As he has pedalled around the world, visiting the most inhospitable of places like the South Pole or the Atacama desert, Juan Menendez Granados has seen, time after time on every expedition, that the sensation of danger has never turned against him. Rather than that, it has helped to push him in his challenges astride his bike.

One of the keys to success and personal fulfilment is to have dreams but it’s even more important to fulfil them, and that’s why Juan has a vital motto: “Don’t let anybody tell you that something is impossible”. And it’s not just a matter of not letting them tell you, what you have to say is:  “Well, it hasn’t been done yet”.

Like, for example, when he went to the South Pole, unsupported, on an expedition lasting more than forty days with a thermal sensation as low as 75º below zero, totally on his own. Some tried to dissuade him, but he wouldn’t give up. Far from yielding to the pressure, he set off on the challenge. He didn’t do it to prove others wrong but to prove to himself that he could.

And it’s precisely that attitude which has carried this Asturian across the Australian continent diagonally, over the frozen surface of Lake Baikal, through the Amazonian rainforest, into the arctic zones of Greenland, over the African plains, the Siberian Steppe and the Andean Mountains. On all of these adventures, Juan was scared.

On each and every one of these expeditions, Juan faced real dangers: winds, rain, extreme temperatures, all kinds of illnesses, wild animals, damp and even problems with red-tape. He’s had to deal with psychological fears too, such as loneliness and mental exhaustion.