Joining Luke and Bristol2Beijing

Neil Ibata joined on the back seat of the tandem in March 2020. He shares his experiences below:

Funnily enough, I was only able to join Luke on his trip because of the disruption caused by the looming Covid pandemic. I was supposed to fly to Denver, Colorado for a physics conference, and when it got cancelled as I was waiting for my plane on Sunday March 1st 2020, I suddenly had an entire free week to play with. So, when I saw Luke’s message on the Wednesday about joining him in France, I immediately jumped on the suggestion and started scanning for flights.

I landed in Luxembourg late on Thursday and made it to Nancy in the wee hours of Friday morning. Bitingly cold wind brought rain down like a storm of icy daggers, and I legged it to the lodge to avoid hypothermia. My best efforts to stay quiet were fairly unsuccessful, and I woke Luke up as I arrived. Both of us hadn’t really had enough sleep, but Luke was the one with all the energy, despite having cycled around continuously for two months at this point. This was my first time on the tandem: I’m not gonna lie, I was rather nervous at first, but my trepidation soon disappeared after witnessing Luke smoothly handling several tight bends through the Nancy city centre (I still don’t know how Chris fit through some of those). From there, we headed due south through what was probably the most boring (location-wise) stretch of the whole trip: 60 kms of straight flattish industrial valley. We ate lunch early in Charmes, before pushing on to Epinal for a mid-afternoon snack.

Spectacular scenery

As the terrain became more varied and interesting, so did our conversation - and this is what I remember the most from the first day. Plans for the trip gave way to conversations about motivation in sport, living one’s life in the present and not in the future, things that cannot be understood through words and how other forms of expression like music can help with those, facing fears, etc. As we left Epinal and ascended into the Lorraine plateaus, it became very atmospheric - the rain from the previous night had formed banks of clouds in the forests; maybe it seemed all the more beautiful after the industrial land that we had passed through earlier that day. Certainly, the beautiful terrain helped me forget the pain of sitting on that bike seat all day, and we pressed on. Just before nightfall, we descended into Plombières-les-Bains - a spectacular cathedral town nestled in a deep valley -, and I had to call for a photo stop. We had our last coffee of the day and rode the last 20 kms through to Luxeuil-les-Bains in the dark. I bonked fairly spectacularly on the last hill - sorry Luke… It was rather fun having an entire 19th century spa to ourselves, although I’m sure I would have made more out of it if I wasn’t utterly whacked.

The next day, we set off with no particular plan in mind - to camp somewhere in Switzerland (I’d never wild camped before, and Luke was keen to show me the ropes), but that was about it. As the morning went on, we rounded the gentle west side of the Southern Vosges. The snow-capped Ballons came into view, and the scenery just kept on getting better. We descended to Belfort for lunch before heading towards the Swiss Jura mountains. In the mid-afternoon, we had to make a decision: take a 60 km detour, but stay in the relatively flat Swiss valleys, or go up a steep climb with Chris and all of the luggage. I’d been leaning towards the former, but when we got there, we realised that we’d been working really quite well as a team and thought that we’d give it a go. The sky was filled with beautiful streaky clouds, and the temperature was perfect. Just before the climb, Luke gave me the last of his first batch of B2B wrist-bands, which I still haven’t taken off. It was a fitting symbol: I was part of the team to get the bike to the next part of its journey, and we were going to make the most of this leg as a team.

With a french baguette in my back pocket, I fed off Luke’s enthusiasm, and together we attacked the hill. The road had sustained stretches at 12% - while this doesn’t sound ridiculous on a normal bike, that meant a flat-out effort on the lowest gear on Chris. No stopping, no hesitation allowed. We made it to the top for sunset, and with the sun now poking through the clouds, the views and the sky were incredible. The descent was hairy - down 12% this time. The tandem makes it harder to brake because the surface area doesn’t really increase relative to a normal bike, but the weight is about 3 times higher.

Worryingly steep gradients ahead!

In other words, three times more energy is dissipated in the brakes. It’s a good thing the descent wasn’t longer, because Chris’s brakes overheated right at the end, and we ended up bailing into someone’s driveway. We cycled a few more kms through the gathering dark and found a place to camp near Glovelier by the side of a stream. Wild camping was a blast, and I must say that Luke’s cooking was pretty darn tasty after a long day’s cycle.

I started the 3rd day by losing one of Luke’s bowls in the stream as I washing it up - I sprinted after it downstream for a mile or so but to no avail. Undeterred by this inauspicious start, we made our way up the second climb - through this fantastic wooded canyon in the Jura. This climb was higher but less steep than the previous one, and we slowly but surely brought Chris up to the col, which turned out to be where the delicious Tête de Moine cheese is made. There was still a bit of snow at the top, and we fittingly had a snowball fight next to a sign to Moron, Switzerland (turns out there are quite a few Morons in the world). From Tavannes onwards, I was on familiar ground, having already cycled through Switzerland two years before. We stopped to have some Alsatian food in Sonceboz-Sombeval (where I clearly remember the ATM being 200 vertical metres below the restaurant - it’s no wonder the Swiss live healthy lives, designing their villages like that). From there, it was a quick cycle down to Biel, alongside Biel lake and to La Neuveville.

For me, two of the most memorable parts of the trip occurred that afternoon, and they took shape in the form of simple acts of human kindness in response to Luke reaching out to them with the idea of Bristol2Beijing. The first one was at a café in La Neuveville, where a waitress, Véronique, asked about the trip and was curious enough to accept Luke’s offer to ride on the tandem around the beautiful city centre. The joy in her eyes was obvious and she offered us some free cake and let me use the grand piano in the shop to play a couple of pieces. The second act of kindness was new to me altogether. That night, Luke managed to find a host, Luc, from WarmShowers in Neuchâtel. Over nothing more than the desire to give back to a community which showed him kindness and curiosity about other cyclists’ trips, he welcomed us into his home. There, we spoke a weird mix of languages: Luke could speak English and Russian, Luc could speak Russian and French, and I could speak English and French. Needless to say, I’m glad that our day wasn’t more intense, or I wouldn’t have been able to follow anything!

With Luc, our WarmShowers host

We set off on the fourth day with Luc on his reclining bike for the first 20 kms or so along the edge of Lake Neuchâtel before continuing along, first to Grandson then Yverdon-les-Bains. I closely avoided bonking thanks to the miraculous power of hummus and bread. As we neared Lake Geneva, the weather improved and our spirits rose. The snow-capped Alps came into view in all their glory and we had to stop for some more photos. In another random act of kindness, we were given some beers to take home in Rolle. The last 50 kms into Geneva seemed to last forever, but we knew we were getting close once we started seeing multinational companies’ HQs. We cycled straight to Geneva’s central square in time for the breathtaking pre-sunset views. To top it off, we had a lovely meal with Jenny, Luke’s mum, in central Geneva - my last meal out before the lockdown. It was really a fitting end to an amazing few days.