Mention cycling holidays, and thoughts of leisurely afternoon jaunts over the course of a weekend usually spring to mind.
Not so for Mickael Joguet, however, as the Frenchman prepares to round off a gargantuan 4,000 kilometre “Wind Trip” tour of Ireland and Britain on his wind-assisted tricycle - all in the name of climate conservation.
The two-month odyssey was no ordinary journey and, as the name suggests, the “Whike” is no ordinary bike. Sat down between the two back wheels, Mr Joguet can count on the use of a specially-designed sail to catch hold of the wind when cycling.
When the conditions are right he doesn’t have to pedal at all, and the 35 year-old environmental management consultant from Brittany claims to have attained speeds upwards of 40km/h with minimal effort.
“I have worked in the environment [sector]for 10 years. I tried politics, I tried NGOs, I work with companies. It looks like everybody is waiting for others to do something, and I think we need to individually be responsible for what we do,” he says.
After setting out from the port of St Malo two months ago, he cycled all the way from Portsmouth to Aberdeen, before wheeling his way around the Shetland Islands.
He later crossed into Ireland, and having taken in sites such as Hadrian’s Wall and the Giant’s Causeway Joguet says he will return to France on his €3,000 contraption a happy man.
Apart from having to disassemble the sail when using city cycle lanes, he reports very few downsides to the experiment, and is adamant that people don’t need to depend on carbon-heavy forms of transport to enjoy an invigorating vacation.
“The thing I want to show people is that you’re not obliged to take a plane or car to have fun on your holidays, you can have very fun holidays just on a bike. It’s not a nightmare, you’re not obliged to do 100 kilometres a day. You can find flat areas and very secure bike trails.”
Mr Joguet’s journey came in advance of crunch climate talks between the main international players due to take place in Paris in December. Despite his best efforts on a personal scale, he remains pessimistic that discussions in his home country will see existing attitudes significantly altered.
“I don’t hope anymore in politics. Rio Conference was in 1992, Kyoto Protocol is not working very well, geopolitics right now is quite a nightmare if you look at the Middle East, so I don’t expect anything from politics.”
