It’s official. I’ve completed my 9th and longest bicycle tour to date.

On December 30th, 2008 I flew into Zurich, Switzerland and began what I can only describe as one of the most life-altering events of my entire life. For the next 254 days I traveled about Europe with my bicycle in tow and passed through 16 different countries. I met people along the way, took in the sights, learned a few languages (the basics at least) and had an absolute blast.

I documented much of the trip at BicycleTouringPro.com and uploaded photos from the entire journey to Flickr.com.

Now that the trip is over and I am back home in the United States I am only more confident that there will indeed be a 10th long distance bike tour in my future.

If you’ve been following along as I slowly made my way through Switzerland, Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, I thank you.

Thank you for being a part of my adventure and supporting me along the way!

Every month Bike Friday sends out an email to their customer list profiling one of the people riding their bicycles. The August 2009 issue of Bike Friday’s “Travel Story Of The Month” featured me, Darren Alff, and my little red folding bike on our 9-month trip through central and eastern Europe.

The piece consists of a long testimonial I wrote for the company about how my Bike Friday New World Tourist has saved me time and time again when traveling on boats and trains in Europe. Additionally, I talk about how the little red folding bike has been able to handle some incredibly rough/diverse terrain and how, while I had never planned on taking the bike on such an extended trip, it has performed far better than I ever expected it to.

To read my feature Bike Friday article, just click here.

While cycling through Montenegro, I was interviewed by Rick Owens, the director of a web based TV show about bicycling called “CycleNow“. Rick and I connected via Skype and sat down for a few minutes to talk about my  adventures in Europe and beyond.

During the interview Rick asked me:

- How did you first get started with bicycle touring?
- What made you want to come to Europe for such an extended period of time?
- How do you finance your travels?
- Do you worry about your safety when traveling in remote places such as Albania and Kosovo?
- Plus… a whole lot more!

Both parts of the CycleNow interview have been published and are now available for online viewing. To watch, head on over to http://www.cyclenow.us/?p=78

This month I flew to Las Vegas, Nevada for the 2008 Interbike Expo - the largest bicycle related trade show in the Western Hemisphere.

Working with CycleAware Inc, I did my best to share my knowledge of mirrors and bicycle safety with hundreds of industry professionals. In addition, I covered the Urban Legend Fashion Show and videotaped Lance Armstrong participating in a surprise cyclo-cross race.

This summer I spent 1.5 months cycling around Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. During the middle of my tour, I stopped to stay with a German family living about an hour away from the city of Hannover in Northern Germany. The area newspaper came to interview me about my experiences in Europe and to ask about my impressions of Germany.

Click here to view the full article (it is in German)