Watch today’s Laidback Bike Show. Although I will have my recumbent news piece there as usually, the most interesting part will be the breathtaking story of Nicola who cycled in Africa, was kidnapped in Mali, and was held captive for 20 months.
Nicola dreamed of touring Africa since he was a little boy in Italy. In 2018 he began touring near the western coast on his wide tired AZUB trike and trailer. Along the way he met amazing and generous people who gave him food and shelter. Then in early 2019 he ignored the warnings of local officials and rode off on the road to Timbuktu. Then next thing he knew he was looking at automatic weapons pointed at his face. He was blindfolded and abducted via motorcycle. Thus began his nearly 2 year captivity ordeal. We learn about it all and find out how this experience has changed him. Next we talk to Daniele Gonano from France. I met him a few years ago at a German Spezi event. He was displaying his solar powered tilting trike at the “Inventors Tent”. Daniele is a veteran of the 6500 mile annual Sun Trip tour which includes riders of solar powered e-bikes riding across Europe and Asia. We’ll hear about all that and his latest project-a tilting velomobile. Of course we’ll have our news director Honza Galla with the latest in recumbent activities, our Review Team member Tim Segard has a look at the HP Velotechnik Streetmachine bicycle and Peter Stull will share his thoughts about bents in a short video.
