Rune Monstad, that intrepid Viking bicycling around the world, is on his way from Calgary, Canada to Medicine Hat (182 miles to the East). It's the dead of winter and the weather's a cool 8°F in Calgary. At least the winds are calm and it's not snowing at the moment (and I was complaining to my wife yesterday about being tired after riding 40 miles on the Aerlite-B folding bike in sunny, 70°F weather).

To date, Rune's bicycled over 6000 miles and had 105 flats. Quite the individualist, Rune's biking without a sag wagon, cell phone, gps or even an avalanche transmitter/receiver beacon so he can be found in an emergency. If something bad happened, it wouldn't be pretty.

182 miles may not sound like much but it is on a bicycle. If Rune does anything over 60 miles, it would be extraordinary but I can think of no better word that describes this cyclist. Frankly, someone should be doing a documentary of this trip because it's so unbelieveable.

Other than the small town of Gleichen, there are few communities where Rune's traveling along the Trans Canada Highway. Most likely, he'll be spending the night in his tent on the roadside, enduring -20°F temperatures. So if you're on the Trans Canada and see a pannier toting cyclist, offer him shelter for a night and let me know how he's doing. It's got to be Rune.

Like most long distance cyclists, Rune's attempting to pare down the weight of his gear. He's looking to replace his tent with something lighter like a solo climber's tent. I'd also like to see him travel with safety gear like a cellphone and beacon to transmit his location. If you can help with items like these, send me an email as I'm attempting to coordinate things for him (he only has sporadic access to the Internet and is pretty wiped out at the end of the day).

Ride on, Rune!

Rune's Blog

My Initial Post About Rune

Labels: Rune Monstad, solo bike tour, touring cyclist, Viking Biker, world tour