On Jan. 7 2025., Mark Herbst set out to ride 30,000 km around the world. He left Bangkok, Thailand, and spent the next 11 months crossing through 25 countries, riding over mountain passes, pedalling through rainstorms, and dealing with sweltering heat and frigid cold. What started as a ride to find purpose through grief turned into an adventure that challenged him and taught him more than he expected.
“I think it helped me relax a lot more,” Herbst said. “Like the issues I had, to me, they were big when I went through countries, and I saw the poverty of people and how poor they were, that some people had absolutely nothing. I looked at my problems. My problems were not problems. They’re just inconveniences. So it changed me that way.”
During the trip, Herbst did have to deal with his fair share of bad days on the bike. Some particularly hard stints came around three-quarters into his trip while riding through the Alps on a fully loaded bike that weighed more than 50 kg. “Through Switzerland, into Italy. It was just constant climbing all day long. And when I started off, it was like two degrees below zero. I was above the tree line. It started to snow when I was up there,” Herbst said. “Then I remember descending into Italy. It was so cold. I was shaking so much, my bike was shaking, and it took a long time to get down, just because of how cold I was. I had full winter gear on two sets of gloves, and I was just freezing.”
Harder still were the mental challenges earlier in the trip. “I remember going through New Zealand, I had several days in a row where it was two degrees and raining. My tent was soaked. I had to pack up a wet tent, put on wet clothes, ride through the day, unpack a wet tent, climb into my bag, and I remember, just waking up, it would be dark, I’d hear the rain, and I think, my God, I’ve got 200 more days of this,” Herbst said.
It was in those dark moments where Herbst said the memory of his late wife kept him going. Herbst had some pretty good times out there on the road too. “My favourite day was probably when I was done,” Hebst said. “I had a lot of great days on the bike, and a lot of times, they’d be defined by the people I would meet along the way.”
However, Herbst didn’t forget about the people back home who he was riding for. On Feb. 3, he presented a cheque of $67,000 to the Princess Margaret Hospital Cancer Centre in Toronto.
“We can accomplish so many things. It doesn’t have to be huge. I went around the world. I didn’t start off by riding around the world, you know, I did small triathlons and small bike races and that kind of thing. Challenge yourself. Get out. Use the gifts you’ve got while you’ve got them, because they’re going to be gone at some point in your life.” Herbst said.