Many people look forward to watching their heroes play at the World Cup and will plan their holidays around either going to the tournament or being able to watch it on TV. Super fan Clifin Francis took it to a whole new level when he decided he would cycle from southern India to Russia to be at the World Cup.
When he looked at the cost of flights, he thought that he would have to watch from home, as they were far too expensive for him to buy with his modest freelance Maths teacher salary. So he decided that he would get to the World Cup by cycling the majority of the distance instead.
The start of the epic journey
Inspiration Cycle journey by an Indian
There is hope for me#chalnikalpade #cycling #messi #Agentina #India#worldcup2018 #football #fitness #inspirationhttps://t.co/GTwcT3OAzi https://t.co/GTwcT3OAzi— ExploreAdventurously || Rejuvenate🇮🇳 (@chalnikalpade) June 21, 2018
Starting back in February, he flew to Dubai and took a ferry to Iran. He had 2,600 miles left on his journey and bought a bike for $700 – at this point you might wonder why he did not just use that money for flight tickets! Anyway, it was considerably more fun to cycle there and spend several months on the journey, so we’ll brush over that detail.
Forrest Gump on wheels
Whilst in Iran he found that the people were incredibly friendly and invited him to stay at their home rather than pay expensive hotel charges. As his Forrest Gump-like mission progressed, he lost considerable amounts of weight and this meant he struggled to get verified by the border police. He has now made it as far as Tambov and has another 460km to go before he reaches Moscow.
His footballing hero is Messi but he only managed to get tickets for the France vs. Denmark game on 26 June. We are all hoping that he makes it on time or else that is one big cycling trip for no reason and he may have missed quite a few of the games so far!
