When Dutch rider Yorick shared his story on Strava of his goal to create an explorer corridor to the Mediterranean from his home in the Netherlands, we were keen to know more.
Here’s Yorick’s VeloViewer Wrapped with more on his infographic and the story behind his year of riding.
What were your goals for 2024?
My single goal for 2024 was to finish my explorer corridor to the Mediterranean. Since about 2017 I’ve been an enthusiastic explorer, and the use of the VeloViewer website and my tile cluster has been growing steadily since then. In the summer of 2020 I started this project of creating a cluster in the South of France. On holidays and several bike packing trips it grew and grew. This year my plan was to close the gap and finish my corridor to the Mediterranean.
So this spring I took a week of leave, booked a Flixbus and train from Amsterdam to Paris to Lyon and with my gravel bike, bivvy and a daily dose of croissants. I then cycled 1400 km back to Paris, thus completing my Mediterranean corridor.
What stands out from that week is not only all this tiling, but maybe even more the people I met along the way, the beautiful French nature and countryside and cycling through a Paris metropolitan mayhem for 80 km. I really had a great time, that goal was certainly achieved.
What are you most proud of about your year of activity?
This corridor of mine is not the longest, nor the first and it also wasn’t very difficult to build, but for me it’s a milestone of 7 years of tiling, and I’m very happy about it. Tiling brought me to so many beautiful, ugly, weird and unknown places, also I got to know so many nice people. That is all very valuable to me. I don’t think I will ever really stop exploring.
What challenges did you face in the year?
Nothing really that I can think of – I ride because I like it, and if I don’t like it, I don’t ride. Obviously there were hard days, lousy weather and sometimes a struggling body, but it’s always a choice and a privilege to ride.
To name something particular, I have this thing in the cold. When my body hasn’t warmed up, in the beginning of a ride, and when it’s below approximately 5 degrees I can have this issue where the cold in my fingers and hands gets so extreme, it comes to a point where I feel really awful. Sometimes I almost have to vomit and get dizzy. This October this happened again, I had to sit on the freezing cold pavement to prevent collapsing into the freezing cold pavement. Saved by 30 minutes of coffee and torte in a German bakery.
Which stats from your VeloViewer infographic stand out to you?
My longest ride this year was 350 km. Started from home at 3:30am, on the longest day of the year, aiming for some tiles in the South East of The Netherlands. I didn’t have a route for the first 200 km, just followed signs, the compass on my Wahoo and some nice roads. I love to ride that way. My brother Selwyn was working on a festival site down in the South, and during a coffee stop we agreed to meet for a beer after work hours, and so we did. One beer turned into 2.5 pints of Weizen and the final 50 km I blasted through the countryside to a train station, getting there at 22:30. After some detours, delays and another 15 km of night riding I finally got home at 3 am. That’s a really great top day right there.
What challenges have you set yourself in 2025?
I’m a big fan of doing long rides and in August 2025 I’m going to participate in Liège – Paris – Liège, an ultra race. Although for me it will certainly not be racing, I’m just not fast enough for that, neither in speed nor in moving time. But nonetheless I’m very excited about it. It will involve some serious night time riding, in unknown and unpopulated terrain. I will be very happy if I’m able to complete the 1100 km ride within the set 4 day limit.
To view your VeloViewer Wrapped and activity stats for 2024 head to our Infographic generator page.