13/09/2026
2 Weeks later…. Kyrgyzstan was absolutely insane – probably one of the most intense and coolest bike trips I’ve ever done. 😅🇰🇬🚴♀️
We rode around 666 km with roughly 9,600 m of climbing, mostly through the Tian Shan mountains. Lots of gravel, some seriously rough tracks, endless high-altitude valleys and several days with basically no infrastructure at all. Our highest pass was almost 3,900 m – getting up there on a bike was pretty special.
cold, thin air, long days in the saddle, wild camping, yurts, river crossings, horses and huge herds of sheep – and sometimes hours of riding without seeing a house or another person. The landscapes were just unreal.
And it was much more than just riding. We unexpectedly stayed with a nomad family who gave us their yurt for the night and even slaughtered a sheep for us. Thanks to our local guide we got some incredible insights into Kyrgyz life and culture, and we travelled through places I would probably never have reached without a bike and our guides.
And the contrast at the end was crazy: riding through this barren high-altitude landscape at almost 4,000 m and then this massive descent ( which I did happily in the Support car)down to Lake Issyk-Kul – suddenly sunshine, warm temperatures, blue water and almost a summer holiday vibe.
Definitely not a comfortable cycling holiday. Cold, tough, physically demanding and occasionally way outside my comfort zone - but I loved everything about it ❤️ .wintermantel