"Unsupported cycling" is what experts call what Jonas Deichmann does. No one accompanies him, no material depots or helpers facilitate his progress along the way. While "supported" ultra cyclists are accompanied by a camper van full of support staff, high-quality food and spare parts, he has to transport everything himself or get it on the road. As a result, he often eats dry cookies in remote areas because they are the only thing you can buy.
Because he doesn't get the 10,000 calories he needs a day this way, he eats eight kilos of bacon before his "Cape to Cape" expedition from the Northern Cape to Cape Town. And he needs it, not only because of the cookies but also because he is forced to drink Nile water in Africa. The result is recurring food poisoning.
The dramatic highlights of the 72 days: a week in constant rain on the hard shoulder of Russian highways while the trucks thunder past him and his comrade-in-arms Philipp Hympendahl, unchecked. At one point, Deichmann is hit on the shoulder by a rear-view mirror. Because Deichmann and Hympendahl don't want to ride through Syria or Iraq, they fly from Shiraz in Iran to Cairo to the northwest and continue pedaling south from there.
In Egypt, the police insist on escorting the two cyclists. The escort teams take turns every 50 kilometers, with corresponding waiting times for the two adventurers, who want to complete the route in record time.
At the beginning of the Sahara crossing, Hympendahl, who is cycling along as a photographer, has to give up. His stomach has been rebelling since the second day. Riding into the loneliness of the desert so weakened would be suicide. Deichmann's stomach is a little less affected, so he struggles through the Sahara alone, with too little food and too little water in six days. After that, the fat is gone.
In Ethiopia, it is customary for children to throw stones at cyclists. Riots also break out, and more than once the adventurer has to take refuge in a hotel or police station. "Ethiopia and Russia are the two countries I won't have to see again any time soon," he says a few weeks later.

Misery as a backdrop

Is it even necessary to travel through desperately poor regions where people are starving? Does that explain the children's aggression towards the white man on the bike? Deichmann had enough time to think about this on the road. His answer: "Everyone knows that there is hunger in the world. I could avoid these areas, but I prefer to expose myself to this reality. Besides, many people in other countries that are just as poor were incredibly kind and helpful."
On the remaining 5000 kilometers through Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa, Deichmann can once again focus on the usual difficulties such as food poisoning, headwinds, sore buttocks and cookie diets. Of course, there are also numerous bright spots: friendly locals, monkeys, zebras, giraffes and elephants cross his path. On November 19, he rides into Cape Town. It took him 72 days, 33 days less than the previous record holder. "For me, it's the experiences on the road that count. The record is the cherry on the cake," says the emaciated athlete. He makes no secret of why he needed the record: "There are probably over a hundred cycle tours through Africa every year. Only the record makes my story interesting for the media and sponsors."
Based on previous bike tours such as the Panamericana (23,000 kilometers) or Eurasia (14,000 kilometers), he knows that he will need four to five months to recover physically and mentally. Then the training for the next challenge begins. He is not yet revealing where he is going: "I planned the route in my head during "Cape to Cape". It will be longer and tougher than anything I've done before."

Deichmann's travel blog (start below): www.jonasdeichmann.de
@jonas_deichmann on Instagram
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