Who? Jelle Wallays
Travel partners? Father, girlfriend or cameraman
Camper? Bürstner Lineo of Tuscany
At the top of the bucket list? I want to go back to Slovakia and the Czech Republic and preferably with my own motorhome!
Hi Jelle, how are you?
Dead tired! Currently I am in Hemmet in Denmark and I am really counting down to the end. The last week I can afford to cycle about 30km less per day, that makes a difference. By the way, my girlfriend arrived yesterday for the rest of the trip, which also motivates.
Is this the hardest moment yet?
No, the stretch from Bilbao to Lisbon remains the worst part of the whole undertaking. Then I had rain every day and that was really tough. My clothes didn't dry anymore, the bike and motorhome were super dirty. I also had to cycle for 8 hours, so there wasn't much time to deal with tose extra challenges. That was very intense. The relief on the first dry day after that was indescribable.
Do we immediately note that as the best moment?
The most beautiful moment was certainly the evening at the campsite at the border triangle of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The campsite was located on a ski area in the middle of the mountains... That location will stay with me for a long time. But who really made that evening unique was Hans, a Belgian Pole. He came to cook for us that evening: stew with fries. That was a great evening.
You cycled through no less than 23 countries, unbelievable! Did those border crossings always go smoothly?
Especially in the East, the border crossings were real moments of stress. The most exciting thing was the customs from Albania to Serbia: the check was so thorough that you almost started to doubt yourself, even though you know you don't have anything special with you. The crossing was not easy by bike either. I had ended up off road: driven through forests, even had to crawl through bushes. It was probably a smuggling route, because in the end I never saw a border crossing.
Did you easily find places to stay?
Wild camping was not an option, we needed too many facilities. But I wanted to be flexible and so I never booked campsites in advance. As a result, it has happened more than once that we arrived at a full campsite in the evening and had to look for an alternative. Then suddenly I had to cycle another 20km to the next campsite... I drove a total of more than 500km extra. Once we ended up at a Park4Night next to a disco. We had looked up the opening hours of the discotheque: nothing to worry about, would only be open on weekends. But when we went to sleep, a car arrived with loud music and it turned out: it was a holiday so the discotheque was exceptionally open. We then drove a kilometer further in our pajamas (yes, I also cycled that kilometer).
Thanks for the call, we are counting down the last mile.
Now that the end is approaching, I feel that it is starting to come alive more and more in Belgium. I'm so tired, but those supporters really keep me going and motivated. I hope that the final will be the icing on the cake for me and everyone involved.
We'll see each other at the finish in Roeselare! Good luck with the last week!
On the road together
The project is a tribute to Jelle’s late uncle Luc, a former professional cyclist, and grew into much more than a sporting challeng, all of Flanders followed along.
Vanomobil is incredibly proud to support this special initiative by providing a motorhome: the Bürstner Lineo Van Toscany. While Jelle spends hours on his bike every day, his father, girlfriend or cameraman follows him in the motorhome. It serves as a mobile home, a place to rest and a logistical base during this intense journey.
Successfully completed
With this project, Jelle has already raised more than €53,000 for Kom op tegen Kanker. An achievement driven by courage, perseverance and connection, values that are also central to Vanomobil. The accompanying documentary is beautiful, emotional and genuine a story about pushing boundaries, being on the road together and continuing to believe, even when things get tough.
