Frenchmen Mehdi Balamissa and Gabriel Martin cycled from Paris to Qatar to watch the FIFA World Cup.
DOHA, QATAR
It has been an ‘incredible’ FIFA World Cup in Qatar with a lot of surprises and like any other fans, Frenchmen Mehdi Balamissa and Gabriel Martin enjoyed it to the hilt.
The duo’s trip from France to Qatar for the football showpiece took a little longer than usual as they decided the best way to travel was on two wheels. The duo rode for three months from the Stade de France to Lusail Stadium covering 7000km. The challenging trip took them through 13 different countries on their bicycles to watch France in action. They were hopeful of Les Blues retaining the title on December 18.
“We’re staying until the final because France is going to win, of course. We wouldn’t have come on our bikes otherwise,” Martin had said in a lighter vein during the group matches. They were disappointed to return home without the trophy as France lost 4-2 to Argentina in the penalty shootout after being tied 3-3 at the end of 120 minutes of play.
But if one challenge has ended a second one has just begun for the two back home in France. They now plan to promote the benefits of sustainable travel by offering cycling workshops to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The duo have raised money through a crowdfunded campaign to carry their cycling agenda forward in France.
“So our ambition is to take kids from disadvantaged areas (in France) and show them everything about bike touring,” said Martin, a content creator, while talking to IANS. “We want to take kids with us for a weekend and take them on cycling trips with their bikes in the region where they live. This is something they are not used to doing and usually they don't have access to bicycles.
“So what we want is to transmit and share our passion for bike touring and also teach them all the benefits (of bicycle rides) and also all the pains of it. And so that's why we're raising a little bit of money to make this project happen,” added Martin.
Martin and Balamissa are not new to undertaking long trips on bicycles having been to several sporting events including the World Cup 2018 in Russia. “We've already attended the World Cup in Russia in 2018. We actually attended the final against Croatia, which we won. We also attended other international competitions like the Euro last year and the Nations League last year as well. But this is the first competition where we attended from beginning to end,” said Balamissa, a documentary filmmaker.
“It was a crazy idea, but we’re the kind of people that have big ideas and don’t want to have any regrets. So, since we are both self-employed, we decided to block off three months of our time and come to Qatar,” said Martin about the trip on which they would travel on average 115 kilometres per day, taking appropriate rest days when needed.
The pair enjoyed their time in Doha after toiling hard on the roads, battling deserts, woods and everything in between. “It has been a long trip before getting here. So we really enjoy having some rest and enjoying the World Cup 2022, especially with the French national team. We have really good games,” Balamissa said earlier.
“We hope to go far away in this tournament and yeah, for now, it has been an incredible World Cup with a lot of surprises and we enjoy spending time in stadiums, going to the stadiums with bicycles and just having some rest, just having some good food and sleeping in a real bed and everything,” he added, having stopped at campsites, lodges and hotels to sleep.
“Everything here is revolving around the World Cup. We’re very excited to keep discovering the country. Many French people were super nice to us here and took us places: to restaurants to visit different things,” said Martin.
The French Football Federation invited the pair to meet the team and provided tickets for all three of its group games and to all other matches till the final. France manager Didier Deschamps also presented each of them with a national jersey signed by the players.
The two cyclists encountered many problems along the way but fought their way and overcame them to make the trip to Qatar. “We had many troubles, but we fixed them as we went. On 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," said Balamissa.
The two did take the road trip to go back to France but instead took an air trip to be back at their respective homes.
