4,000km Across Europe Rupert Robinson Tackles VIA 2025
When Kinesis Bikes rider Rupert Robinson lined up for the start of VIA 2025, he knew he wasn’t just racing. He was stepping into a story centuries in the making. VIA is more than a race—it’s a 4,000 km odyssey across Europe, built by ultracyclists for ultracyclists, where history and endurance collide on the open road.
This year’s Chapter II of the VIA saga followed Germanicus’ fabled quest to recover Rome’s lost Eagles, tracing a demanding route from the Adriatic Sea in Italy to the storm-lashed shores of the North Sea in the Netherlands. For Rupert, that meant tackling every kind of terrain Europe can throw at him: coastal roads, alpine passes, cobbled city streets, and endless ribbons of farmland tarmac. Unsupported, he will carry everything he needs—no team car, no soigneurs, just grit, strategy, and a bike built to go the distance.
It’s a challenge that plays to Rupert’s strengths. Known for his calm focus and relentless pacing, he thrives when the road is long and the margins razor-thin.
More Than a Race
VIA isn’t just about who crosses the finish line first. It’s about weaving modern endurance into the threads of ancient history. Last year’s Chapter I retraced Hannibal’s legendary crossing of the Alps—a feat that once involved 38 elephants. Riders battled sleet and gradients that seemed carved from another world. Rupert followed that event closely, watching friends and rivals push themselves to the brink, and he knew then he wanted to be part of Chapter II.
The Rider’s Journey
For Rupert, the biggest challenge wasn’t a single climb or moment. It’s the accumulation: hours in the saddle, nights grabbing sleep in bus shelters or roadside inns, the constant mental game of fuelling and pacing. Yet these are also the moments to strip life down to its essentials, where progress is measured by each pedal stroke.
There was to be fierce competition. Each year the VIA attracts some of the strongest ultracyclists on the continent, each one prepared to bury themselves to reach the North Sea first. Rupert relishes that fight. “It’s a race, of course,” he says at the start, “I want to push hard, ride in new countries and get a good finishing position.”
Ride the Road to Greatness
The VIA team calls their mission “Creating Stories of Epic Journeys.” For Rupert Robinson, Chapter II was his turn to write one. From Italy to the Netherlands, across 4,000km of Europe’s most testing terrain, riders discover what greatness looks like—not in a trophy or a medal, but in the miles, the memories, and the community forged along the way.
