Screw Lemonade.

Many times on this trip when trying to make decisions we went back to what the motive of the whole undertaking was. Was it to cycle A to B? Was it an unbroken line? Was it to see cool stuff? Was it a holiday?

In reality it was never any about any of those for me. In fact it wasn't about the travelling at all. It was about riding my bike. And yes, while travelling did certainly help to put things in perspective and push me out of my comfort zone, it was always about the cycling. It was about starting cycling after life crashed down and not stopping until it felt better. At the beginning that was home to the UK, but hey, with all that distance, why not go and see some cool stuff along the way? The journey took me from curled up in a ball unable to leave bed, through the desert, across the foothills of the highest mountains of the world, into bustling cities and to every place and nice interaction in between. But it was the cycling that got me there, both physically and emotionally.

2025 is a year I'm happy to see the back of and wouldn't want to live again, but I'll never forget it. The year I rode my bike. It took me a long time to finish being homesick for the past, but now I'm ready for the future, after all I've just bought a fast new bike so Bring. It. On!

Perhaps it sounds poetic, perhaps clichéd but cycling was the medicine to the pain. It was a simple challenge, with simple numbers to target and simple goals. Just the body and mind, working together. When it got too much I could just push harder, then harder again until there was nothing else to think of. I could work through stuff with that safety net and from there move on.

So my advice?

For me, that was cycling across the world. Thank you for coming along too.