When you’re chasing races across a continent, home becomes wherever you park for the night. For Kona Pro Development rider George Kouzis, that meant 130 days living out of his car Skoda Kodiaq, crossing 22 countries, and competing in 11 races from Cyprus to the Alps and beyond. From high-speed XC battles to wild enduro descents, George’s summer on the road was all about chasing points, pushing limits, and seeing just how far two bikes could take him.
I kicked off this crazy trip on May 13th, 2025, flying out of Cyprus and landing in Athens, Greece. That’s where the adventure started: picking up my Škoda Kodiaq, loading up my two Kona bikes (the Hei Hei CR and the Process 153 CR DL) that had arrived by ship, and heading north with an ARKTOS roof tent mounted on top.
With my Kona HeiHei CR DL for all the XC races and the Process 153 for enduro, I rolled through North Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, and into Slovenia. Kamnik was where the racing began, my first XC race, and an 11th-place finish that earned me some UCI points and got the engine started for the season ahead.
From there, it was a long drive through Italy, where I rode legendary trails in Finale Ligure, then onward to France, Spain, and Andorra, where I joined the national team for the Games of the Small States of Europe. I raced both XC and road, landing 5th in the XC and helping the Cyprus team take the overall win.
Lons-le-Saunier in France was a huge highlight, a Hors Class (HC) XC race where I placed 19th among a massive field of super-strong riders. The HeiHei felt amazing on the fast descents and technical sections where carrying speed was everything. But right after that came the big low: a stupid crash, stitches in my knee, and a week hobbling around Chamonix on hiking sticks, just days before the Mountain of Hell.
I decided to race anyway, even though I could barely walk and still had stitches in my knee. The Process 153 was my ride. I qualified 11th and finished 22nd out of nearly a thousand riders. That race was something special, a huge mental and physical wall I managed to break through.
From there, the trip rolled on, the Trans Maurienne marathon in the French Alps, battling through five brutal days of racing while living out of the car. Then it was on to Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Austria, and finally back down through the Balkans. Each race was a new wild experience and brought new people into the story.
In the end, on September 21st, 130 days and nearly 24,000 kilometers later, I was back where I started. I can’t really explain this trip in words. It was crazy. Super thankful to have the right tools for the job, and once again amazed at where bikes have taken me in this life.
