The Trans-Europa: Not An Escape From, But A Distillation Of, Life

Masood Riazati is the Content Creator on the 2025 Trans-Europa Cycling Tour.

A few days ago, nineteen adventurous people stood in the quiet chill of a Tallinn morning, pretending not to be strangers. There is something tender – almost theatrical – about the first hours of a shared journey. Everyone plays a role they haven’t yet rehearsed: the seasoned cyclist, the quiet observer, the enthusiastic amateur but beneath the surface, we are all merely waiting to be known, hoping for a rhythm to emerge.

How strange it is to set off across a continent with people whose names I hardly remember, yet how quickly it already feels like something more than coincidence. I suppose what surprises me most is the quiet choreography of it all. Someone offers to be a navigator. A rider lingers to check another’s tire pressure. A laugh cuts through a headwind like sunlight.

Our oldest rider is 75, the youngest 29 – though numbers can be deceiving and everyone moves with the spirit of a twenty-year-old. Some have crossed continents before; others are just setting out on their first adventure. What unites them is a shared longing for new discoveries, fresh connections and the kind of life lessons that only the road can offer. No one talks about it, but I sense it in the way they ride.

Behind every great performance, however, is a crew – unglamorous, indispensable and serene. Gergo is our Tour Leader, an experienced cyclist with an endless reserve of energy and knowledge about the continent. Balazs is the chef, the assistant, the driver – to name just a few of his roles. He’s what you might call a Swiss Army knife: versatile, always ready and essential to the team. Jenna, the tour assistant, and Olha, the tour support, appear precisely when needed – saying little, offering much. Jordi, the bike mechanic, is a kind of magician. He fixes bikes but more importantly, he listens while doing so. They do not ask for applause. They understand the art of disappearing at the right time. And then there’s me – the content creator – whose job is to observe, to remember and to record. Not just what happened, but how it felt.

After four days of biking, we arrived in Latvia. It’s tempting to think the tour has now begun but maybe that’s not true. Maybe the first few days of any journey aren’t the beginning, but a rehearsal – a space where we learn to be seen differently, and more importantly, to see differently. What lies ahead is uncertain: new terrain, new weather, new moods but already, I sense a truth forming – quietly and without permission.

We are not yet a family. No, no, that would be too sentimental but the foundations, those light, almost invisible gestures of care are unmistakably beginning to form.

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