Picture courtesy of @Omar Di Felice
Omar’s incredible plan is to ride in the middle of winter, solo, across and along the three arctic border lines (the arctic circle, the isotherm +10°C line and the tree line). His adventure will be a ride of more than 4.000 km, cycling on icy roads, off-road trails and through stunning polar landscapes that will be the scenery of the first arctic world tour.
Picture courtesy of @Omar Di Felice
Omar will start his journey by cycling 800kms across Kamchatka, one of the remotest and wild landscapes in eastern Russia. Next, he will move on to Lapland, cycling 1500kms from Murmansk (Russia) to Tromso (Norway) passing through Finland and Sweden. After this, he will travel to the Svalbard islands for a cycling exploration in what will be the northeast point of the adventure - through amazing scenery, in the land of polar bears and the northern lights. Next Omar will head to Iceland for a coast-to-coast ride, before heading to Greenland where he will cycle the Arctic Circle Trail, a 200 km off-road path from Point 66 (40km east of Kangerlussuaq) on the ice cap margin, to the village of Sisimiut. The final part of Omar’s journey will be a long ride from Canada (Whitehorse, Yukon region) to Alaska, passing through Fairbanks and ending the adventure as he passes over the Arctic Circle line.
Picture courtesy of @Omar Di Felice
Omar’s trip will be part of his "Bike to 1.5°C" project, launched at COP26, the Glasgow Climate Conference. Omar will spread the word about important issues on climate change and environmental sustainability (especially in relation to sustainable mobility). Alongside the storytelling on sporting aspects of the Arctic bike crossing, there will be a day-by-day reporting of the different scenarios and the impacts that climate change is having on one of the most at-risk areas on the planet. Thanks to a series of live-stream conversations scientists, climatologists, geographers and political scientists linked to this topic, Omar will have the support of the Italian Climate Network, keeping up the joint work begun at COP26.
Picture courtesy of @Omar Di Felice
Due to the relevance of reducing emissions and awareness of the impact that travels may have, Omar will be collaborating with Treedom to compensate for all the emissions produced from his flights between the various nations. Thanks to Treedom, his adventure will support small tree planting and agroforestry projects from countries of the world most impacted by climate change. Omar will also be talking to various experts to discuss what is happening in polar regions related to a global increase in temperature.
Picture courtesy of @6Stili
Omar’s adventure will begin on February 2nd 2022 and we will be publishing regular updates on the Gravel Union website. You can also follow his adventures also on the Lonely Planet Italy channels, on an ENDU Live Map and on Omar’s social channels with daily reports, videos, posts and pictures.
Picture courtesy of @Omar Di Felice