Draft — Lauren Geoghegan
We get a bunch of questions pretty often, but we get this one particular question a whole lot. People we meet always want to know one thing: how many kilometers are we pedaling each day?
We don't exactly count our kilometers. We aren't traveling with an odometer or cycle computer or live Strava tracker. We just bike, with a very rough sense of how far we've come since morning. And so our answers have always been a little vague. Depends on the roads: up or down, gravel or paved. Depends on the winds: bad, or really bad. You mean in general? Uh, between zero and one hundred kilometers per day?
We calculated the numbers below (Lauren actually did all the calculating) for our five months in Europe pretty simply. We just took the total distance we cycled in each country (an approximation of our route, give or take maybe 5%, pulled from the app we use for our maps and directions) and divided by the number of days we spent there (double-counting a few of the days we crossed borders) to find our average pace. We then created a second set of averages excluding rest days—days when we did no biking at all (or very little biking around town). These two numbers (expressed in kilometers per day) aren't necessarily exact, but they're a little more precise than what we've had to work with so far.
Anyway, here they are, by country and in total.
Spain (19 rest days)
1,000 kilometers / 38 total days = 26 km/d
1,000 kilometers / 19 cycling days = 53 km/d
France (11 rest days)
700 kilometers / 27 total days = 26 km/d
700 kilometers / 16 cycling days = 44 km/d
Monaco (0 rest days)
10 kilometers / 1 total day = 10 km/d
10 kilometers / 1 cycling day = 10 km/d
Italy (12 rest days)
25 kilometers / 14 total days = 2 km/d
25 kilometers / 2 cycling days = 13 km/d
Slovenia (0 rest days)
30 kilometers / 1 total day = 30 km/d
30 kilometers / 1 cycling day = 30 km/d
Croatia (30 rest days)
700 kilometers / 45 total days = 16 km/d
700 kilometers / 15 cycling days = 47 km/d
Bosnia (0 rest days)
10 kilometers / 1 total day = 10 km/d
10 kilometers / 1 cycling day = 10 km/d
Montenegro (11 rest days)
140 kilometers / 15 total days = 9 km/d
140 kilometers / 4 cycling days = 35 km/d
Albania (1 rest day)
100 kilometers / 4 total days = 25 km/d
100 kilometers / 3 cycling days = 33 km/d
Kosovo (0 rest days)
165 kilometers / 4 total days = 41 km/d
165 kilometers / 4 cycling days = 41 km/d
Macedonia (1 rest day)
127 kilometers / 5 total days = 25 km/d
127 kilometers / 4 cycling days = 32 km/d
Bulgaria (0 rest days)
363 kilometers / 5 total days = 73 km/d
363 kilometers / 5 cycling days = 73 km/d
Greece (0 rest days)
30 kilometers / 2 total days = 15 km/d
30 kilometers / 2 cycling days = 15 km/d
Turkey (7 rest days)
245 kilometers / 11 total days = 22 km/d
245 kilometers / 4 cycling days = 61 km/d
TOTAL (92 rest days)
3,645 kilometers / 158 total days = 23 km/d
3,645 kilometers / 66 cycling days = 55 km/d
So. How far do we cycle each day? In Europe, on days we were actually cycling, we rode about fifty-five kilometers per day—sometimes uphill, sometimes into headwinds, but also sometimes in perfectly good conditions. In Africa, unpaved roads, headwinds, and heat were our biggest cycling challenges. In Europe, our biggest challenges were inclement weather, climbs, and general fatigue from being on the road for a more extended period of time.
How far do we cycle on average? In Europe, for every ten days on the bike, we took about two weeks off. December/January holidays, visits from family and friends, generous hospitality from great hosts, planned breaks, inclement weather, and health issues all contributed to the number of rest days we took. We enjoyed many days off the bikes during our time in Europe.
Practically speaking, over a series of weeks or months, we really only moved about twenty-three kilometers each day, or a pretty measly one hundred and sixty-one kilometers per week. One could certainly pedal plenty more (and we've met other cyclists pushing a hundred kilometers each and every day), but we enjoy taking it slow and stopping often, and a quicker pace would probably feel a little too rushed for us. Another thing to keep in mind when looking at these numbers is the very minimal cycling we did in some of these countries. We cycled less than 30 kilometers in Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Greece. On the days we cycled through these countries, we spent the majority of the day cycling in other neighboring countries. These days have been double-counted (and in two cases triple-counted; we cycled through France, Monaco, and Italy and then Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia each in the course of a day) and included in our day count for all applicable countries.
So anyway. If you were wondering how far we went each day in Europe, now you know!