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Canada’s Lemieux and Bouchard Embark on Another Cycling Odyssey – NOMADS

release by NOMADS

August 31, 2014 – Hooked on expeditions exploring a theme, Canadian adventurers Janick Lemieux and Pierre Bouchard climbed back in the saddle in order to pedal this time towards the nomadic people wandering between the continental extremities of Europe and Africa, Nordkaap and the Cape.

Their latest undertaking is called NOMADS© — cycling odyssey : nomads by nomads from cape to cape. For the reporters on wheels, who are also MEC and InReach Canada ambassadors, regular contributors to Pedal, Velo Mag, and Geo Plein Air magazines, this journey is about collecting testimonials to depict a genuinely human portrait of these people on the move, being pastoralist, hunters-gatherers or indomitable travellers.

Lemieux and Bouchard ready to roll.  ©  NOMADS

Estimated at 35,000 km and requiring some three years in the field, the adventure will be completed in two stages. With a training camp amidst Norway’s fjords the couple will head north towards Lapland, the first nomadic territory on their long list of places and regions to visit.

We will post updates of their adventures here at pedalmag.com and you can learn more about their exotic journey at the expedition’s official website here.

Two adventurers:
Janick Lemieux is originally from St. Hyacinthe, Quebec but moved to Western Canada in 1991. Since then, she has travelled the world, first with a backpack then from the saddle of a mountain bike. Pierre Bouchard, born in Quebec City, left Université Laval’s Faculty of Philosophy classrooms in 1990 to undertake what Descartes called the study of “The Great Book of the World”…on his bicycle! The Canadian duet has shared life and the road since 1997.

Together, they combine more than 200,000 kilometres of pedalled adventures in about 60 countries of the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania. In May, 1999, following of crossing of Asia’s hinterland from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Bay of Bengal, they undertook to patrol onboard their faithful mounts the geologically volatile zones and human hot spots of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a “cyclovolcanic” quest searching for the diverse peoples and numerous volcanoes found all around the Earth’s largest ocean – read more here.

A decade later, taking advantage of an extended stay at their Charlevoix, Quebec “basecamp”, the couple planned and conducted test rides in the heart of La Belle Province’s wild outback in order to probe its potential for mutli-day off-road cycling adventures. In a project called “Trans-ZEC Quebec”, they crossed the whole width of the province in two cycling transects : a first one in 2010, stretched between the Ottawa river and the Saguenay fjord, and the second exploration took place in 2012, starting from the source of the Malbaie river and ending on the shore of Gaspé Bay.

News and reports of the 2,500 km endeavour triggered a lot of interest as the project inspires local organizations to work together on the creation of a network of marked dirt roads, tracks and trails that would draw cyclists and more nature lovers to the forests and backcountry of Québec.

Le Grand Cycle, a film documentary by director Kyril Dube discussing Lemieux and Bouchard’s nomadism. View here.

Janick and Pierre have given hundreds of lectures about their adventures before tens of thousands of people across North America, Europe and New Zealand. They’ve published reports and images in magazines and websites from the world’s four corners: Pedal (cycling/Canada), Vélo Mag (cycling/Canada), Géo Plein Air (outdoor/Canada), L’Actualité (current affairs/Canada), La Semaine (current affairs/Canada), Temps Libre (travel/Canada), Go (travel/Canada), Müv (travel/Canada), Outpost (travel/Canada), Adventure Cyclist (cycling/USA), Espaces (outdoor/Canada), Coast (outdoor/Canada), Bike (cycling/USA), MTB Pro (cycling/U.K.), Cycling NZ (cycling/New Zealand), Action Asia (sports & outdoors/ Hong Kong), VTT (cycling/France), Vélo Tout Terrain (cycling/France), Bikers O2 (cycling/Belgium), Outdoor Japan (outdoor/Japan), ASAdventure (outdoor/Belgium) and many daily and weekly newspapers.

One mission:
To pedal, travel, encounter, photograph, film, record, note, share, testify, publish, and broadcast in order to expose realities and raise awareness about far-away situations, link and connect distant cultures and individuals, bring them closer, make them more familiar with one another, and thus contribute to the creation and the preservation of a solidarity, sisterhood and brotherhood, genuinely human.





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