They reach South Korea by bike to benefit the fight against cancer and make a documentary about it

This Tuesday, May 28, 2024, “La Cyclodyssée”, an adventure documentary on the journey of three Picards was screened in Soissons. An outcome for Pierre Lesourd, one of the three adventurers and resident of the Axon town. This film completes a new stage in a project dating back to 2022 and comprising several goals.

At the end of 2022, with Florian Coupé and Antonin Savoye, Soissonnais Pierre Lesourd was preparing to cross Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia by bike. With his two Axon acolytes, he wanted to join the largest international scout meeting in the world, in August 2023. But also to raise funds to advance research in the fight against cancer, via the Imagine For Margo association, after the disappearance of Mathis, one of their scout friends, who died of cancer.

A little less than a year after the end of their adventure, the trio transformed into a quartet. An editor joined the group to produce a documentary of their journey. The first screening took place this Tuesday, May 28, in Soissons, Pierre’s hometown. “It was super moving, it was a great moment. The feedback has been very positive.”

He thinks “more than 2 000 people” lhe number of spectators who attended the three screenings scheduled for the day: at the Enfant-Jésus school and at the Saint-Paul college of the Saint-Rémy school association. Then to a third session open to the public, in the evening, at the Cité de la musique et de la danse (CMD).

The film retraces the three men’s seven-month journey. Reached by telephone, Pierre Lesourd lists numerous memories. During the first part of their excursion, in Europe, “we slept every night with the scout groups. Whether in scout premises or among scouts. It was incredible. We were really lucky. People were very happy to welcome us. We arrived at their house, we talked about the project.“

After crossing Europe, the trio encountered their first difficulty when arriving in the Caucasus. Return to Azerbaijan by land. “Something we couldn’t do. We took a plane from Tbilisi to Baku. And we took a bus from Baku to the Georgian border to cross the entire country“, tells the Axonais.

At the rate of 80 to 100 kilometers per day, they progressed towards Central Asia. In Kazakhstan, “we had the essential meeting which allowed us to go to the end” of the project. Close to the Russian border, Pierre and his two friends found themselves faced with a refusal of a Russian visa to go to Mongolia. It was at this moment “stress and tension between us, that we received help from Stanislav and Yelena.” The Kazakh family helped them complete the paperwork for a transit visa. “They took care of us“, says the Soissonnais. “We went on a trek in Altai together. We were very lucky to receive so much.“

We saw that there was enthusiasm among the scouts, that there was enthusiasm among the people. And then we said to ourselves: we’re going to film.

Pierre Lesourd

One of the three adventurers of “The Cyclodyssey”

During this episode, the idea of ​​the documentary There Cyclodyssey had already emerged for several weeks. During their crossing in Serbia in the Djerdap park. “We saw that there was enthusiasm among the scouts, that there was enthusiasm among the people. And then we said to ourselves: we’re going to film“.

Capturing their adventure was an opportunity to send messages. Among them, that of “take his time” And “show that anyone can do it“. Pierre testifies that there were two of them “real beginners. I hadn’t done any cycling trips before.“Actions that he thought were complex, namely cycling from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., packing and unpacking the tent, preparing food, have become habits.”The hardest part is the first two weeks“, while the body gets used to this new rhythm.

Through this experience, they spent several months writing a script. They secured the services of an editor thanks to a crowdfunding campaign. We raised close to 6,000 euros.”for the editor and musician“.

Pierre speaks of this phase of the project as “a new adventure“. They encountered the difficulties of realization: “what are we going to say? What are we going to choose?“, depending on their image resources.”We started editing at the beginning of February until May 27, the day before the documentary was broadcast. We really talked about what happened: our moments of doubt, when we cycled against the climate. But the message we give is that despite our arguments and our doubts, we got to the end.“The first “positive” feedback mainly focused on questions about surpassing oneself.

The Axonais admits that the documentary is not yet finished. In fact, they want to produce a final result of less than an hour in order to meet the criteria of certain adventure documentary festivals. In particular, they have in mind to send their film to the Écrans de l’aventure in Dijon.

Born almost two years ago, their project is far from finished. They plan to release a book about their escapade in the coming months. Finally, one of their main goals, in addition to disseminating it to as many people as possible, is to share it with as many scout associations in the world.