Shanny Hill

I’ve been fortunate to travel all over the world. I learn so much each time I travel and with each new project and new tour we launch.

I first found a TDA brochure when I was a sales manager at Duke's Cycle in Toronto. I met Henry and convinced him to give me a job in the office. That was over a decade ago now.

My love of all things bicycle started when I was in high school: I lived in the country and my friends were six kilometres away, in town. A bike was the easiest way to meet up with them on weekends. This started my interest in cycle touring and I did my first big trip at age 17 with some friends—a month of biking around Lake Erie, covering 3,400 kilometres from our hometown Kirkland Lake, in Northern Ontario.

Some of my favourite TDA travel memories are from Kyrgyzstan. Also Ethiopia, as well as France. And of course can't forget Namibia, and Ireland, and, well...

I love to travel and I feel very fortunate to have had an eclectic mix of travel experiences. Whether it’s trying fermented mare's milk in a yurt in Kyrgyzstan, eating “spagbol” prepared by our talented tour chefs after a long day of riding, sipping strong espresso in Venice, or sitting street-side for lunch in Paris, my travels always have food at their centre. Food and cycling—the combination can't be beat!

Working with TDA is all about variety—food, cycling, challenge, problem-solving, meeting people from all over the world, getting a glimpse into the way others live elsewhere and gaining knowledge from them, and learning to be humble.

Greg Roberts

keen to get out there.....

Bonny Fairweather

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Martha Lenio

Hi, my name is Martha and I'll be your assistant tour director for this adventure! I have a love of adventures, travel, living outdoors, sustainability, biking - all things that make this tour great. I'm looking forward to meeting you all, and making this experience a great one for everyone. Cheers!

Sally Hough

The time has come to stop reading about world cycling adventures and have a go myself. I am hugely excited and fortunate to be able to do this trip, with a tinge of conscience about abandoning my family for 6-7 weeks, to join with a diverse group of people to make a journey so far from home. Could this become a habit, perhaps even further next time? What better way than to see the world than on a bike.

Gennesse Beadman

Have been bike touring since about 2007 through Tasmania, New Zealand, Thailand, Israel, Africa, Costa Rica, parts of Mexico, India and Sri Lanka and most of Europe except those cold northern areas. And I did a self-supported ride to China, via Macau in 1983, now that was an adventure... My "affair" with the TdA family began with the Africa trip in 2012. Then the inaugural French Connection tour in 2016, 2017 The Odyssey. Fabulous group, exciting hill climbs, rugged/raw scenery and the tour leaders & staff, exceptional. 2018 Pub Ride 2, a fun trip with lots of laughs and and great hills in the Yorkshire Moors. 2019 The Hippie Trail and best tour for diversity, contradiction, colour, food and, and, and excitement. I enjoy travelling with like-minded people from all parts of the world, indulging in a cold beer or two when it's hot, or cold but especially after a great day in the saddle. Just love the life on the road.

Warren Mayhew

My name is Warren Mayhew, I grew up in southern Ontario, however my love for the outdoors told me to pursue an education in outdoor adventure tourism. After finishing school I felt my life needed more outdoor tourism, so I decided to take my bicycle with me for 6 months throughout South America. After that trip I knew that my derrere had thousands of more kilometres left to spend in a bicycle saddle.

Wayne Grover

Wayne Grover is a retired Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, his professional life encompassed time with the military, with Bell North Research as a Research Engineer, then as founding VP Research for TRLabs, and as a full Professor (ECE) at the University of Alberta. He has over 150 peer-reviewed published articles, one book, and 38 patented inventions. Among other awards and recognitions he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Commonwealth Scholar to the UK, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, Life Fellow of the Alberta Association of Professional Engineers, Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, and Professor Emeritus University of Alberta. As a cyclist, he is a past Hawaii Ironman and an Alumni of five other TDA rides before Trans Europa. From July to December last year he rode 14,500 km from Fairbanks, Alaska to the Panama Canal, accompanying fellow TDA Alumnus Bob Fletcher as he set the Guinness World Record for the longest e-bike ride to date. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with his wife Jutta. Their son, Ted lives and works in Vancouver, B.C.

Warren Millar

Hi there, I am Warren from Australia, I am a recent convert to cycle touring, and I'm really looking forward to this amazing and challenging tour. Cheers, W

Henry Gold

Founder, TDA Global Cycling

Tomas Gold

Miriam Gold

Maxime Dionne

"Travelling, moving, waking up every day in a new place means I have a thousand memories of different homes all around the world."

In 2013, I bought a bicycle (that's right, I only had one from Canadian Tire at the time, but I quickly concluded a Surly LHT would better fit my needs) and went on my first bike tour, solo, starting from home and riding through Canada, the US, and Haiti. A year later, I was in Vancouver looking for a job and someone told me about TDA and their recruitment ad for Australia. I applied, bought an airline ticket to meet TDA in Adelaide, and the following month I was enjoying my new outdoor office from the saddle of my bike!

An incredible country I've cycled through is Haiti. The scenery is stunning and every 100 kilometres is an adventure, but best of all is the local folklore. I have many stories about this mysterious country and one of my favourites is about the werewolf living on the island. The Haitian werewolf is a shape-shifter able to impersonate any animal. It transforms at night—any night, even if there's no moon—and is always looking to feast on human flesh. The only way to avoid an assured death at this creature’s hands is to sleep in a house with a roof. I like to bush camp while cycling and Haiti was no different. I would sleep out in my sleeping bag in the mountains or on the beach, sometimes in my tent, sometimes under the stars. Every night the locals would warn me about the werewolf, genuinely worried I’d be eaten as I slept. Some invited me into their homes, and once a group of five friends volunteer to check on me every hour of the night. People were surprised every morning I woke up alive and some started to believe the werewolf didn't have an appetite for strangers.

There are a few reasons I like to travel so much: for one thing, I always want to have new adventures and face new challenges. And I love discovering new things—food, stories, places, people, cultures … you name it! With TDA, any and everything can happen—we’re constantly exploring the globe and we introduce fresh tours every year. As you can imagine, scouting and leading tours fulfill my desire for the new to perfection.

Robert Fletcher

I belong to Edmonton Bike and Touring club and I have enjoyed past tours with TDA. Last year I did the French Connection and prior to that the India and NAE tours. I spent 30 years as an educator with Edmonton Public Schools. I also spent 2.5 years teaching in Australia. I have been retired for 19 years. I look forward to meeting everyone on this trip.

Peter Williams

Late 2015 completed most of the Bamboo Road tour (about 4,000km though China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand), and had so much fun wanted to do more Feb, March 2016 completed all the 3,000km Hippie Trail tour through India I've taken a year off work, and have spent it mainly cycling Been cycling in Europe lately, but will finish my year of cycling doing part of the French Connection Should be fun