Interviewed by Matthieu Belliard, on Europe 1, this former professional cyclist is about to cross six different deserts by bike, in just six months, to denounce the effects of global warming.

INTERVIEW

The "project 666" is not only a horror film but also a challenge that adventurer Stéven Le Hyaric, a former professional cyclist, has launched. Its goal is to cycle through six deserts, sand or ice, on six continents in six months to warn about the dangers of desertification. Leaving Place du Trocadero in Paris on March 15th, he arrived in Dakar, Senegal on Wednesday, a journey of 5,600 kilometers ... in two wheels and with the strength of the legs.

"Today, we have to show that we can still react.I have been exposed for 20 days to a heat that was growing.I went up a little over 45 degrees in Mauritania, in total solitude I was not far from Hell, "he reports to Matthieu Belliard, in The Big Evening Newspaper on Europe 1, when he has just completed his crossing of the Sahara.

"I ate what I found [...] I had passages where I had no water for 200 km with only two liters of water on my bike.We must ration, manage, do not drink a lot, "explains this sportsman. Stéven's approach The Hyaric aims to "show the world of tomorrow, to show desertification, to show a man in ruthless worlds".

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Alone in the face of nature

However, the first trip of the cyclist, from Paris to Dakar, was only an appetizer. The "666 Project" will begin with the crossing of the Atacama Desert in Chile, followed by the Gobi Desert and the frozen expanses of the Arctic and Antarctic. The idea is to "put wheels on universes that are not made for a bike, and absolutely not for a human," says the cyclist. "There will still be a desert, which is one of the most hostile in the world in animal terms: the Gibson desert in Australia.There is a snake every ten square meters there," said Stéven Le Hyaric. "Then I will return to Africa for a crossing of the Kalahari Desert to that of Namib."

The crossing of frozen deserts, at the South Pole and at the North Pole, must in particular enable it to point to the melting of ice, a consequence of global warming. "If I can not ride, it will show that it is too hot [...] If there is a real melting of ice, I should carry my bike or push it with skis ... [...] Nature will decide. "

The initiative of the cyclist was greeted by many inhabitants of the regions crossed. © Erisphere

While the hardest remains to be done, Stéven Le Hyaric does not hide his emotion in front of the craze already caused by his initiative in the first regions traveled. "I am a little upset last night, I had a crazy party from the local population [in Dakar, ed ] I did not expect that," he says. "I was expecting a reception committee, but not a hundred people who parade around me like this after 20 days of loneliness." What to hope for a beautiful mobilization around this crazy challenge.