Regensburg, Germany

Today, is a rest day in Regensburg Germany. Last night, I took the evening off from writing a blog post. Instead, I enjoyed spending time catching up with family via FaceTime, doing a bit of exploring of the town, and then watching the World Cup soccer finals.

In this post, I thought I would write about the trip as a whole rather than about my last ride. Yesterday’s ride was similar in feel to the ride two days ago, so please enjoy the interspersed photos from yesterday as I write instead about my broader experience so far.

I landed in France 2 weeks and 630 miles ago somewhat uncertain of what to expect from this trip. On a personal level, I was very uncertain how my body would respond to the cycling load. My left knee had been in such bad shape in mid-June that I had been almost certain that I would not be able to go on this trip. In addition to my left knee, I had also been dealing with plantar fasciitis in my right heal that was being stubbornly resistant to my treatment efforts. I had gone as far as determining exactly what I needed to do to file a claim with my travel insurance assuming my knee would force me to cancel. I still find it remarkable that I am here given how much I was limping from pain in both legs in mid-June.

In the three weeks before arriving here, I had been able to cycle about 330 miles pain free. This left me hopeful, but I still carried significant concerns. Since arriving, I have cycled almost twice as many miles as I had in the two months prior to this trip. Knowing the milage I was facing, I was also concerned about how exhausted I might feel given my lack of proper training. So far, I have been very surprised by how well my body has been coping. My knee has not been causing any issues. My plantar fasciitis is essentially gone although I still need to be careful on rest days not to walk too much to avoid irritation the next morning. Finally, while I have had a couple of days when I have felt fatigued or low energy while riding, overall I have felt very good.

The riding itself has been fantastic. We have spent the vast majority of our time either on dedicated bike paths or on extremely low traffic roads. It has been a delight to be able to ride along, enjoying the lovely scenery, without worrying about cars. While the ride of one day may feel very similar to the previous day, the differences in landscape accumulate along with the miles. Yesterday’s ride, while similar to two days ago, is vastly different than the first couple of rides in France.

Besides the uncertainty I felt about my body, I was uncertain what to expect from this trip. I have not traveled with TDA Global before. They are a very unique cycling tour organization in that they focus only on very long bicycle trips. They offer trips on 6 continents with durations ranging from perhaps 5 weeks to almost 6 months, with their offerings varying from year to year. I had expected the culture of this trip to feel different from the Trek Travel USA Cross Country trips I had taken in 2019 and 2023, but I did not know in what way it would be so.

One difference between the TDA Global and the Trek Travel trips is that the TDA Global trips put a bit more responsibility on the bikers. On TDA trips, everyone must bring their own bikes and materials for simple maintenance. For example, this includes tools and parts to repair flats, clean and lubricate chains, spare spokes and derailleur hangers, replacement tubes and tires, and of course locks to protect your bike. Most riders on Trek trips use bicycles provided by Trek Travel. Trek Travel then takes care of all of the maintenance and spare parts. On both trips, meals are provided, but on Trek, they also create van stops along the route where you can refill bottles with water or electrolyte drinks and get snacks. On TDA, the riders are expected to stop at a cafe or grocery along the way for additional drinks or snacks.

While I have taken a selection of the most hard core Trek cycling trips, the vast majority of their trips tilt towards shorter duration, less riding and more luxury with every need covered. The long duration trips are a tiny fraction of the trips Trek Travel offers with most of their trips being only 5-7 days long. TDA only offers long duration trips although one can join for just part of a longer trip to get a 10 day to 2 week trip. For TDA, their expedition trips last 4+ months and have camping most nights with only rest days at hotels. Many of their trips are in much more remote, less wealthy, and less developed areas. TDA stands for Tour d’Afrique. They originally started by offering cross continent trips across Africa over 20 years ago.

My experience so far is that the difference in character and long distance offerings of the companies has led to differences in character and focus of the riders. The USA Trek Cross Country trips cover a bit more than 90 miles a day with rest days after every 8 days of riding. My current trip and most TDA trips seem to cover about 60 miles of daily riding with rest days after 4 days or riding. That difference in physical demand is quite significant. I think this difference played a big role in the dominance of type A personality men populating the Trek Cross Country trips. On both of my Trek Cross Country trips, about 80+% of the participants were male. On this trip, we are around 50% - 50% male to female.

This trip has a much more laid back feel to the riding. There is no focus on riding fast or hard, but more on enjoying the ride and stopping wherever and whenever one chooses for a coffee or pastry or simply to enjoy the view. TDA views the lack of structured rest stops as a feature, encouraging riders to interact with the environment and people around them.

For most riders, including myself in 2019, the Trek Cross Country trip was this unique epic adventure and often a lifelong dream - cycle across the USA. On this trip, most of the riders have done at least one and often multiple TDA trips before. One rider is doing her 9th TDA trip - perhaps as much as 25,000 miles of cycling. The feel I get from most of the people on this trip is that they are riding not for some accomplishment or goal, but because they have discovered they just love long distance cycling and seeing the world on a bike.

On my USA Cross Country adventures, I found that I loved the simplicity of those trips. I would largely disengage from the world while on the trip. My life was this simple routine of waking, packing, eating breakfast, biking, eating lunch, biking, showering, eating dinner, chatting with family, posting my blog, and sleeping. I loved seeing the world on my bike as rode. However, there really was very little time for stopping, and the milage was taxing on my body, especially in 2023 when I was not in the same sort of shape as I was in 2019.

I am really enjoying the more relaxed pace of this trip. We are still traveling an incredibly long way, but there is distinctly more time. I can stop along the way or detour off course to look around a town. When I get to the hotel, I usually get my blog post written before dinner rather than staying up after dinner to complete it. My body has generally felt pleasantly tired rather than fatigued or beat up.

I doubt I would have taken this is a photograph on either of my Trek Cross Country trips. As I rode by the bridge, I noticed that I liked the lines when looking between the columns. By the time that thought had really crossed my mind, I was 50 feet beyond and moving away. I stopped, bicycled back, put my bicycle down and figured out where I wanted to stand for the photo. My first photo was a wide angle shot but did not give me the look I wanted. I then shifted to taking a panorama. My first two panoramas still did not capture what I was hoping for. Ultimately, on the 3rd panorama, I got this image. I do not think there is anything spectacular about this photo, but I like it much better than my first attempts, and I like that I felt no hesitation in taking the couple of minutes to try and capture it.

I have already signed up to take TDA’s trip from Saigon Vietnam to Shangri-La China from mid-January through mid-March. Going depends on my knee holding out. At some point, my left knee will need to be replaced. I have never been to that portion of the world, and I am excited to explore it on a bicycle. In the shorter term, I am very excited for the rest of this trip. Starting tomorrow, we have a 5 day stretch of riding before reaching Vienna Austria for a double rest day. Tomorrow’s ride is extremely short, only 31 miles, while the others are between 60 and 76 miles.

I hope everyone is having a good summer. So far, I certainly am.