Welcome to this rather special episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast. Since the inception of the podcast in 2017, we’ve featured many people with fascinating stories to tell; people who have cycled across the world, people who have inspired others, people who have displayed their passion for cycling in some extraordinary ways. But the guest on this episode of the podcast eclipses almost all others when it comes to long-distance cycling achievement.

The acknowledgements section of my first book – Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie – contains the following paragraph:

“And finally, many thanks to the man who has been the inspiration for many small-time cycling adventures such as this particular jaunt across Europe, long distance cycling guru, Mark Beaumont. May you live long, continue to do lots of cycling and prosper.”

That was written in August 2011, a year after my own cycle from southern England to southern Italy that I wrote about in the book. The reason I included the acknowledgement to Mark was because, shortly after I came up with the idea of that first cycle across the continent, his documentary, ‘The Man Who Cycled the World’ appeared on the TV. It was all about his first cycle around the globe in 2007 and 2008 and for me, it was inspirational.

I subsequently went on to attend one of Mark’s talks and, over the past ten years, we have exchanged the occasional email. But I’ve never spoken to the man. Until now that is. I invited him onto the podcast and much to his credit he emailed back almost immediately to say ‘yes’. So sit back and enjoy an hour of inspirational chat from the master of long-distance cycling, Mr Mark Beaumont.