SITTING COMFORTABLY? If the answer is no, then imagine straddling a bicycle saddle for eight months. Then try to picture yourself pedalling from Exeter in England to Shanghai - 18,000km, through 17 countries and two continents.
And these are just the bare bones of Edward Genochio's story. On his lonely odyssey, he also had to survive a roadside mugging; repair a broken bike several times; escape the attention of rabid wild dogs, hungry Siberian horseflies, and swarms of mosquitoes. He survived it all - only to have his bike stolen in the home stretch.
By the time he'd reached the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, Genochio had already completed 15,000km. Yet, having secured his specially modified $10,000 touring bike to his tent before going to sleep one night, he had no idea that a Mongolian horseman would, in turn, tie his horse to the whole lot and gallop off with it.
'I awoke to the sound of tearing tent, a horse neighing, and clattering hooves,' says the 27-year-old Cambridge anthropology, archaeology and geography graduate. 'My immediate fear was that a horse had tripped in my guy lines and was likely to panic in the dark - potentially trampling me inside the tent. But once I was outside, I realised that this was not an accident but a deliberate robbery...using the horse as the get-away vehicle.'
Genochio's tent, his home for the past five months, was torn in half. His bike had been dragged away. His dream of completing the journey, after having successfully kept mind over matter for so long, suddenly seemed impossible.
Combining the bedraggled, cast-away looks and resolve of Robinson Crusoe and the perseverance of six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, Genochio's plight turned him into an international celebrity of sorts.
