Is it possible? I cycled eight countries in nearly four months back in 2015 but five in one day? According to Karsten Koehler, yes it was and in April 2016 he set about proving his suspicion by heading to Belgium with his bike… Here he explains his motivation:

I enjoy long cycle rides, and last year I found myself looking for a challenge combining technology (route planning and bike tech), sport and local culture. I wanted to show what’s possible with lower-impact transport, plus my love of languages and geography made crossing natural and national borders very appealing. So why not try to set a cycling record in this context?

Browsing the Guinness World Records database, I found that the record for the number of countries visited by bike in one day, held by Glen Burmeister from Leicester, stood at four. A look at the map of Europe indicated that it would not be impossible to cycle through five countries in a day. But more than just a record for the archive, this would also be a test of the virtual and physical cycling infrastructure, such as cycle-paths, maps, and route planning applications.

I decided to make my attempt on 22 April 2016, which would be Earth Day, the annual global day of support for environmental protection, and also be the day of the signing of the Paris Agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

You can read about the journey on the Cambridge Cycling Campaign website.