Seek Travel Ride

You're four days out of London, somewhere in northern France, and every evening you check in with your body to decide how far you'll ride tomorrow. Nobody is telling you where to be. This is your life now.
Milica Kovačević was commuting through London on her bike, listening to this podcast for inspiration to take her own bike adventure. Then she decided it was time to leave the city, and that's when she started dreaming about cycling from London to Vukovar, Croatia, where her grandmother and mother are waiting for her.
Milica let's us know how she prepared for the trip, including practicing bike mechanics on friends' bikes before she left, and how she plans out her days on the road. She also shares about the nervousness that creeps in the days leading up to going, and how turning the pedals is the best way to rid yourself of them.
This is the first of several check-ins as Milica makes her way across Europe. Follow along as she rides home.
Topics covered:
Cycle touring from London to Croatia
How to prepare for a long-distance bike tour
Solo cycling as a woman in Europe
Touring with minimal planning
Bike mechanics for beginners
What to pack for a long bike tour
Cycling through France, Belgium, and beyond
Human connection on the road
Follow Milica's journey: @2Wheels1Milikov
Check out Old Man Mountain's new Manzanita Handlebar Cradle 
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Eleanor Hulm left Bangkok on a loaded bike she'd just assembled in a hotel room at 6am, sleep-deprived, slightly terrified, and laughing her way through the traffic. Four months later she's ridden solo through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan and she's just getting started.
In this episode you'll hear about:
The 20km of peanut butter mud in Laos that nearly broke her
Pushing a loaded bike up a 20% gradient in Thailand until her cycling shoes had to come off
Pako, a bikepacker from Chengdu who taught her to knock on strangers' doors and trust what comes next
What Eleanor calls the mind prison, and why the road gave her the mind palace instead
The moment of awe when she cycled past Mount Fuji
Signing up for the Transpyrenees ultra race with half the world still left to ride
Eleanor is heading next into China, the Stans, Georgia and Turkey before cycling home to the UK. Be sure to follow her adventures via her instagram - @elbybike

Check out Old Man Mountain's new Manzanita Handlebar Cradle 
Support the show
Buy me a coffee!
I’m an affiliate for a few brands I genuinely use and recommend including:
👉  CycPlus– ePumps (enter code STR for 5% off!)
👉 Zorali 
👉 Helinox 
👉 Ombraz 
Follow us on Social Media!
Instagram - @SeekTravelRide
Facebook - Seek Travel Ride
YouTube - @SeekTravelRide
Seek Travel Ride Newsletter
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Seek Travel Ride Music Playlist available now on both Spotify or Apple Music

Daragh Cronin has been on the road for 68 days. He left Blackrock, Cork, on a loaded bike with Everest Base Camp as his final destination, and this week he is checking in from Istanbul.
This is a midweek update episode, and it covers a lot of ground. Daragh has already cycled the length of Africa, Morocco to Cape Town, so crossing Europe was his second continent. 
In this episode we discuss:
Arriving in Istanbul after 68 days cycling from Cork across Europe
The hardest moments of the journey so far and how he kept going
What it meant to have a riding companion join him through Croatia and Albania
The reality of solo cycle touring and what it does to your head over time
Route planning through the Middle East amid conflict in Iran
About Daragh Cronin: Daragh Cronin is a solo cyclist from Cork, Ireland, currently riding from Ireland to Everest Base Camp via Africa and the Middle East. Before this leg he completed a solo ride from Morocco to Cape Town. You can listen to the episode where we discussed that adventure in full detail here:  
Follow Daragh via his instagram - @roaminwithcronin and check out his fundraiser for the Children's Unit at Cork University Hospital. 
Support the show
Buy me a coffee!
I’m an affiliate for a few brands I genuinely use and recommend including:
👉  CycPlus– ePumps (enter code STR for 5% off!)
👉 Zorali 
👉 Helinox 
👉 Ombraz 
Follow us on Social Media!
Instagram - @SeekTravelRide
Facebook - Seek Travel Ride
YouTube - @SeekTravelRide
Seek Travel Ride Newsletter
Leave me a voicemail message

Seek Travel Ride Music Playlist available now on both Spotify or Apple Music

Megan Young is a UK-based ultra cyclist and bike packer from Dorset. She's raced the Atlas Mountain Race in Morocco as a pairs entry with her husband Angus, taken fastest female honours on the Dorset Divide, spent six months cycling through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile on sabbatical, and then finished that stretch with the Tour Te Waipounamu, a 1330km ultra race down the South Island of New Zealand. And right now she is  lining up for Lostdot 101, a women-only road race across Spain and Portugal where riders plan their own routes.
In this episode we discuss:
How Megan got into ultra racing and what it was like competing as a pairs team at the Atlas Mountain Race
Three months in the Andes: kit, food, altitude, wild camping, and choosing when to get a bus
Max, the stray dog in the mountains who became their guardian for a day and then vanished on the descent
The Tour Te Waipounamu: 30km of hike-a-bike, river crossings she'd never trained for, and a DNF 100km from the finish line
Her mindset heading into Lostdot 101, planning her own route, and racing with six friends from Girls That Ride Bikes
Wild camping confidence, the earplugs trick, and what she learned from getting her food strategy badly wrong on her first ultra
Women in ultra racing, what's changed, and why communities like Girls That Ride Bikes are helping to get more women to the start line
You can follow Megan via her instagram - @MeganOnTwoWheels
Check out Old Man Mountain's new Manzanita Handlebar Cradle 
Support the show
Buy me a coffee!
I’m an affiliate for a few brands I genuinely use and recommend including:
👉  CycPlus– ePumps (enter code STR for 5% off!)
👉 Zorali 
👉 Helinox 
👉 Ombraz 
Follow us on Social Media!
Instagram - @SeekTravelRide
Facebook - Seek Travel Ride
YouTube - @SeekTravelRide
Seek Travel Ride Newsletter
Leave me a voicemail message

Seek Travel Ride Music Playlist available now on both Spotify or Apple Music

Chris Petermnn has been cycling across the world for four years. When he set out to cross the Sahara on the final leg of his Africa circumnavigation, he was craving one silence. After months of never being alone in West Africa, the desert felt like it might finally offer him some peace. Unfortunately, what he got instead was 1,500 kilometres of relentless headwind.
In this Tuesday snippet, Chris takes us through his ride north from Nouakchott in Mauritania, through Western Sahara and up toward the Atlas Mountains. Fair to say it was a stretch that pushed him to rock bottom more than once. He talks about sandstorms, sleep deprivation and a strange sense of envy from watching other cyclists cruise past with the wind at their backs.
It's a raw and honest account of what long-distance cycling in one of the world's most extreme environments actually feels like and how the headwind becomes a relentless mental battle.
Support the show
Buy me a coffee!
I’m an affiliate for a few brands I genuinely use and recommend including:
👉  CycPlus– ePumps (enter code STR for 5% off!)
👉 Zorali 
👉 Helinox 
👉 Ombraz 
Follow us on Social Media!
Instagram - @SeekTravelRide
Facebook - Seek Travel Ride
YouTube - @SeekTravelRide
Seek Travel Ride Newsletter
Leave me a voicemail message

Seek Travel Ride Music Playlist available now on both Spotify or Apple Music