Paris (VNA) – Bastien Rebotton, a French adventurer, is set to embark on an extraordinary 19,000km cycling journey from France to Vietnam.
The 29-year-old from France's southeastern Savoie region will begin his expedition on July 6. Rather than taking the shortest route, he has set himself a unique challenge: conquering the highest road pass in every country he crosses before continuing on to Vietnam.
Bastien plans to overcome 14 mountain passes rising above 2,000 metres before reaching O Quy Ho Pass in Vietnam's northern mountainous province of Lao Cai on September 24. He then intends to spend about a month exploring the Southeast Asian country.
For many people, cycling nearly 20,000 kilometres in just three months would seem impossible. But for Bastien, it is the fulfilment of a dream he has nurtured for years.
His first challenge will be the 2,764-metre-high Iseran Pass in the French Alps. The highest point of the journey will come later at Haizi Shan Pass in China's Sichuan province, which stands at 4,685 metres above sea level.
Bastien said he deliberately chose mountain roads not only to make the journey more demanding but also because they offer some of the world's most spectacular scenery.
Being an experienced long-distance cyclist, Bastien has already completed several self-supported cycling trips across Europe. However, this expedition was inspired by a life-changing accident about a year ago, when he was hit by a car.
The incident reminded him that life can change in an instant, prompting him to stop postponing the adventure he had always wanted to undertake.
He expects to ride around 200 kilometres each day, viewing the trip as both a physical challenge and an opportunity to test his own limits. Yet his ambitions go beyond sport.
Instead of camping every night, Bastien hopes to stay with local families whenever possible. He enjoys learning about local customs and plans to ask people he meets to teach him a traditional saying or expression unique to their region, believing such phrases reveal the true character of a place.
To document the journey, he will carry cameras and post real-time updates on his personal website.
His route will take him through bustling cities such as Istanbul and across the vast grasslands of Mongolia, exposing him to diverse landscapes and climates. To avoid travelling through Russia or Iran, he will take a one-hour flight across the Caspian Sea before continuing his journey by bicycle.
Bastien said the biggest challenge in planning the expedition was not the distance or the altitude, but finding border crossings that allow cyclists to pass. As a result, his original 17,000-kilometres route had to be extended to 19,000 kilometres, including an additional 1,000 kilometres detour through Mongolia./.
