Before getting you to follow NorthCape4000 live, I want to start this post with something a little honest and a little vulnerable, because I think it matters: this is the post that felt hardest to write.
It’s hard to ask people to follow NorthCape4000 live along, to invest their attention, to care about a dot moving slowly north on a map across several weeks… that requires me to say, out loud, that this journey means something to me. That I want witnesses to it. That it’s not purely a private project I’m undertaking in confident solitude.
The truth is, solo unsupported cycling is one of the loneliest things I’ve ever done in training, and the actual event will be significantly lonelier. The support of people following along — engaging on instagram, watching the dot, sending a message, leaving a comment — is not decorative to this project. It’s genuinely part of how I’ll sustain it.
So: here’s how to follow NorthCape4000 live, and here’s why I’m asking you to.
The Live Tracker
NorthCape4000 runs an official live tracking system for all registered riders. This means that from July 30th onward, you’ll be able to follow NorthCape4000 live and see exactly where I am on the route, in real time, from anywhere with an internet connection. If you want to follow NorthCape4000 live, read carefully.
The tracker shows a dot. The dot is me. The dot moves north, slowly, across approximately 3,000 kilometers of Europe.
What you can do with the tracker:
Watch the dot in real time, especially on harder sections where you know the terrain.
Check my position relative to the route to understand what section I’m riding through.
Notice when the dot isn’t moving (sleep, rest, mechanical issue, or — let’s be honest — a bakery that demanded more time than planned).
https://www.whip.live/event-tracking/NC4R26
The tracker is the most direct, most real-time way to follow NorthCape4000 live. If you’re someone who prefers watching to reading, this is your version of following along.
If you want to follow NorthCape4000 live, I’ll be posting, hopefully every single day of the event on my account @whitesocks_nika on Instagram — daily updates, real photos, honest accounts of how it’s actually going rather than the highlight-reel version.
What this means in practice:
Some days the post will be beautiful. Mountain passes at golden hour, the specific quality of evening light that only happens in Scandinavia, the rare moment where everything aligns and I remember clearly why I’m doing this.
Some days the post will be honest. Rain-soaked roads, 6am faces, the particular expression of someone who has been awake longer than is advisable and is still pedaling. The days that are hard but productive. The days that are simply hard.
Some days I’ll ask a question or share a specific moment that I want to remember past the ride itself — small things, not heroic things, that accumulate into the real texture of a journey like this.
Ko-fi: Supporting the Journey Financially
This project is self-funded — there’s no organizational budget behind it, and the costs of an event like this (registration, gear, travel to the start, accommodation across the route) are real and sustained. If you want to support the journey financially, Ko-fi is where to do it.
You can support my ride by clicking HERE.
What Ko-fi is: A simple platform for one-off or recurring supporter donations. You can contribute a small amount — literally the equivalent of buying me a coffee on the road — or more if you want to. There’s no subscription, no obligation, no complicated system. You can donate once, or donate every time the dot moves past a country border, or any other framework that makes sense to you.
What the money actually goes toward:
Accommodation along the route — the guesthouses, campsites, and B&B’s.
Emergency mechanical support — the bike shop visit in a town I didn’t plan to stop in, for a part I needed and couldn’t have predicted.
Coffee and food along the route — I will cheer to you.
Important: the Ko-fi is NOT essential to completing the route — I’ve budgeted for this. But every contribution makes the logistics slightly less tight, and more than that, it represents real support from real people who wanted the journey to happen. That matters in a way that’s harder to quantify than a budget line.
If you can, I’d love the support. If you can’t, following along and the occasional comment is worth more than it might seem.
What your attention actually means out there
I want to be honest about this part, because I think it’s the part that’s hardest to say.
FOR ME: Riding unsupported and solo across 3,000km means spending a significant percentage of each day with no one to talk to, no feedback, and no immediate way of knowing whether the thing you’re going through is normal or worth worrying about. It’s one of the specific qualities of unsupported ultra-distance events that makes them genuinely hard in ways that have nothing to do with fitness — the sustained loneliness of it, the absence of witnesses, the days that blur into each other with no external marker of “someone saw this day and it counted.”
The tracker, the Instagram, the Ko-fi, the comments — they’re not just logistics. They’re a thread back to the real world, to people who know what I’m attempting and are watching it happen. That thread matters. Several times in training, on hard days far from home, I’ve thought about the people following this project and it’s changed what I did next. Not because I’m performing for them, but because knowing that people care whether you continue is its own form of fuel.
So: if you follow, know that I’ll feel it. If you comment or send a message, I’ll read it. If you donate even the smallest amount, I’ll notice. And on whatever day somewhere north of here that turns out to be the hardest one — the day I sit on a bench and seriously consider whether to continue — I’ll be drawing on all of it.
FOR OTHER WOMEN: I’ve been encouraged by my female friends, by their friends that seem to have noticed me but haven’t approached me yet, to start talking about it more. Seeing people that I don’t even know, being inspired by what I do is SUPER WEIRD but also EXTREMELY nice. So putting aside my ego, my constant need to do everything alone, to be alone, to keep things to myself because I think people will assume I was weird, I came to an epifany. I need to talk about it so that I can inspire more women to achieve their goals, no matter what others think.
FOR THE CYCLING COMMUNITY: Hating on cyclist has become a trend these days. Seeing someone do this distance, talk about it and admit to their failures as well as cheering on others, will hopefully give those people some insight as to why we cycle. It’s not to pissoff cardrivers, it’s to live our passion and live is safely. Getting my story out there, might help that driver think twise before passing and honking at you on the road.
The Summary, For the Easily Distracted
Tracker: follow NorthCape4000 live from July 30th — link coming to Instagram on the day
Instagram: @whitesocks_nika — follow, turn on notifications, daily posts from the road
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/whitesocksnika — support the journey if you wish
A Final Note Before July 30th
When I registered for NorthCape4000 in November, I did it before I’d told anyone I was planning to. The click happened, and then the tab closed, and then I sat in my office for a while with the quiet, specific feeling of having done something you can’t un-do.
Several funny posts later, with training done and gear packed and a bike sitting in my hallway again the feeling is less quiet but not entirely different. It’s still, at its core, the feeling of having committed to something before knowing for certain you could deliver it.
Thank you for being part of it. For reading the whole arc, from “I clicked register” to “here’s the tracker link.” For whatever version of following along you’re able to do.
The dot starts moving July 30th.
I’ll see you on the other side of it.
This was the final post in the NorthCape4000 preparation series.
Read the full series:
→ Post 1: Why I Decided to Do This
→ Post 2: Mental Preparation
→ Post 3: The Training
→ Post 4: Gear Preparation
→ Post 5: My Complete Setup
→ Post 6: The Schedule from Berlin
→ Post 7: How to Follow Me (you are here)
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