Minnesota cyclist flees Iran amid airstrikes during seven-continent journey

A Minnesota man with a dream of cycling across all seven continents was forced to come up with alternative plans after Israel launched a barrage of air strikes on Iran’s military leaders and nuclear facilities, close to where he was riding.

The Associated Press said 32-year-old Ian Andersen of Minnetonka, Minnesota did not plan to get stuck in a real war zone, so he rode to neighboring Azerbaijan on Monday.

“The bombs started falling,” Andersen told the wire service on Wednesday, while speaking on Zoom from a hotel in Baku. “It was extremely scary.”

Andersen was touring through Iran as part of a yearslong mission to ride his bike across all seven continents. While in Iran, Andersen had a local guide, and he had shared videos of his adventure with tens of thousands of followers on social media, since the beginning of June.

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“The day the bombs started falling” was Friday, and Andersen and his guide were heading south along the Caspian Sea coast, from Chalus toward the capital of Tehran.

Andersen had reportedly hoped to apply for a visa to Afghanistan in Tehran, with ambitions of crossing into Central Asia and onto Russia.

“It was really just, like, the worst timing possible,” he told the AP.

Once the bombs started falling, Andersen and his guide sheltered in place and spoke Spanish to avoid people suspecting he was from the U.S.

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He also said he saw long lines of vehicles fleeing Tehran, and at the same time, his own family, friends and social media followers had concerns for his safety.

The U.S. State Department notified Andersen in an email that he should leave for Azerbaijan or Turkey.

A friend of Andersen’s in Los Angeles applied for a visa to Azerbaijan on his behalf, which was ultimately granted by the U.S. Embassy in Baku.

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Biking, Andersen said, was his dream and escape, and in the past, he had struggled with addiction and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

And while his dream of cycling the seven continents may have hit a speed bump, he has no regrets from going on the journey.

The bombs in Iran were not his only brush with death. In fact, he said he was in northern Kenya in 2023 when a tribesman threatened to chuck a spear at him while biking through a rural area.

“There’s always going to be risk, and you have to accept it,” he said.

Now that he is out of Iran, Andersen said he is planning to ferry across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan, then head east into Uzbekistan. But from there, Andersen said he does not know where to go.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.