Disabled from France cycled 17 thousand km from Brest to Almaty

French cyclist Vincent Bernard, 30, managed to cycle 17 thousand km from Brest (Belarus) to Almaty (Kazakhstan). His final destination is Nepal, where Bernard is planning to arrive in four months, Tengrinews.kz reports. Bernard survived a respiratory tract cancer and a surgery. After that he was fond of alpinism, but fell down from 80 meters and slipped into a coma. After treatment he switched to a bike but soon received head trauma and survived the second coma. Then he decided to cycle. He has been cycling for around a year and already traveled to 15 countries. Almaty is the first city in Kazakhstan where the French traveler stopped. According to Bernard, he met a lot of kind people who helped him with food, drinks, accommodation. “I met a person in Almaty who helped me to replace some part on my bike,” he said. My bike costs around 700 Euro and I changed the tires twice, in Iran and Uzbekistan.” There were some troubles too. Some hooligans cut brake cables on Bernard’s bike. And a car hit him at the pedestrian crossing in Uzbekistan. The wound on his leg still has not healed completely. According to the traveler, he got sick twice – in Iran and Uzbekistan. He has four small bags for clothes, medications, tools and personal stuff. "I have treated myself, I have all the necessary medications on me,” he said. Bernard also told that the doctors who treated his cancer told him about avoiding physical loads. “But I started feeling better with the bike. I enjoy communicating with people.” "I am planning to cycle across Kazakhstan steppes, but I don’t know which city I will stay in. The I will head to Chinese Urumqi, which is not very far from Nepal,” Bernard said. The cyclist who survived the disease and two comas will hold a meeting with disabled people of Almaty on July 5. By Roza Yessenkulova