From the cobbles of Flanders, to the shores of the Black Sea; via rock hewn tunnels, bald mountain tops Dr Nadine Ansorg has spent her summer break on this rigorous bike ride across Europe.
We are all in awe of Dr Nadine Ansorg‘s achievement on her summer ‘break’ riding the Transcontinental, a self-supported bicycle race across Europe. Described as a ‘beautifully hard bicycle race’, it requires self-reliance, logistics, navigation and judgement as well as peak physical fitness.
Riders plan, research and navigate their own course and choose when and where to rest, taking only what they can carry and consume, covering around 4000km to reach the finish line. She reflected on her journey over a series of Twitter posts.
‘Now that I’m lying on the beach in Burgas, it’s time to contemplate on this insane adventure I have been part of. #TCRNo8 there are really no words to describe all the memories, emotions, fears, frustrations, and joys that happen to you while you cross the continent on your bike. This has been the hardest, most dangerous, and also coolest and most adventurous thing I’ve ever done in my life (and probably will ever do). There will be stories to tell for a life time, and I do not want to miss one second of it (even the hardest parts).’
‘I’m so so grateful for the immense support of the people who I love, my family, friends, colleagues, but also all the amazing dot watcher community who cheered on me in the last weeks, the volunteers at the checkpoints, and the people in the country who welcomed us riders.’
‘The positivity and support for this crazy bike race and the individual riders taking it on is just absolutely amazing and mind blowing. And lastly, but most importantly, I am also grateful to myself for being so bold and determined to take on such a challenge, and sticking with it until the end. I think I’m one of 12 solo women to finish this, and the 109th rider to finish it out of about 280 riders who started. It will still take me a long time to process everything that happened in the past weeks. When I look at the map I still can’t believe that I did this. But until then I’m just enjoying this incredible moment of being a Transcontinental finisher.’
Massive congratulations Nadine, we are so proud of you!