This was supposed to be my first entry before leaving the city of Antwerp, Belgium, explaining why I decided to chose an image totally unrelated to cycling as the welcome photo for this website. After more than 30 days on the road, I’ve found some time to sit and reflect why I decided to start traveling by bike and where it has taken me.

The photo was taken somewhere around December 2010 in the town of San Salvador Atenco, México. It had no meaning at that moment, other than the esthetic composition, i.e. “what a nice picture”. But 4 years later, when I was looking through my photo archive, it struck me how symbolic this image was to the way I felt at that time.

An elderly man with his hands behind his back clinging on a small piece of a mirror. Wearing worn out clothes that didn’t fit him. All elements that symbolized the way I felt. I clung to the comforts of my life, without realizing that it didn’t fulfill me as a person. My comfortable life kept me bonded, everything around was ok without being ok with myself. So I decided to get out of my comfort zone, affront the fear of the new and unknown, challenge myself and see where it would take me. The best way for me was to get on a bike and travel, giving me the time to reflect, feel and discover what is within and out there.

Time to drop that alluring shiny piece of comfort and spread those arms to all that will come.