Couple cycles thousands of miles through Europe drawing a GPS bicycle along the way

In the face of a climate emergency, and inspired by others pushing for change such as Greta Thunberg, Daniel Rayneau-Kirkhope and Arianna Casiraghi did what they do best. They rode their bicycles, and they rode them really far. And in so doing, crafted a world-record GPS drawing of a bicycle while travelling through seven countries across Europe.

“We thought that bicycles provided hope. We thought that they could play a key role in fighting climate change if people would use them more often in place of the car,” says Casiraghi. “So, we were trying to find a fun way to promote bicycle use. We don’t even remember who thought first of this crazy project of drawing a gigantic bicycle in Europe, but one of us clearly did, and the other one must have thought it was a great idea as we ended up doing it!”

The duo left their jobs as physicists in 2019 to start working on the bicycles and trailer that they would use on the trip in addition to a special cargo bike to include their trusty canine companion Zola. They were all set, began their Bicycles Will Save The World adventure and then things got interesting.

“We thought we would be finished by the end of November of the same year. But things didn’t go to plan,” Rayneau-Kirkhope explains. “After some 3500 km Arianna suffered from a knee injury (we were carrying a combined weight of 110 kg of bikes, luggage, and dog), and we had to go back home to do two months of physiotherapy.”

And if you’re wondering about the timing, you wouldn’t be wrong. Although the team did get back out on the trails for a couple of months, the pandemic ended up sidelining the venture for another two years until June of 2022.

“We finally restarted in June 2022 and finished in August 2022. The total length of the bicycle we drew was 7,237 km,” Casiraghi says. “After finishing, we realized that our GPS drawing was the biggest ever made. Even if this is not important to us, we used this accomplishment to capture the attention of the media. It is always easier to send a message when you have a world record.” 

One of the highlights of the adventure through France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, according to the couple, was the generosity of the people that we met along the journey has been another highlight.

“Without the help of people that invited us to stay in their homes, gave us food, and help, it would have been difficult to cycle through the winter months with our tight budget (as camping was becoming unbearable for us),” Rayneau-Kirkhope says. “

They were also surprised at the attention their story and their adventure received in the media. Their message for people inspired by their journey is simple: Think bicycle.

“We would like to remind people that the bicycle can be a great alternative to the car (often even faster in cities) for short journeys,” Casiraghi says. “Most car journeys are less than five kilometres long, and the car could definitely be replaced with the bike (or even walking) by a large proportion of the population.”

Neither person describes themselves as a “cyclist” and they are admittedly not the best “cycle tourists” either. But like a large and growing segment of the population, they’ve always used bicycles almost every day.

“We use the bike a lot for everyday stuff, like going to the shops, restaurants, seeing friends,” Rayneau-Kirkhope explains. “We also used it almost every day of our life to go to university and later to work.”

Bicycles, especially in dense urban centers, are an essential tool in combatting the climate emergency, which is why countries in Europe and to some degree other parts of the world, are investing so heavily in safe infrastructure and in promoting bicycle use.

“Bicycles have been such an important part of our life!” Casiraghi says. “And more recently we have realized that they can be a great way to reduce carbon emissions from the transport sector (which is the only one whose emissions are still growing despite all efforts).”

The two physicists met in Nottingham back in 2008 while working on their respective PhD studies. They moved to Finland and then to Italy to for their careers. Following their bikepacking adventure, they now live in Northern Italy on Lake Orta. Aside from bicycles, they enjoy walking, paddleboarding and kayaking.

To read more about their adventure, and check out some cute shots of Zola, head to their Instagram here.