Cycle Man’s Annapurna adventure

Dirty Rider, a self-described lover of single-track, single malt and single women, came to Nepal almost twenty years post his first encounter with the country – over glossy pages of the National Geographic magazine at his grandparent’s home. He describes the moment he first saw the images of Mt. Everest as the ‘Eureka’ moment that made him realize, the endless possibilities of travelling and exploring the world on a mountain bike.

 “I didn’t care much for the words, but in some of the pictures, people were hiking over little pieces of alpine singletrack. These particular trails happen to be in the biggest mountains on earth and that made it even more exciting. I am a mountain biker, after all, and it was only logical to my teenage brain that I must go there and ride. It was an epiphany for me. It was then that I realized there had to be trails all over the world. In countries and mountain ranges that I never heard of. They might be made for walking and they might be really hard or even unride-able, but they are out there. This excited me to no end, and it has led to a life-long obsession.” – Dirty Rider

The morning of his big push over the Lake pass in Annapurna, he found himself restless and overwhelmed. He had been going some two weeks on his bike and this was the biggest day, not only of his trip but of his life – the biggest day did not turn out as he had hoped.

Despite the turn of the events, the avid rider confirms that the trip was still a dream come true for him with this favourite part having been, the local kids running after his cycle yelling “Cycle Man!”

 ““He said that you should not be called Cycle Man. Your name will be Yak Man. He has been watching you, and you move through the mountains like an old yak. You are big and strong and always keep moving. Even if it is not so fast”, there was a long pause and everyone smiled, “and, like a Yak, you are maybe not very smart.””- Dirty Rider