by Dara Poon
Balkans, April–May 2025
15 routes
130:53
1,537km
19,670m
As I’ve gotten into cycling over the past few years, I’ve been thinking that someday I’d do a cycling tour of the Balkans, because I’ve heard good things about cycling there. When I saw the announcement that Lael Wilcox would be leading a Komoot Women’s Rally in Montenegro, I put in an application and started preparing! komoot.com/collection/3283575
This trip was a challenge to plan for!
First, how would I get into and out of Montenegro? After considering my options, I decided on flying to Ljubljana (Slovenia) and riding to the Podgorica start point:
- The two airports in the country (Podgorica and Tivat) are served by regional airlines. Flying from Vancouver to Podgorica would involve at least two transfers and two airlines — risky! I can fly Vancouver → Heathrow → Ljubljana entirely on British Airways, who will transport a bike, counting against your baggage allowance, for no extra charge.
- If I’m going all the way to Europe, I’d like to get my money’s worth out of the trip and see more of the Balkans.
- Riding multiple days carrying luggage is great training to prepare for an intensive event.
- Arriving a week in advance would give me time to adjust to jet lag. I’d also get to take advantage of my Good Friday – Easter Monday holidays.
- After the event, I’m fine with flying out of Podgorica and taking the risk of a self-booked flight connection in Zürich — an airport small enough to be contained in one terminal — and letting British Airways handle the Heathrow transfer.
The plan to ride from Ljubljana to Podgorica worked out wonderfully. I got to explore and compare multiple countries. A tire puncture during that ride exposed a weakness with my setup, and I got an opportunity to fix it before the main event. The scenery was beautiful all along the way, and the entire experience was delightful. Would do again!
Deciding what to bring was tricky too!
- For a gravel route with a huge amount of elevation, travelling light would be desirable.
- We had been advised that a mountain bike would be ideal for the rally route, but it’s possible on a gravel bike. I wouldn’t want to ride from Ljubljana with a mountain bike (nor do I have one), so I’d have to make do with a gravel bike.
- The weather is unpredictable during this shoulder season. There could be anything from rain and snow in the mountains of Montenegro up to 35 ℃ full sun on the coast. Some rally participants were even talking about camping out in near-freezing temperatures.
In the end, I actually did bring clothes and camping gear to cover the entire range of conditions comfortably, because I wouldn’t want to have to abandon due to weather. That worked, but carrying so much stuff on a supensionless bike over gravel meant a very harsh and strenuous ride. My bike reached a breaking point — literally — on KWMMR day 4.
One last goal I set for myself was to learn a bit of Serbo-Croatian — my first Slavic language — in advance:
- Social interactions go better when people see that you are making an effort to meet their culture halfway.
- We would be venturing beyond major cities and touristy destinations, so I wasn’t sure how much English would be spoken.
- One of the delights of travelling in Europe is experiencing unease due to language barriers and having to puzzle things out. Using English defeats the novelty.
- Serbo-Croatian has three grammatical genders, seven cases, and singular+paucal+plural. You can’t learn that by memorizing a table of rules. If I start off with some base knowledge, I’d have two weeks of immersion to learn as I go.
I kind of stressed myself out by trying to learn a language in two months, especially since I felt I had lost two weeks of that while vacationing in Hong Kong and Taiwan (komoot.com/collection/3373519). I had to remind myself to set realistic expectations: I’ll never be fluent and I won’t remember everything, so whatever I have learned on the day I leave is what I have to work with. I am extremely pleased with myself for having put in the effort due to how well it worked out, though! I tried to start every conversation in Serbo-Croatian, often feeling like an idiot when I didn’t understand peoples’ responses, but I gradually improved over the two weeks. Almost everyone I interacted with did know English, but my rudimentary language skills were very useful when I needed them! The most memorable occasion was at the end of KWMMR day 1, when I encountered three men who introduced me to a woman who let me stay in her house overnight — none of them spoke English — and I got to have some meaningful conversation with my very kind host. I also have a funny story (KWMMR epilogue) about a taxi driver who reconsidered charging me extra for transporting my bike after I switched our small talk to Montenegrin.
—
The rally itself has been the most rewarding biking experience ever. About sixty women came together and instantly started trusting each other and sharing rooms, tools, expertise, and ideas.
The route that Bea plotted was challenging beyond my imagination. We had a long hike-a-bike segment with +22% gradient on rough terrain. We encountered snow on the ground. Mud. Streams. Grassy meadows with no actual path. Busy narrow highways with active construction. It’s fair to say that we got a representative sample of the entire country. Lael herself confirmed that of the nine Komoot Women’s Rallies, this route was the toughest. I consider myself a reasonably skillful rider in pretty fit condition. I have no idea how people with less experience managed to do it. Every single participant who did this route — any variation of it — is badass in their own way.
Knowing my preference for asphalt over rough gravel, and recognizing the limits of my suspensionless gravel bike, I often took the easy way out by choosing paved alternatives to Bea’s route. I think that that is entirely reasonable, and should even be encouraged, if you aren’t a bushwhacking mountain biker who wants to ride the most challenging wilderness route possible. After all, the main purpose of the route is to guide a consensus to maximize potential interactions with other rally participants. Nevertheless, even to the last day, I couldn’t help being tempted to challenge myself with the gravel route despite being underbiked.
In summary, this trip was a lot of work to prepare for. It was a fun but long ride to get to the starting point. The rally itself was a huge challenge and a bonding experience for everyone. I think I can say, without exaggeration, that it has been the most intense and rewarding two weeks of my life.
(Cross-posted to Strava strava.com/athletes/104219485/posts/36763445 )
This trip was a challenge to plan for!
First, how would I get into and out of Montenegro? After considering my options, I decided on flying to Ljubljana (Slovenia) and riding to the Podgorica start point:
- The two airports in the country (Podgorica and Tivat) are served by regional airlines. Flying from Vancouver to Podgorica would involve at least two transfers and two airlines — risky! I can fly Vancouver → Heathrow → Ljubljana entirely on British Airways, who will transport a bike, counting against your baggage allowance, for no extra charge.
- If I’m going all the way to Europe, I’d like to get my money’s worth out of the trip and see more of the Balkans.
- Riding multiple days carrying luggage is great training to prepare for an intensive event.
- Arriving a week in advance would give me time to adjust to jet lag. I’d also get to take advantage of my Good Friday – Easter Monday holidays.
- After the event, I’m fine with flying out of Podgorica and taking the risk of a self-booked flight connection in Zürich — an airport small enough to be contained in one terminal — and letting British Airways handle the Heathrow transfer.
The plan to ride from Ljubljana to Podgorica worked out wonderfully. I got to explore and compare multiple countries. A tire puncture during that ride exposed a weakness with my setup, and I got an opportunity to fix it before the main event. The scenery was beautiful all along the way, and the entire experience was delightful. Would do again!
Deciding what to bring was tricky too!
- For a gravel route with a huge amount of elevation, travelling light would be desirable.
- We had been advised that a mountain bike would be ideal for the rally route, but it’s possible on a gravel bike. I wouldn’t want to ride from Ljubljana with a mountain bike (nor do I have one), so I’d have to make do with a gravel bike.
- The weather is unpredictable during this shoulder season. There could be anything from rain and snow in the mountains of Montenegro up to 35 ℃ full sun on the coast. Some rally participants were even talking about camping out in near-freezing temperatures.
In the end, I actually did bring clothes and camping gear to cover the entire range of conditions comfortably, because I wouldn’t want to have to abandon due to weather. That worked, but carrying so much stuff on a supensionless bike over gravel meant a very harsh and strenuous ride. My bike reached a breaking point — literally — on KWMMR day 4.
One last goal I set for myself was to learn a bit of Serbo-Croatian — my first Slavic language — in advance:
- Social interactions go better when people see that you are making an effort to meet their culture halfway.
- We would be venturing beyond major cities and touristy destinations, so I wasn’t sure how much English would be spoken.
- One of the delights of travelling in Europe is experiencing unease due to language barriers and having to puzzle things out. Using English defeats the novelty.
- Serbo-Croatian has three grammatical genders, seven cases, and singular+paucal+plural. You can’t learn that by memorizing a table of rules. If I start off with some base knowledge, I’d have two weeks of immersion to learn as I go.
I kind of stressed myself out by trying to learn a language in two months, especially since I felt I had lost two weeks of that while vacationing in Hong Kong and Taiwan (komoot.com/collection/3373519). I had to remind myself to set realistic expectations: I’ll never be fluent and I won’t remember everything, so whatever I have learned on the day I leave is what I have to work with. I am extremely pleased with myself for having put in the effort due to how well it worked out, though! I tried to start every conversation in Serbo-Croatian, often feeling like an idiot when I didn’t understand peoples’ responses, but I gradually improved over the two weeks. Almost everyone I interacted with did know English, but my rudimentary language skills were very useful when I needed them! The most memorable occasion was at the end of KWMMR day 1, when I encountered three men who introduced me to a woman who let me stay in her house overnight — none of them spoke English — and I got to have some meaningful conversation with my very kind host. I also have a funny story (KWMMR epilogue) about a taxi driver who reconsidered charging me extra for transporting my bike after I switched our small talk to Montenegrin.
—
The rally itself has been the most rewarding biking experience ever. About sixty women came together and instantly started trusting each other and sharing rooms, tools, expertise, and ideas.
The route that Bea plotted was challenging beyond my imagination. We had a long hike-a-bike segment with +22% gradient on rough terrain. We encountered snow on the ground. Mud. Streams. Grassy meadows with no actual path. Busy narrow highways with active construction. It’s fair to say that we got a representative sample of the entire country. Lael herself confirmed that of the nine Komoot Women’s Rallies, this route was the toughest. I consider myself a reasonably skillful rider in pretty fit condition. I have no idea how people with less experience managed to do it. Every single participant who did this route — any variation of it — is badass in their own way.
Knowing my preference for asphalt over rough gravel, and recognizing the limits of my suspensionless gravel bike, I often took the easy way out by choosing paved alternatives to Bea’s route. I think that that is entirely reasonable, and should even be encouraged, if you aren’t a bushwhacking mountain biker who wants to ride the most challenging wilderness route possible. After all, the main purpose of the route is to guide a consensus to maximize potential interactions with other rally participants. Nevertheless, even to the last day, I couldn’t help being tempted to challenge myself with the gravel route despite being underbiked.
In summary, this trip was a lot of work to prepare for. It was a fun but long ride to get to the starting point. The rally itself was a huge challenge and a bonding experience for everyone. I think I can say, without exaggeration, that it has been the most intense and rewarding two weeks of my life.
(Cross-posted to Strava strava.com/athletes/104219485/posts/36763445 )
Visibility:
Anyone
Activities
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10:33
1,550m
1,850m
103km
10:18
1,300m
1,020m
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13:22
1,860m
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1,250m
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1,950m
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Collection Stats
Activities
15
Distance
1,537 km
Duration
130:53 h
Elevation
19,670 m
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