because I’ve started to see that more myself. The power of saying yes, putting yourself in the right moment.
To outsiders, it looks like luck, but actually you’ve taken a lot of steps to be in that place, it’s only the last 5% or 10% that’s really lucky. The rest is down to you.
On one of the earlier days of his trip, he was overjoyed to pass some fresh, wild blackberries, perfect for a breakfast snack. He ate a few, and carried a few more which he enjoyed with a fresh pain au chocolat and a coffee, next to a river. This was one of the highlights so far.
Good things come together, when you give them a chance.
That doesn’t mean every moment will be like that, but remember, those moments will pass.
He’s got 4 weeks left to make it down to Italy.
Excited to be back on the bike after a temporary blip, he’s looking forward to a proper Italian pizza, and doing some of the old boat tours that he used to do.
Good luck for the rest of the trip Richard, we hope you have many more blackberry moments, and are able to keep pushing through the challenges.
Follow his updates on Strava, don’t forget to give him a like or kudos!