Gwenael Breton, 41, has the soul of a challenger.
A former soldier in French special forces, Breton devoted his life to extreme challenges after a military injury in 2012.
With his association, “Keeping the Course,” he started to pedal and paddle in January 2021 for the “gueules cassees” (meaning “broken faces” in French), a nickname given to French soldiers wounded in World War I that became a symbol for all soldiers injured in military operations.
Currently in Kyiv, despite the COVID‑19 crisis and closed borders, he is on his way to Vladivostok in Russia’s far east. He will then cross the Pacific to San Francisco where he will meet U.S. veterans willing to follow him across the American continent and then back to France, by boat, across the Atlantic Ocean.
As an injured veteran, who dislocated his jaw and ribs after a failed parachute landing, he plans to cover almost 33,000 kilometers on a horizontal bike within a year to support and promote the cause of the war-wounded.
By doing this, he wants to show the war-wounded that they can also reach their dreams despite their injuries, Breton told the Kyiv Post. He believes everyone can relate to his adventure.
“I want to give a bit of hope to everyone wounded in life, especially in these hard times of the pandemic,” he said.
Adventure on eco bike
This is not Breton’s first challenge of this kind. He already crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a rowboat in 2017, sailing from France to Guyana.
This time, he will cover 12,000 kilometers through Europe and Russia on his bike and cross 8,900 kilometers of the Pacific Ocean on a solo rowboat without stopping and without help.
Upon arrival in San Francisco, he will cross the U.S. from its west to east alongside American veterans. Then, he will cross 6,000 kilometers of the Atlantic Ocean on a rowboat in solo to reach France — all within a year.
His first goal was to raise money and open a house for the war-wounded in the south of France, but he hopes to create a global movement of solidarity with the war-wounded.
To help him accomplish this challenge, he built a horizontal bike because, otherwise, “after all these kilometers, my ass will hurt,” he said.
A 116-kilogram three-wheeled bicycle equipped with solar panels, the contraption can be used as a bed and a tent to sleep anywhere he wants.
“I sleep in my bike, so no one can steal it,” he said.
By using this eco-friendly bike, he wants to promote environmentally-friendly mobility even if it takes longer than expected — a taste for endurance and innovation he got from his years in France’s special forces, he said.
Keeping course
Despite the solar panels, he still needs electricity because he began his trip in winter. It makes travel harder and slower.
Crossing borders is another challenge, especially since countries closed their borders to fight the spread of the coronavirus at the beginning of 2020.
However, he has managed to cross most of Europe’s countries without any trouble. The curiosity of custom officers helped him overcome administrative obstacles.
He plans to pass through the cracks of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, positioning himself as a neutral ambassador of every soldier wounded in battle, whether they fight for Russia or Ukraine.
Overall, he believes his adventure can be a positive symbol of freedom for anyone willing to escape the pandemic and overcome wounds from the past. “Even when you’re blocked, you have to move,” he said, “because movement is life.”
