Avid readers of the live blog will remember Mehdi Balamissa and Gabriel Martin, two French football supporters who decided to show their undying love for Les Bleus (and sustainable transport) by cycling almost 7,000km from Paris to Doha for this month’s World Cup.
Balamissa, a documentary filmmaker, and TV producer Martin came up with the idea of riding their bikes to Qatar after cycling the still-considerable journey to northern Italy for the 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals.
And, after setting off from the Stade de France on 20 August, they’ve finally made it to world football’s greatest “spectacle” (alright, today’s matches have been decent I suppose).
“It was a crazy idea, but we’re the kind of people that have big ideas and don’t want to have any regrets,” Balamissa told CNN after triumphantly arriving in Doha.
“So, since we are both self-employed, we decided to block off three months of our time and come to Qatar.”
The pair hope their mammoth trip, which took them through 13 countries, will help promote the benefits of sustainable transport (as you long as you forget all the oil-based sportswashing going on at the World Cup itself of course) and said that they plan to offer cycling workshops to children from disadvantaged backgrounds when they get home.
As well as riding their bikes for the greater good, the lads’ epic journey also earned them a few, more tangible, benefits: the French Football Federation (FFF) has invited the pair to meet the team and has given them tickets for all three of France’s group games, while manager Didier Deschamps also presented each of them with a national jersey signed by the players.
“Everything here is revolving around the World Cup. We’re very excited to keep discovering the country,” Balamissa said.
“Many French people are super nice with us here and are proposing to take us places: to restaurants to visit different things.”
While Balamissa and Martin are enjoying the Doha life, the trip to get there was far from straightforward. At one point, the two cyclists were forced to travel 15 hours to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to find a bike repair shop… before taking another 15 hours just to get back to the spot where one of their bikes had broken.
“We had many troubles, but we fixed them as we went,” Martin told CNN.
“In this kind of trip, you have to be really flexible. In fact, the main part of the trip is to be flexible and to just adapt to every situation the best you can. I think we did well, actually.”
Balamissa added: “There were so many best moments. For instance, when we finished crossing Europe. It was absolutely fabulous. We crossed from the European part of Istanbul to the Asian side across the bridge.”
“Usually, that’s forbidden [by bike],” Martin said, “but we negotiated with the local police for hours and hours and they just followed us to protect us on the bridge. People along the way were so generous and kind.”
“It was very special when we got to Qatar because it meant it was the end of this crazy trip and this lifestyle that we actually enjoyed a lot,” Balamissa said.
“We’re staying until the final because France is going to win, of course,” Martin joked to CNN. “We wouldn’t have come on our bikes otherwise.”