From Peru to Ukraine: 'My motorcycle friends are p*ssed because I spend so much time cycling'

"These days my motorcycle friends are all a bit pissed because I spend so much time cycling," says Neale Bayly.

His whole life has been lived on two wheels. Mostly the petrol-powered variety, but more and more in the past 13 of his 63 years, bicycles.

US-based Brit Bayly is a bona fide action man who has ridden motorbikes and bicycles everywhere, climbed mountains, explored continents and even founded his own charity.

It hasn't quite been 'no looking back' since he found cycling because he's still a big motorcyclist, but as he says about pedal power: "I've just been really, really, really minded that this is the way forward. This is deep cycling. A great community, and you meet really cool people."

While he's done a ton of big bike rides in the US, and in his native Devon, UK, too, it is his cycling in Ukraine and, most recently, Peru, that really stand out.

That latest trip saw him undertake a nine-hour ride up a mountain pass that dwarfed anything found in the Tour de France – and that turned out to be a fair bit more taxing than he'd expected.

"I had no clue I was gonna spend so many hours just climbing, climbing from about 2,400 metres to 4,600 metres," Bayly says. "Non-stop dirt and volcanic ash. So nine hours into it, it started with freezing rain, and then it turned to snow. I'd bitten off more than I could chew."

At that point he had to turn around, he says. But he fully intends to return to the South American nation to try again.

Bayly has a pretty special relationship with Peru, which he has been exploring extensively on various forms of two wheels for the past 45-odd years. It was fairly early into that discovery that he made the acquaintance of Father Giovanni Battaglini, and learned about his work in support of homeless children around the country.

It was some years later, after Battaglini's death, that Bayly set up Wellspring International Outreach with Battaglini's sister Maria, to carry on the priest's work.

While Bayly was already an accomplished explorer, the work with his charity would set him on a new adventure altogether, one which saw him take on projects not just in Peru but in Kenya and South Africa too, and most recently Ukraine where, he says, riding a bicycle helped him to really feel into the soul of the country, and the effects of the ongoing war with Russia.

"I've gone through Ukraine by car," he says, "but suddenly, being on a bicycle, with every sound and every sight and every road imperfection… suddenly everything's slowing down and you're watching the pattern of life."

Bayly explored Kyiv and its environs on a big road bike ride with one of Ukraine's recent national triathlon champions.

"We went through Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, where there was a lot of destruction in 2022. So a lot of that has been repaired now," says Bayly.

"You would think it was [any] cycling group out training, which it is. They're still going on with their lives, which I think is hard for people to understand."

But, he adds, there's never room for complacency: "The thing with the threat is it could be anywhere, anytime. Putin has taken out markets in very small towns all around Ukraine, so you never have a sense that 'I'm OK'."

It's a country, Bayly says, where the highs are as high as the lows are low, and the ravages of war are never far away.

"If you imagine life as a musical score of notes, when you go to Ukraine, you hit higher highs and lower lows," he says. "It's just so extreme. So for instance, when we were into the business district looking at these blown up buildings, and then we go around the corner and there's the children's hospital, with all these little stuffed animals that represent the lives of children killed… you're in the depths.

"But prior to that," he continues, " coming in with the trees and the people, and you smell someone's perfume, or some gas coming out the back of a Russian car… I've never felt so absorbed into Ukrainian life."

His work there has included helping to deliver Land Rovers and medical supplies to the country, building a children's centre and securing donations.

With his journalism, motorcycling and charity work, Bayly has plenty on his plate. But that doesn't stop him finding time to enjoy time in the saddle.

In fact, he seems to be determined to make up for lost time after his late start in the sport.

"I never neglect my training," he says. "I've got to be ready for my next mad idea."

And Bayly, as you've probably gathered by now, is a man with plenty of ideas – some of them, admittedly, pretty mad.

The Tour of the Dragon, for example: "It's in Bhutan, it's 168 miles with 15,000 feet of climbing. They say it's the toughest single-day mountain bike race in the world.

"Because why not?" he jokes. "Some old dude with no experience... let's go race that one!"

But whatever type of riding Bayly is doing, it's clear that he loves it. As he says: "I'm 63, I've broken literally every bone in my body crashing motorcycles. I've got bolts and pins and screws all over. But because of cycling, I'm extending my life. It's allowing me greater opportunities, because I'm fitter and healthier."

And in a world where the 'controllables' seem to be ever diminishing, this is one worth cherishing, he points out: "I think one of the things I really enjoy about it is that so much of our life is not in our control – waiting for an assignment, waiting for an airplane, waiting for someone to return emails, waiting in traffic. But when you're on the bicycle and you're taking on a challenge, it's 100% up to you."