Cold Open And The Big Bet

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Leaving behind a comfortable, successful life to cycle across five continents takes a remarkable amount of vision, or perhaps a complete misunderstanding of exactly what you're getting yourself into.

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I have joked with many people that it's my lack of intelligence that's allowed us to do this.

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But once that initial optimism burns off and the physical reality of the road sets in, the journey becomes about much more than just battling. Suddenly you're just battling the elements, you're navigating the complexities of your own marriage under extreme, unrelenting pressure.

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Everything's just magnified and heightened and more emotional, and you're tired and you're hungry and you're lost, and so your natural tendencies tend to take over.

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Five years, five continents, two and a half million dollars for charity. But beyond the staggering numbers and the logistical nightmares, this is ultimately a story about two people searching for a deeper purpose. It is about what happens when you strip away the titles, the daily routines, and the safety nets of a comfortable life, and replace them with dirt roads, unpredictable challenges, and each other to rely on. This is Cycle 5 to survive.

Why Cycle Five To Survive

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I'm Edo, and today I'm joined by two amazing guests. They're a married couple, have been married for a long time. Piel is a businessman driven by a relentless focus on success and the bottom line. Kristen is an educator, dedicating her life to the classroom and her students. They're two people with very different professional skill sets who have crossed paths thanks to a shared love of sports. And together, they're using that same athletic drive to completely redefine their next chapter in life. When Piel turned 50 and Kristen turned 55, they decided to skip the traditional milestone celebrations. Instead, in a search for deeper meaning, they launched Cycle V to survive. The premise is staggering. Over the course of five years, they are pledging to pedal across five continents, partnering with five distinct charities to raise $500,000 for each. By combining PL's business acumen, Kristen's background in education, and the sports that first brought them together, they're using their time, talent, and treasure to create cycles of opportunities for those who need it most. So how did Cycle V to survive come to be? Well, in life, momentum is like an inclined plane. You set a ball at the top, and once it starts rolling, it just keeps going faster and faster until it takes hold of your routine and never lets go. That is the exact force that upended the lives of Piel and his wife Kristen. They are the founders of Cycle Five to Survive, an initiative that has them cycling across five continents over five years. There comes a definitive breaking point where the old, comfortable definition of success simply isn't enough anymore, pushing a person to seek out something vastly bigger.

Turning Milestones Into A Five-Year Plan

SPEAKER_03 3:28

For me, it was more of a I felt it was more like a runway. I could feel it starting, and it slowly got stronger and stronger over time to a point, like using the metaphor, where liftoff was one of those things where when my wife turned 50 or 55 and I turned 50, I I kind of said, I need to do something. The whole idea of trying to be patient and figuring out what things are need to change in my life to get a little bit of perspective. I thought I gotta take action. And I had done bikepacking trips before, and that's where I kind of came up with the whole name of cycle five to survive.

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Things have a way of snowballing out of control. Sometimes you're just doing a trip, maybe you get back home, you think about what you've just done, and then it hits you.

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When I did one one-week bikepacking trip solo, I made a comment at the end of that trip where I said, I think we're gonna do more of these, and they're just gonna get bigger.

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PL brings a deep background in marketing and business to this expedition. A world built on smart goals, strict metrics, and highly measurable outcomes. Applying that structured corporate mindset to the wild unpredictability of a global bikepacking trip creates a stark contrast. Stepping away from the boardroom to tackle an adventure of this magnitude requires a certain level of blind faith.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

I have joked with many people that it's my lack of intelligence that's allowed us to do this. As the idea started to form over time, any person who would have looked at all of the five years, five continents, five bike raids, all those kind of things would have said, You have any idea how much work that is. And so going back to the very beginning, because I wanted to do something with this number five, I have a little bit of a marketing background, the number five of our age is me being 50, Kristen being 55. I tried to do something with the cycling. And I'm like, I'm a business person, so everything had to have like smart goals, so it had to be measurable. So I tried to quantify everything with the fives, and it just slowly worked from I'm gonna do five bike rides, where would I do them? Maybe five continents. That's pretty crazy. If I'm gonna do these, I did a bikepacking ride before for charity, and it felt amazing. And I said I was gonna do bigger ones, so maybe I'll do it to raise money for charity. And I was like, How much money should I raise? Well, it's got to have a five in it. And originally the goal was a total of five hundred thousand dollars, which is one hundred thousand dollars per year every year. But when we started to share the story, I was introduced to a lady who's now on our team, and she's like, I think your goal is too small, I think it should be five hundred thousand dollars per year for a total of two point five million. So that evolved from five hundred thousand over five years to two point five million over five years. Then as we started to figure out what this looked like, we had one charity in mind, and we're gonna do one bike right across North America for this one charity and raise money. But when we started to share the story, people were asking us it's five charities, who are the five charities? And we're like, holy smokes, uh we didn't have that planned out yet. So we had been involved in uh three of the five charities personally, and our kids were involved with them, so those were easy, and the other two came through uh contacts or our founders that live locally, and then end up we ended up with five charities, five continents, five hundred thousand dollars.

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Setting goals and hitting metrics is one thing in the boardroom, but the physical and emotional toll of long-distance cycling changes the landscape entirely.

Mission Values And Measuring Impact

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Having well-defined and practical goals is, in our opinion, a fundamental part in preparing for any journey. And communication, as always, is key.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

When we started, I took this as a little bit like a business with a marketing background. So first thing I thought was, okay, I need to know what my why is. So I I we created a purpose or a mission statement, which is to create cycles of opportunities for the less fortunate through sports, business, and education. And we wanted to have something in my mind, it's hard to know what you're achieving if your goals aren't specific enough. So within each charity, we asked them to come up with a specific initiative that was either sports, business, or education. And we chose those three because we met through sports, my wife's an educator, and I'm in business. The second thing I thought of was that's important in business is we need to have some core values because if we're doing this for five years, what are we thinking along the way? So we came up with three core values to be adaptable, to be memorable, and to make a difference. And I have found that between the core values and the mission statement, it has actually allowed us to be way more resilient and persistent because it's allowed us to focus in when things get tough, or like we said we'd get adaptable, and when people ask us, like, why don't you support uh breast cancer? And like our goals are very specific. So I think it's actually helped us to continue when times are tough because we we were very clear on what our motives

Marriage Under Road Pressure

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were.

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However, beyond the logistical planning, sustaining a relationship requires navigating a reality where every small stressor is magnified by exhaustion and the vulnerability of being out in the wild.

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I think one of the biggest uh things that we've noticed was when it's just the two of you out there in the midst of that whatever difficult time or whatever you're doing, it your true characteristics really come out. And so how each and every one of how we each deal with stress or pressure differently in those scenarios when we're on the road is much more magnified than what we're here in our ordinary life. We're doing our things, we've got distractions, we go our separate ways, we come back, and we can deal with those things individually. But when you're on your own in the wild, everything is just heightened. And so over the last three rides, we've had to really learn how to, and we feel like we're very good communicators, but at times we're just like, wow, we can't even figure this out together because of our natural tendencies on how we deal with things differently. So everything's just magnified and heightened and more emotional, and you're tired and you're hungry, and you're lost. And so then you're just your natural tendencies tend to take over, and sometimes those don't align very well in the time frame that we have on the road. So everything's just magnified, I think. For me, that's what I've noticed is our differences have really become something we have to work on more so than we can at than we do at home because it's just easy at home. We're comfortable, we have our things, uh, but it's when you're there, everything, yeah, you have to work on it quickly.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

A few years ago, Anna and I were hiking this trail called La Via degli Day. There's actually a couple episodes about it. And we were walking from Florence to Bologna crossing the Apennine mountain range in Italy. At one point we were stopped by two gentlemen who asked us, What's it like to do these adventures, to go on an adventure with your partner, a person that you live with, share a home with, share a life with. And we responded, It's almost like being on a tandem bike. Whenever you do something like this with your partner, you can be sure that wherever your relationship is going, by doing these things, just like riding a tandem bike, you'll end up getting there sooner. At this point, the conversation starts getting a little bit more personal.

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But luckily, as Kristen tells us, We do not shy away from the uh the ugly, because there's that in everything.

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And so what follows is a brief account of what happens when a trip goes wrong, and you have to face the consequences of this once you get back home.

South America Low Point And Recovery

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Our last continent, South America, was broken into two sections. And that first section was probably some of the worst riding that we've ever had to do in terms of just not everything going wrong, but a lot of things going wrong. And so we decided to come back early. And in the outset, we thought, oh, we'll be gone for six months. This is our big chance to really just bike pack slowly, kind of make our way down. We don't really have any time constraints. And that turned out to be a little tricky, and so we ended up coming home. And I would say that this last stage, that stage of being home for six weeks, maybe, was probably the hardest six weeks in our marriage, other than our first year of dating or our year of being engaged, because we were figuring a lot of things out. So we've been married 26 years. We would say that it's been really easy, our marriage in a lot of ways. And yet being home when we weren't supposed to be here was really difficult. So we were both in the house. I'd been sick, Piel was sick, he wasn't working, we weren't supposed to be here, so we were kiting out, and we just didn't really have a lot of things going on. And we our kids are at university, uh, so we're in that empty nest stage anyway, and we were both just sitting here going, wow, this really sucks. We don't really like, we don't like this at all. And so it's really forced us to work on our own stuff in a way that we haven't had to since, like I said, probably our engagement year as we were prepping to be married. It's we were still working on it. We got to go back and do the bottom half of South America, and it was probably the best six weeks we've had on a bike. And as soon as we get on a bike, something does change. It just, I think for me specifically, I just feel this weight lifted off of me. I just get on that bike, it's a nice, and obviously, if your first few days are nice, it's easier. And I just feel like, okay, this is where we're supposed to be. We met on bikes. So it just feels like that's for me specifically, where we're the most unified and I feel the closest to him. Having said that, when we're on the road and we get into those difficult times, like I said earlier, where our natural tendencies come up, he is the pace with which PL will deal with stress or work through a problem or try to solve it, is very fast. And I am much slower in processing what I'm feeling, how I'm going through things. So I'm more emotional. If something's hard, I need a moment. I probably need to cry a little bit. I need to just figure out what I'm feeling, I want to talk about it, and then I wanna, then we can move on. Whereas he is just, okay, this is wrong. I got to fix it, let's just keep going. And so that has been our biggest challenge is just in the midst of something that's difficult, I need more time than he does. And so he has to figure out how to stop and wait and not necessarily fix anything. He just lets me, I just need to kind of work through it. And that's been a that's been our biggest challenge on the bike. We've gotten way better. I think each year we figure something else out. But he just, I have to be for me, I want to say what I'm feeling. Oh, this sucks. How come we're going this way? It's like you said, the elevation, can't we just go around? And then he takes that as, okay, she never wants to climb anymore, so we're gonna avoid every hill possible. And then all of a sudden it's been three days, and I'm like, how come we're on these flat, straight roads going way out and back? He goes, We said you didn't want to climb anymore. And I said, No, I just said, How come this hill is I'm just frustrated? This I'm tired. Can't we just go around one of them? So we've we're able to catch it sooner, I would say, but PL's just very fast-paced in everything, and I kind of want to stop and smell the roses sometimes, so it's or cry. So that's I think for me, at least, in my opinion, that's our biggest issue on the road is me being able to work through my fears and him being able to slow down to let me figure it out on my own. But and just having the confidence, I'm a I'm a very strong rider, but there are days when I'm just like, oh, this just seems hard. I don't know if I can do it. But it's not that I can't, it's just maybe that I just don't want to.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Out on the road, the dynamic between a couple can shift in profound ways. My partner Anna and I have experienced this first hand on our own cycling and hiking trips. Because I often take on the role of the itinerary planner, I carry a heavy, sometimes overwhelming sense of responsibility for her experience. Worrying if she needs a break or pushing her to pedal just a little bit faster to beat the blazing hot sun and get to our destination quicker. PL carries that same exact weight on his shoulders.

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That vicious cycle of misinterpreting either words or silences is something any couple can relate to, especially when exhaustion sets in after a long day in the saddle. P. L is naturally wired to take charge, process information rapidly, and fix problems the second they arise. For someone with that disposition, completely relinquishing control of the root planning and letting his partner lead the way is an almost impossible prospect.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

And that's where it's like, I don't know if I need him to manage my feelings. I just need to express my feelings. And so then I'm just so then it'd be like, I can't say this, because if I say this, then he might do this. And so we were both trying to not say what we really wanted to say, and then that was causing a few problems. And then Piel would take it a bit personally if I was asking questions, or if we got lost, for example, the first year I didn't have the route because we didn't think it was that necessary, and so we'd miss a turn because your computer's so tiny and you're flying down a hill on a gravel road, and there's three different ways to turn, and we'd go the wrong way. And so if I'd said, Oh, how can we miss that turn? He would get upset with himself and think that you know can't navigate properly. And I would just wasn't mad, I was just asking a question.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

And so I think there's I don't know, I don't know if it's always I the way I am, I think, in in person with friends and the way I'm in business, I would say is fairly similar as I am on the bike, where I usually have a really good idea of where it is I need to go, but I don't have all of the details figured out along the way. And so when people ask me, so what are you doing? I will give a general sense, which is usually a little bit more specific than what most people would have in mind. But then when it comes down to the smaller details, I'll usually just figure them out on the fly. Then when my wife is part of this process and she asks me questions about the details and I don't have an answer, I start to feel a little bit inadequate because I'm on the spot, it's just her. In business, I can navigate with staff and say, okay, it's a great question. Why don't you take a look at that and come back to me and see what our options are? I don't have that opportunity to reflect with other people because my wife's the only other person to reflect with. And if she wasn't part of the planning process from the beginning, I feel like, man, I need to do a much better job. So it's probably a reflection of a little bit of a lack of ability to really dig into the details when I think I've got it all figured out, and yeah, and then when I try to figure things out, I usually figure out by taking action. Very seldom will I sit and ponder what my options are. I'll just pick one very fast, move forward. It doesn't work, I'll go back and start again. Well, as my wife would ask me, before we go, what do you think? I'm like, I just gotta go. Yeah, and that's frustrating for her because she's like, it makes no sense. I'm like, it makes sense to me because it's different than what we're doing right now, so it's gotta be better. And if it's not, then we'll start over, and then I know that this won't this doesn't work. So we do operate differently when we're on the bike, but I say our natural characteristics stay pretty constant.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

By this point in the conversation, it's becoming clear that the hardest terrain isn't always the one beneath their tires. Sometimes it's the space between intention and interpretation. The gap between wanting to help someone and understanding what they actually need. How do two people, each trying to care for each other, avoid becoming trapped by their own assumptions about what care should look like?

Control Love Languages And Trust

SPEAKER_03 20:13

I don't know how many people are familiar with the different love languages, but my love language is acts of service. That means I get a lot of satisfaction out of getting things done and then helping people get things done. And my wife mentioned earlier that she would say something and I would take that and I would I try I take action right away to ensure that doesn't happen again. And we've realized that I feel a lot of pressure to make sure everything goes smoothly so that my wife has a great time. And like earlier again, if I can get all of the big pieces right, the little details I start to get a little insecure about. And when she asks me those questions, I feel like I have not taken care of her. Now, on the flip side, my wife has been like this since the day we met, she's a huge cheerleader, and she doesn't need to say much either way, positive or negative, that will really change how I look at things. So if we're doing something and it's like getting dark out, and I know she doesn't like riding in the dark, and I try and figure out where we should camp for tonight or everything else, and she says to me, Yeah, I'm actually having a pretty good time in the dark. All of a sudden, my spirit will just go through the roof and be like, Oh, thank goodness. Like she's enjoying herself, and then all of a sudden, I'll engage, okay, like how much further do you want to go? And she says, Oh, just a little bit further. And then all of a sudden, all is well with the world because she's affirmed that the action I'm taking is the right action for her. So I very much, I would say I put a lot of pressure on myself on these rides to ensure that things are going well for her. And I've been challenged with that because she's a very confident individual and she can take care of herself. And if she shares her feelings with me, it's her responsibility to figure okay, how do I communicate these feelings? way that PL doesn't blow his top. But I also have a responsibility to know that I can't just put my head down and go and problem solve without giving her the time to to process and give her the space so that she does feel better. So it it's a bit of a it gets into a bit of a vicious spiral with me wanting to take care of her, her having to verbalize the emotions she has to go through, me then having to be patient, yet my natural tendency is to do something and fix something. Yeah, very similar to what you're saying. But over the last three rides, we have done a much better job of both of us being involved in the planning process. Even though I am still responsible for the navigating and the bike rebuilding, I take time to allow her to be part of that process so that when the time comes, the questions she asks aren't that specific anymore. They're more general where it'll be like, hey, remember when we talked about this and now I feel like I'm inclusive in the solving of the problem versus being pointed at saying I can't believe you didn't get this right.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Not that I ever say that by the way.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

No I interpret it that way.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

He interprets it that way.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

That's not to say that every day is the same. Sometimes even just being geographically in different place can have a huge impact.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

A lot of it really depends on where we are like for example in Europe the first part of it I don't know how far you've gone north but you can camp anywhere any of the in Denmark up until we got to Germany. And so we were we found then as the days got shorter and we were trying to figure out where we were going to stay, where we could find food, then I would get a little more anxious if we couldn't get where you had to go. And for us because we're off-road an example could be oh we're only about 10K from where we're going to finish for the night we've got a couple hours like an hour or two hours it should be fine an hour let's say an hour. And then we make a turn and we find that we're in this 5K hike a bike section that's we're not going to get there in an hour. So then in my head I'm just like and we don't know that it's a hike a bike section. You just don't know when you're off road what you're going to hit. So Piel would say I didn't know this was here and I thought we'd be there in time and for me I just needed a moment to go okay it doesn't matter if we're in the dark we're going to be fine we'll find a place but when you're in a place like say Germany or France when you can't just pack anywhere or sleep anywhere then that would cause me a little bit of agitation and then that's where that would happen. So when we were in the northern part Denmark North we didn't have any issues we had daylight for hours we could start late like fresh water everywhere fresh water everywhere. So it really is circumstantial and I think when you're off road like we are the unknowns are just there's just so many more unknowns that we've had to figure out for me more personally just how to chill out a little bit and know that and know that we're going to be okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

We've never had a problem but I think you find like you said you're tired you're hungry now you're stuck somewhere and then that'll get myself worked up so I think depending on where we are will indicate how we what kind of stresses we have too we've joked well I've joked on these journeys that I tell Kristen and myself that there are no wrong turns in an adventure. And so when we do make a wrong turn I'm just reminded this is an adventure this isn't a point of A to B. But if your partner doesn't know that you've taken a wrong turn and wants to know what happened and I don't have an answer for that that that's where again I'm repeating myself but that's where I get a little insecure and go, oh man, I really screwed this up she's not happy and if she want to keep going and I think the extreme.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Listening to them describe their partnership it's hard not to wonder about the boundaries of that trust. When one person is used to steering can they truly let go of the wheel and when the other is asked to take over what changes to explore that question we did something a little unusual. We asked Kristen to answer on Piel's behalf. In a relationship built on years of shared experience how well can one partner speak for the other?

SPEAKER_01 26:21

I'm a little bit more involved in some of the planning but yeah I would say that Piel does the root planning. And because we're on these multi-month ones we have a general idea of where we're going and then the two of us will he'll like the night before he'll say okay I think this is what we're going to do we can go here and then usually we talk about it but I don't think Piel would try to prove a point. I think he would say okay you want to go ahead you go and he would sit back there and he would suffer for as long as it took for me to throw in the towel because he would try to prove a point. And so that probably wouldn't be good for either of us but he would do it. He would be stubborn enough that he could sit there and do it and do nothing. And just sit back there and then he would throw those barbs out. You said you wanted to lead and then so I don't know if we would actually set that up because I think we already know the outcome would be really bad. But I like there's different things like over the year the second year I took care of booking most of the accommodations if we were going to get a we decided okay let's get a hotel and the next day whatever then I took that on so that was helpful and I I will ride out in front sometimes because I do have the route now so yeah to your question he would has he I don't know if he has we've had moments where we you could tell we've both been really upset and he's just gone quiet and I've gone quiet and but then I know what he's trying to do and I can usually call him out we'll get in a little bit of an argument and then we'll move on but he could do it he would and it probably wouldn't be pretty because I would I'm Italian so I would probably lose my marbles and he's Dutch he'd just sit there and take it but I would be very expressive with my words I think and this whole thing like I also do because Piel does care more about certain things than I do which when we're on the road then he'll say we didn't care about it before but mostly it is up to him this is this whole journey started because of his purpose uh seeking so for me I am the co-pilot anyway and I naturally defer there too but it really is like you've always said if something happens and I can't keep riding, well PL will keep riding that's just will happen. So I think just naturally I will defer anyway.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

It is fascinating to see how a couple's individual strengths and weaknesses balance out when they're forced to function as a survival team. The reality of an adventure shifts entirely without a partner to share that burden. Back in 2018 I meticulously planned a solo bike trip across the Netherlands only to freeze at my apartment door at 630 in the morning. Paralyzed by depression and the thought of facing the road completely alone without Anna as my rock I went back to bed and abandoned the four-day ride entirely. Similarly cycle five to survive however did not begin as a shared dream.

SPEAKER_03 29:22

No, when cycle five was something that evolved in my mind it was something that I wanted to do for myself. And again my lack of intelligence as the joke is I never even contemplated how much time it would take to do this, the amount of work it would take and then when I shared it with Kristen about what I wanted to do she kind of said sure I'll do it with you. And I don't even remember if I asked her if I cannot recall if I shared the story with her with an intent to ask her if she would do it with me. And I probably wouldn't do that because I wouldn't put that kind of pressure on her. Because I already knew what I wanted to do and I was going to do it somehow or another. But I am sure glad that she said let's do it together without me even thinking about whether it was something we should do together because I don't think I would have been able to do this by myself because the persistence and the bird like yesterday we were somewhere and this lady said persistence resilience resilience is exhausting and we're entering year four and our ride this year is called Pomosia safari because we're cycling across Africa and promocia means together and safari means journey and the theme is to journey together and there's a saying that we've mantra this ride is that if you want to go fast go alone but if you want to go far go together and I've gone very fast but very short. And the fact that we're doing this together with donors and sponsors and we've got a volunteer team behind us. I have my wife here with me it's the only way I think I would have been able to still be here and still be motivated to do what I'm doing. Yeah it was really for me to figure out what my purpose is and I thought man when I started this I think I have potential to do something else besides work, run a business and be an average husband and an average father if he had embarked on this massive undertaking alone, Piel admits he would have gone fast but he wouldn't have gone

Purpose After Success And What’s Next

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far.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

At the heart of this project is his personal search for meaning, a conscious departure from simply running a business and being an average husband and father. But meaning can be an elusive target. After four years of crossing continents facing the unknown and pushing his absolute limits the definitive purpose he set out to find remains just out of reach. Still looking yeah still looking but let's elaborate just a little bit further.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

Even though I'm in my mid-50s I still think I have a lot of self-exploration to do and there are times where my wife talks about how I do things fast, I process fast, I can get a lot of things done I've been very blessed, I've been very successful at the things that I put my mind to and I'm constantly challenged with perspective and the idea of balance and all those kinds of things and I'm working hard at figuring out is this really what I was meant to do? And I I think being in in year four of this that my purpose might already be something that I'm living out which is just constantly pursuing something that I think has a need. And maybe my purpose isn't just one dimensional not like a Mother Teresa or someone else who knows this is what I was born to do. But I haven't come to grips with that idea yet that maybe I was created in a way and I just need to be content with that that I don't need a single purpose. I can have multiple purposes over multiple years and I don't need to know that every morning I wake up that I know exactly what I'm here on this earth. This is what I was created for this is what I was meant to do in life. So I'm still a little unsatisfied because I still haven't felt that man this is my calling this is really where my talent shine and this is really benefiting the greater good. This isn't these aren't selfish talents. I'm truly helping other people do good things with the talents that I have and I can multiply my talents by doing what I'm doing. I haven't quite felt that yet but as I'm going through this I yeah I'm getting closer to looking at myself and say telling myself that it's okay for me to be the kind of person that I am and I and the people that wake up and say man I know I was born to do this and every morning I know exactly what my purpose is I don't have that and maybe that's just okay and I'm too influenced by other people having that satisfaction of knowing that this is my these are my talents I don't know what my talents are yet I just think I work hard and I don't even know if that's a talent. You know what I mean? It seems so simple. Just put your head down and go and just get shit done.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

And I don't know I'm babbling a bit maybe my wife can add some perspective yeah no I think a lot of that is true and I I think for me what I would love to where I think he'll maybe get where he wants to get is when he's just satisfied he's satisfied in the moment he will always his big thing is he has a very big windshield and a very small rear view mirror. So for me and this again goes to that pace with how he wants to do as soon as he accomplishes something he wants to then he's on to the next he's looking forward okay what's next what's next whereas for me I'm just like we just this is incredible. Let's just sit in this for a moment and really enjoy that and I and so I think for me it'll be a little more obvious when he's able to just sit and enjoy those moments of accomplishment and it doesn't have to be long but not every day has to be a checklist. And I think that for him that's how he definitely will evaluate his day whereas for me there's a day where I'm just going to sit and do nothing today because I'm my bucket's been full and I've done this and I know I'm going to be busy a couple days down the road. And he just it's really hard for him to do that. So over this last year as there's a business side to it too where his sabbatical has now been increased. So he's actually doesn't have an office he's not going into the office he doesn't have a title and that's a real struggle for him. So you know he's exploring he's cooking more he's a sourdough he's into sourdough now which is a win for me I haven't made a meal in I don't think months but yeah exactly I was like perfect but where he still though is like we gotta do something and but I think that those are really healthy explorations the sourdough is hilarious. My daughter's home our daughter's home for the summer and it's just been so funny seeing this whole new passion evolve in a different way. So yeah he is a worker he accomplishes much he's extremely successful the big joke is oh you're right again and so when we can prove when he can say yeah you're right to me it's like I want to celebrate for hours and he's just like hey it's only once in a while so you know I think she's being hard on herself. Yeah so I think it's I think it's that I think it's just the settling in to really experience the moment and I uh he's getting way better at that but I think that'll be a bit of a telltale sign as that he's slowing down a bit.

SPEAKER_03 36:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

When Anna and I started recording our own fuel journals on our trips our primary goal was to escape our phones, silence the anxiety of constantly documenting our lives and ground ourselves in the simplicity of just getting to our destination before nightfall. Piel and Kristen are experiencing that same stripping away of complexities. Living as nomads inevitably forces a transformation. The true measure of that evolution is best articulated by looking through each other's eyes, comparing who they were before the journey began to the people they're becoming so in a very direct way we ask them Kristen who was PL before you started and who is he becoming and PL, who was Kristen before you started and who is she becoming I'll go first I think oh boy just give it to me straight baby I told you we were getting real didn't I?

SPEAKER_01 37:49

I think who PL was before was all I wouldn't say all but mostly head driven logical intentional checklist blah blah measure of success is how much he could accomplish and I think that would have been the driving force before just yeah I know how to work hard I'm just gonna keep going I think who he is now is definitely somebody who is much more heartfelt and I don't want to say emotional in a negative way but is much more willing to let his emotions come to the surface instead of always pushing them down whereas before I don't for example I'm not gonna ever cry in public or even feel that it doesn't make sense to me to let it bother me that way. And whether part of that part of it is these rides I think when you put yourself in we live in we're in our lifestyle is 1% of the population of the world we're very fortunate we have nothing to need we don't need anything it's nothing we don't want. And so when you put yourself in these other countries where people have so much less than you and yet they embrace you as one of their own and they feed you and cloth you know put you up in their house when really they don't have the the means or it's going to cost them a lot it affects you in a way that you don't understand unless you're there. And so I think that has really impacted PL in terms of here I am this white successful man that goes into these countries I'm riding my bike to raise money for these people and yet they have they're humbling me because they are giving so much more than I personally would give when I'm back home. And so I think he's starting to see that a giving of your time is a great sacrifice and I think for him he's seeing that. And I think maybe too as you if you're a parent and you have kids you see your kids struggle or your kids come to you for things and so there's more of an emotional release as he's become old he's realizing I need to be more authentic with my son so that he learns how to be an authentic young man instead of I've got all my ducks in a row and I can do anything. And an example for our daughter as to what to look for in a man. So I think he's becoming much more not confident comfortable with being uncomfortable with his emotions maybe that's accurate. And I think who he will be is just I think a greater version of who he is because he is quite successful. And I think he's willing to be uncomfortable enough now to become something just a little bit better. He always liked to say that but and what that looks like I don't know but as a father as a husband as a grandparent down the road hopefully and maybe not in his specific arena of business but being on a board somewhere or being a public speaker or writing a book I just see that there's these other options that I opportunities for him that I think he's going to have an impact in. So yeah that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

I think the benefit my wife and I have is that we're not afraid to be honest with each other. So I I you're asking really good questions and ones that we've not been asked before. So if I look at Kristen and I think we all would have this when we look at our spouses I envy the strengths that she has and I'm frustrated by the weaknesses that she has. So depending on what's happening during the day and again you're talking about the person she was and the person she's becoming she was she's been a teacher for over 30 years and she's taught girls physical education for 90% of her tenure and she coaches. So when I look at us getting invited to these high school kids who are getting married because of the influence she's had on these girls I if I wanted a teacher for my daughter I'd want my wife to be her teacher. So it's kind of like I don't know how much better she can get she's a bit like a really good wine and I think she's just gonna keep getting better with age. Because I've not met a person who can have that kind of influence on that many people. We can't go anywhere in town without her hugging someone or someone stopping her or talking to her because she's touched so many lives. And I think that as she's along for this ride that we're on, I think she's going we already know that when the cycle five is over she wants to have an impact on a local cause and what that local cause is I think she's still figuring that out but I think the impact that she'll have having witnessed what we're doing for spreading more of what she's good at and being an inspiration for females specifically I think is going to continue to grow I think she's gonna underestimate her abilities to influence people I know she needs structure around her she's a great idea person and she's an excellent wingman for cycle five but if she champions something I'll be there to support her and I think with her natural charisma I'm sure when you listen to her voice on these podcasts you're like she must be a really nice lady because man she's just so charismatic right I think she's just gonna become more of what she is and instead of being in the classroom and in the community I saw her speak to these school kids in the pall on the microphone and I'm like man these girls are looking at her going holy cow I think anything is possible so I think she's gonna continue to evolve yeah and I think like a good wine I think she's like a really good wine I've been very fortunate that I've been able to take little sips along the way of what she has and I think she's gonna keep getting better.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Being right in the middle of their long adventure I couldn't help but wonder something. The arc of a five year mission is long yet there is an inevitable finish line. When the final continent has been crossed and the Financial targets have been met. The question arises of what remains. It is an exploration into the nature of success itself, whether it is found in the completion of a checklist, the legacy of inspiration left in one's wake, or the quiet transition into a life that finally balances the drive to achieve with the freedom to simply be. So very simply, we ask them what's going to be next.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

People watch the video on our website opening website at the very end. The interviewer asks us, How will you know this has been a success? And at that point, I hadn't really thought about it, but the spontaneous answer was if we can inspire an average person to do just a few little things to make this world a better place, I would consider these five years a success. And that kind of goes with the work the charities are doing, but it also goes along with the people that are following our journey and who are getting inspired. We've had several situations where people have reached out to us that have seen what we're doing and are actually taking action. A young gentleman who had an autoimmune disease wanted to do one of the rides that we've done already called the European Divide Trail. He wanted to be the youngest and the fastest, had his colon removed, and now he's going to do it with an Oscopy bag. Ostomy. Ostomy bag. And his mission now is to raise awareness for young people that just because these things happen to you in life doesn't stop you from being an adventurous and outgoing individual. So we've had discussions with him. Very powerful feeling when someone reaches out and says, Hey, can you help me do what you're doing? So that that would for me constitute a success, knowing that these there's many legacies that we've helped create other people to take action. Now to figure out what's at the end of all these five years, yes, we're going to do five continents. We're doing Africa here in less than two weeks. Then we're doing Asia next year. We have a financial target of raising $2.5 million. And just with the way I'm wired, I will do everything I can to achieve not just the continents, but the financial goals as well for our charities. What happens after that? We know that my wife wants to do something for a local charity. When that takes place, that'll be up to her. The timing for her will take that into effect. But I've taken a sabbatical from my business, and it's difficult because I was one of three partners that started what we're doing. And for me to slowly phase out, it's been very difficult. So I don't know that when my five years are over, will I want to phase back into the daily responsibilities of running and owning a business? Or will I find other things I can do besides being in the business? And I've given myself, and this is funny, I've given myself permission just to take it one year at a time. And I'm not going to think beyond the fact that I have two more continents to cycle with my wife. I have a financial target that I want to try and hit and do the best I can. And once that's over, knowing my track record, I feel pretty confident that something else will open up, whether it's myself creating other opportunities or people who have seen what my wife and I have done to say, hey, we need your help to figure out how to do this. I see you've done it, you've got a skill set, you've got expertise, you've got experience. Help us do this. And I maybe in an advisory role, I'm not sure. And I'm making this stuff up as I'm talking to you, but I just know that I will not be content to do nothing. But what I'm going to do, I couldn't tell you.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

Yeah, I think I know that there will be a ride six. It just may not be year six. So we will uh ride across Canada because we have not actually ridden coast to coast. So that will happen for a local charity. That has been a conviction of mine. I love that we're raising money for charities around the world and they're incredible. But I do feel a bit convicted that we need to do something in our own backyard because we have needs here as well. So that'll happen. I think for me, I would love to go back and see all the charities again five years after we've raised the money for them, just to see the growth from the impact that we've had. We get impact reports, so we do know numbers, but just to go and see these establishments again, I think would be great. I think it would be hard to just say, okay, we've raised money for you for five years and now we're completely we're done. See you later. I think the relationship will continue with those specific charities. But we know that we will continue to be philanthropic. It's a big focus for us. And so what that will look like there and what other areas we'll give to, we we don't know. There's just so many good things that are going on in the world that I'm sure we'll figure something out, what to do with our time, our treasure, or our talent. So I see that as happening. I also see us just riding on our like bikepacking just for fun to do these week-long bike packs. We were what you've been talking about, that that's something that's really desirable for us because when we're gone, we do miss our lives here. We have our kids are in the university stage, like I said, they're athletes. So we miss a lot, especially our daughter when she comes home from university. We usually take off a month after she's home and she's on her own for six weeks here. And so we do want to be able to just freely go where we want to go and when we want to go. We'll both still work. I'll still do some coaching, I'll still do some teaching, but just with more flexibility. So I think there's a we were able to hike South America, Fitzroy, and L Chelton in Argentina, and there's a pull to go back there with maybe some of my girlfriends. I have a good group of girlfriends, so doing some girls' trips like that. So I I see what our lifestyle is like now, but just with more freedom to do what we want when we want, not necessarily okay, we've got three months, we have to finish this confident, let's check that box.

SPEAKER_03 50:30

Maybe with a little less uh I would say with a little more luxury, but that's maybe not the right word I'm looking for. But when we're on Yeah, it'd be nice to be able to wash your shorts and underwear every day versus every three or four days, and uh not to wake up in the morning and go, Oh, I stink. Like some of the basic things in life that we've become accustomed to to incorporate that into some of your trips.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Yeah, or just touristy, like you said, Holland. Funny enough, Piel emigrated from Holland in the 80s when he was nine, and then we went back once when our kids were just babies before his oma's birthday, but we've never been back to see Holland and just ride our bikes there. Yeah, so things like that where it's you're just with your bike on the trains in Europe. There's just so many beautiful places in the world, too. I think if we could just go see them on our own time, how we want to do it, not have to worry about uploading footage to send back home, to make a video, to get sponsors, you know, to get off to get off social media. I it as much as it helps us, yeah, neither one of us would really say that's the fun part. I'd rather not be on Instagram, and uh that's our platform right now, so we're embracing it. And so, yeah, just to maybe be a little less dependent on, maybe the same but different.

The 100% Give Charity Model

SPEAKER_02 51:58

All right, we've talked at length about the emotional and personal side of the journey. Now it's time to talk about the backbone of this adventure, the charities themselves. At the core of Cycle V to survive is a commitment to a rare, high-impact model of philanthropy that prioritizes absolute transparency and direct support, ensuring that every dollar raised reaches those who need it most.

SPEAKER_01 52:24

I think what is really important for us to get across about our charities is and what we do is that it's 100% give. We backend everything on these rides, and we also match a giving campaign usually when we're riding. So we are personally invested in donating to these charities as well. And every penny that is raised gets divided by five every year. So twice a year, we take all the money and we divide it five ways between the charities. And that's virtually unheard of in the philanthropic word that our five that five charities have come together to work together, to share practices, to share funds, and really are a team. And so we just want people to know that we've vetted these charities. We have impact reports that show exactly where the money goes and the reach and the impact that we have, but we do not take a penny. The charities waived all of their administration fees, the care the credit card donations, all those fees are covered by a donor. So we don't know of any, or if there are, there's not many that that happens. And so we're probably most proud of that that this initiative is 100% effective in terms of what we're doing. So that's pretty important to us that we get that across because some people are like, yeah, if I give money here, we don't know what it goes, all this money will go to paying people. But we're all in. We spend a lot of money each year just to do these rides because we believe so passionately that what they're doing is changing lives around the world. It's full circle from infants all the way up to microfinancing women and breaking cycles. So it's been pretty cool for us to have the trust from the charities that we will be their representatives and for us to trust them that they're doing what they say they're gonna do. So definitely if they go to our website, they can see all those numbers. But I think that it's really important that people know they're legit. We're legit, we're doing it. We've raised 1.4.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

Yeah, up to the uh before we started our fundraising campaign this year, we raised 1.25 million. And so far to date this year, we've raised just over 200,000. So we're just we're almost at 1.5 million dollars, two words are a 2.5 million dollar target.

Closing And How To Follow

SPEAKER_02 55:03

As Piel and Kristen pack their gear for their fourth continent, taking on vast landscapes of Africa, their story leaves us with a reminder that the road to making a difference is rarely a straight line. It is a path paved with wrong turns, compromised plans, and the daily humbling work of navigating not just the world, but each other. Through Cycle V to Survive, they have proven that whether you're trying to raise millions of dollars for global charities or simply searching for your own personal purpose. The old proverb holds true. If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. To track their upcoming ride, dive into the impact reports of their 100% give model, or find the inspiration to start an adventure of your own, maybe with your significant other. You can follow their journey online at cycle52survive.com. We'll be watching too as we pedal toward that final finish line. And we were actually thinking of catching up at the end of their Africa adventure, so stay tuned for a new interview with them in October.