Author: Marco Milesi

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

We have great news to communicate: David Mourrat, 11 has finished his adventure in Helsinki 12 days 13h and 55m. Kudos to him from all the team!

Getting back to the lead of the race, the hot night goes on flawlessly as none of the three riders move. At 6am both record man and the veteran start cycling, but it is not long after that Florian starts pedaling as well to not lose even one inch.

Jens crosses the 5000km mark at 10am, while Ralph passes the difficult Col de l’Iseran, rolling down towards the beginning of the ascent to Col du Galibier. At 11 am aero man arrives in Nice, beating every record so far by more than 1 day. 

When the night starts approaching, we can clearly see Florian’s different strategy from every other rider: Jens and Ralph stop respectively at Nice and Soutet Lake at around 10pm, while aero man keeps pushing through the night non-stop until Aix en Provence. Now the question is: how is it possible that he is pushing so much, still he hasn’t increased his advantage over the chasing riders?

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

During the second night of July, Florian goes all out and reaches Col du Galibier at 8:30am, setting once again a new record for the leg NorthCape-Col du Galibier. Jens seems to fly over the mountains as he is already attacking the Col at noon. Ralph, instead, is about to enter Valle d’Aosta.

During the day, Benoit Merchez covers a lot of terrain and gets to Bregenz in early afternoon, while his former companion is further North, near Stuttgart. Looking further back, April is performing a really interesting race: she will most likely get to Nice (her finish point) before most riders getting to Tarifa.

At April’s back wheel we find Jerome, a long-standing veteran of long distance recumbent cycling. Take in consideration that he is the 6^th fastest rider overall, and he cycled from his home in Belgium starting on the 30^th of May.

As the Sun gives way to the darkness, Jens gets to Col du Galibier, while Ralph still has to cross the border into France. Florian, meanwhile, as passed the 5000km marker and he is rapidly cycling towards Nice.

We predicted that aero man would have slowed down, but he hasn’t. Well, technically he has, but if we compare him to the other he is maintaining the advantage he built. Who will be the first to attack, and when?

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

The month of June is officially over when all three leading riders are still sleeping: Florian in first position, followed by Jens and Ralph. Aero man is about to enter Valle d’Aosta, a mountain region in Italy full of ascents; while Jens has stopped before Oberalppass.

Ralph crosses Bregenz at 7am, while Jens is almost in Bellinzona, after St Gotthard pass. Aero man, meanwhile, surpasses the 4500km mark and stops briefly in Biella. Benoit Merchez, back in Czechia has now crossed the border with Germany, and he is speeding through the country.

At noon, we notice Florian slows down as he enters France, giving Jens a chance to catch up. Unfortunately, the veteran stops before crossing the border into France through the Petit San Bernard pass.

The day goes by, and the situation doesn’t change much. And when things do not look particularly interesting, we should look at the statistics to try forecasting the future. Jens has once again secured his sleep advantage over Florian, managing to sustain a higher average moving speed than aero man, bringing him just 180km from the lead. At this point it’s clearer than ever: the veteran will attack once Florian shows any sign of fatigue.

And, what about record man? Ralph is in a difficult situation. It almost looks like he deliberately chose to not push and remain in third position, which is an excellent strategy if the opponents in front of you push each other to premature fatigue. As far as we have seen, they are very patient. Yet, Ralph does not have extra sleep as Jens does, and he does not have the same average speed. Will he have enough energy to keep pushing to stay at the wheel of the veteran and aero man?

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

We kick the day at midnight, with all 3 leading riders resting. Florian is at the front, already past Bregenz, Jens is a bit before the checkpoint and Ralph is 250km away from Jens. The only rider at front moving during the night is Benoit, who crosses the border between Poland and Czech Republic at 3:30am.

At 7am aero man and record man wake up and start pedaling almost at the same time, leaving Jens hanging. Florian reaches after a short time the first important climbs in Switzerland, right after Liechtenstein, therefore he is forced to slow down.

During the day, aero man goes through the first crossing into Switzerland entering Italy afterwards. Jens, instead, stops at the beginning of the ascent to the Oberalp pass when Ralph reaches Bregenz in Austria.

At 10pm, all three riders are, once again, standing still. Meanwhile, Benoit has almost entirely covered the distance of the route into Czechia. Is the early-stop of Jens a strategy or is it something different? It is hard to believe he only needed sleep, as we know he has been stopping way more than Florian, might it be a physical issue? Or are we about to witness an attack on aero man when he least expect it?

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

At midnight, the leading triplet is showing us an unusual behavior: aero man (Florian) is standing still, while both Jens and Ralph are moving. They keep pedaling for two hours, then they decide to stop almost at the same time; probably they were watching each other on the tracking. They are now almost 500km in front of the fourth rider. They are cycling a race on their own.

At 5am Florian and Ralph start cycling, with a big difference in speed: Florian keeps an average of 23km/h while record man (Ralph) struggles to keep pedaling and is forced to stop a couple of times, not being able to overtake Jens, who wakes up at 8:30am and starts cycling as well.

At 10am Florian is north of Munich, while the other two are still in Czechia. During the day we receive another sad news from Lucky Szákó: he is forced to scratch due to physical problems. At 11:30am the veteran (Jens) crosses the border into Germany, followed by Ralph 6 hours later.

During the day, Benoit Merchez starts to move away from the rest of the trailing group, putting some km in his legs after having dropped his pair. At 10pm Ralph stops, while both aero man and the veteran continue their journey, with Florian reaching Bregenz (checkpoint 4) at roughly 10:30pm. So far, this is a new official record, as we didn’t have any checkpoint in 2018, when the record to Tarifa was set.

At midnight, Florian is already past Liechtenstein, followed by Jens at 250km of distance and Ralph further back (he is still standing still).

Florian is decelerating, and the sleep deprivation if compared to Jens must start making him pay its toll. Are we about to shine a light on Jens?

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

Looking at the leading group formed by Florian, Jens and Ralph, the situation looks stable: the last two are riding at 30km of distance from each other, while the first one is far ahead, well after the 3250km mark.

As usual, the first to start pedaling at 6am is Florian, followed by Jens, and finally Ralph. By midday, Florian is beyond the 3500km mark, and Ralph has lost a bit of terrain. Meanwhile, the French pair (Patrick and Benoit) informs us that they will separate their routes.

We also receive the sad news from Yves (4^th position so far) that he will not continue the race due to physical problems. This puts Hannes Munzner in fourth position, followed by Peter Gontkovic.

Florian starts to slow down, allowing for Jens and Ralph to catch some terrain, as they get closer to the border between Poland and Czech Republic, which Florian has already crossed the day before. By noon, aero man seems to start feeling fatigued: he hasn’t stopped for sleeping at all, yet his average speed decreased consistently.

Temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius as the clocks mark 7pm, and we see a curious situation: all the three leading riders are separated by the same distance (about 150km).

By midnight, Florian has officially crossed the border into Germany, getting closer to the next checkpoint: Bregenz in Austria. Jens and Ralph, instead, trail still in Czechia, getting closer.

Is this the beginning of the downfall for aero man, or is this just a bad day for him?

Photo credit: Andy Buchs – Lithuania & Poland from route check by bicycle in May 2026

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

At midnight, when the temperatures at the front of the race almost fail to go below 20 degrees, we find Florian still leading. He is the only rider who has already passed checkpoint 3: Torun in Poland.

Ralph and Jens get there at around 2:30pm, when Florian is already 150km away towards the South West. Meanwhile, 30% of the riders have crossed checkpoint 2 and 70% have crossed checkpoint 1. Helsinki (checkpoint 1) is located at a distance from the beginning where most ultra-races end: roughly 1700km.

Now Florian is starting to show some signs of fatigue. As proof, his average moving speed is slower than the one of both Jens and Ralph, and his daily average is decreasing rapidly: he started with a solid 550km per day, which has now dropped to less than 450km per day. Additionally, if we look at the percentage of time spent resting compared to the one spent riding, Florian and Ralph rode for about 75% of time, leaving just 25% of the total time for resting; Jens, instead, managed to rest for 35% of time, yet keeping second position.

At this pace, it looks like Jens can sacrifice a bit more resting time in favor of more cycling time, resulting in longer distances and a chance to catch Florian and conquer the lead. Will it be this way? Or will it be one of the riders in the background to surprise us?

Photo credit: Florian, Jens, Ralph – the mandatory selfie at checkpoint Torun with Copernicus.

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Marco Milesi, Andy Buchs

It has been one week since NorthCape-Tarifa 2026 started in Norway on June 20 2026. So far, this edition has already marked itself as full of records and unexpected events.

The seventh day is no exception. As the riders cycle towards South, the weather gets warmer, and finally, once docked in Tallin, the normal day-night light cycle is restored. At midnight, when the only light shining is the one of the moon, none of the three riders at the front of the race are moving. More specifically, Florian stands alone in first position with a whopping advantage of roughly 300km, followed by both Ralph and Jens resting in the same spot: Jurbarkas in Lithuania.

At 4am, Aero man (Florian) and Ralph (Record man) start cycling again towards the next checkpoint, followed by Jens some time later. The last two are able to keep a sustained pace and re-gain part of the lost terrain from the first, keeping an attentive eye on Yves (fourth position) who reaches the Hill of Crosses checkpoint at 9am.

Meanwhile, the French couple (Benoit and Patrick) start to put some distance in their legs after a slow start in Norway and Finland. They are getting back on track for their objective of reaching Nice in 15 days.

At 4:30pm Florian reaches the checkpoint number 3: Torun in Poland. A slight tailwind and a very sunny and hot weather have accompanied him in this amazing race so far. Both Ralph and Jens take advantage of tailwind, reducing distance with Aero man to about 200km by 7:30pm.

At midnight, when everything is covered in dark, this is the situation: Florian still moving, Ralph and Jens standing still at 230km of distance from him, increasing. Yves, meanwhile, finds himself at about 200km from the now resting couple of riders in second and third position.

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Marco Milesi, Andy Buchs

As usual, aero man (Florian) is the first one to wake up and start pedaling towards Torun, the next checkpoint. Meanwhile, both Jens and Ralph wake up and start cycling afterwards; however, Jens faces unexpected mechanical problems with his front wheel and therefore is forced to go back to Riga to fix the issue. Kudos to him for keeping a cold blood and a focused mind: he Is back in the race after slightly more than 2 hours.

Consequently, now the leaderboard looks like this: Florian, Ralph, Jens and Yves. After these first four riders, a uniform block of cyclists is formed right after Tallin.

Ralph strategically slows down to let Jens pass again, while he saves some precious energy. At the end of the day, the order of the riders is the same as it was in the morning. Still, Florian now has 250km of advantage against the others, now both resting in Jurbarkas (Lithuania).

As Torun (Checkpoint 3) gets closer, Florian seems to be in a good position, but sooner or later he will have to pay for all this pushing. And when that moment comes, will Ralph and Jens be able to exploit it?

Photos: Florian cap 66 in Lithuania near the border to Poland.

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Marco Milesi, Andy Buchs

We left our riders at midnight, with Florian already riding in Estonia, chased by Jens and Ralph at, respectively, one ferry away and two ferries away. Meanwhile, Yves and Stefan, the trailing riders in third and fourth position, still have more than 50km to cover before getting to Helsinki. Anyway, the first ferry leaves at about 8am, so they are forced to a stop.

Jens surprisingly chooses to take a break in Tallin and therefore almost gets overtaken by Ralph. But he manages to wake up in time and starts moving right before the other rider’s ferry docks. Florian handles the gravel section before Sindi in Estonia perfectly and keeps the lead with an advantage of 160km over Jens and 200 over Ralph.

By 8am Florian has officially crossed the 2000km marker, in just slightly more than 103h and 30m, after other 2 gravel sections: one still in Estonia and another right after the border with Latvia. At the same time, it looks like Jens has issues staying on the bike, as he continuously stops, reducing the advantage against Ralph, who can close the gap before Riga, bringing it down to just 5km.

Time goes on, and in late afternoon Yves also gets to the shore. Followed by April and the French pair with a very ambitious goal: to reach Nice in 10 days (Benoit Merchez and Patrick Gilles). Still, there is a gap of approximately 150km between the third and fourth rider.

At 10:30pm Florian reaches the second checkpoint: Hill of Crosses in Lithuania. At 11pm all the leading riders stop for resting.

Florian on his TT bike has been keeping an unprecedented rhythm, but Jens and Ralph have been good in remaining close to him. It looks like somebody is risking his strategy: is it the veteran and record man forcing their pace to not loose terrain or is it aero man pushing beyond his limits to gain some distance?

We’ll find out when the first ascents will begin in the following days. Stay with me.