Active cycling in Europe in Greece in Mykonos with best local team

OUR TEAM

For many years our team has been active in adventure travel, from sailing ventures in the Dodecanese and Cyclades to multi-sports in Crete. In 2004 we developed an exclusive division just for cycling and gave it the perfect name: CycleGreece.

CycleGreece was created to honor Greece.The emphasis is on the land of Greece, not our company. Our team of Greeks and non-Greeks, all residing in Greece, recognize the immense value of this historic terrain. We are trying in a humble way to introduce the global cycling community to this country and make it aware of its beauty and need for preservation as one of the most treasured monuments of human achievement.

For us cycling is a way of life woven into our daily reality. Greece has provided us with a glorious venue to commit ourselves to spreading the culture of cycling. By combining our cycling expertise with our Greece expertise and sharing it with our guests, we reap rewards by witnessing their joy discovering Greece in slow motion.

Company Founders

Yiannis Skevis, Co-Founder, President

Yiannis’ family roots lie deep within two of Greece’s regions that produce such wondrous mythology: Delphi and Sparta. Yiannis spent his early years close to nature in the mountain ranges surrounding his birthplace. He emigrated to the US at an early age, and grew up trans-Atlantic style, spending time between Nevada and Greece.

Yiannis’ outdoor activities include swimming, mountaineering, road biking, soccer, skiing, sailing, tennis, and scuba diving where he is PADI certified. He has a special talent to build traditional wooden sailing boats. His most recent creation is the 82 foot Apollon he handcrafted from fine African wood. Yianni has completed his Master Yachtsman license to sail commercial yachts.
Colleen McGuire, Co-Founder, Managing Director

Dividing her residence between New York and Greece comes natural to Colleen who is an adventurous world traveler.

Colleen has visited over 90 countries, accumulating such spectacular memories as cycling the Ho Chi Minh trail in Vietnam, stumbling on a circumcision ceremony in Timbuktu, chewing qat with women in Yemen, undergoing a spiritual journey with an Amazon shaman, sleeping in abandoned slave castles in Ghana and working with wild desert elephants in Namibia. Greece is one of her top five favorite countries.

Colleen’s second passion is cycling. In 1997, she bicycled by herself from New York City to San Francisco, 3,765 miles, carrying all her gear: tent, sleeping bag, camping stove, food, tools, the basics.

After graduating from law school in New Orleans, for sixteen years Colleen ran her own housing rights law firm in New York City. And then Greece called . . .

Visit Colleen’s blog.

The Team

Panayioti “Pete” Sarris, Field Director

Pete is a perfectionist. When it comes to bicycles, he is fanatic that each bike be in top condition and precisely adjusted for each rider’s needs.

Pete has a passion for cycling, road or mountain bike, often carrying his gear to camp out deep in some of Greece’s more remote nature spots. He is also a skilled painter, be it church icons or abstract art featuring boats and bicycles. Pete teaches painting to children with special needs.

His daughter Zoe was born May, 2014 and Pete has already prepared his bike to enable her to ride with him.
Mary Voit, Media Developer & Guide

Mary’s full name is Maria Voitovich, and she is from Belarus. She has not lived in her home country since 2005 at which time she took residence in Greece where she studied music and communication in American College of Greece.

Mary has the ability to simultaneously perform her two favorite hobbies, road cycling and photography. She speeds ahead and then captures action shots of the clients as they come along.She loves cycling long distances and participates in brevets.

Mary also composes original music with the piano, and has also studied the harp. Mary’s seemingly inexhaustible creativity can also be found in the kitchen.
Vangelis Petroulakis, Bike Coach and Guide
Vangeli began bike racing in the 1980s and eventually became a national champion as a member of the Greece road cycling national team. He also competes internationally. He co-owned a bike store in Piraeus which focused on racing.
In 2012, Vangeli won the journalists’ world cycling championship (WPCC) in his category, and is still a member of its international committee. His cycling writings have been published in many European magazines and he was the first cycling commentator of Greek EUROSPORT.
As a development manager for “Sports Tours Hellas,” Vangeli conducted international cycling races, created training camps and promoted cycle tours. He also contributed to the success of the UCI World Cycling Tour (UWCT) 2013-2015.
By late 2017, Vangeli has cycled more than 1,200,000 kilometers!
Gerasimo Maloutas – Bike Guide Extraordinaire

If Gerasimo could be reborn as another entity, he would come to Earth as a bicycle. Bicycles are in his DNA. He currently owns eighteen bicycles.

For years Gerasimo has commuted to work daily, rain or shine, winter cold or summer heat. Here’s the kicker: his route is 50 kilometers round trip with an ascent going home of 1197 feet (365 meters).

Long distance touring with minimal panniers is Gerasimo’s passion. He has cycled such routes as Geneva to Venice (800 km), Stuttgart to Venice (1200 km), London to Athens (2800 km) and Gibraltar to Athens (3200 km). He has also cycled the annual Spartakiada 27 times – Athens to Sparta, 250 km in one day
Michalis Farantakis

Michalis Farantakis, Exceptional Guide & Coach

Michalis Farantakis from Hania, Crete is a cyclist par excellence. He owed a bike shop for twenty-five years and that is how he became intimate with the mechanics of the bicycle. A rider is left breathless watching him change a flat tire in barely two minutes. When Michalis leads a CycleGreece tour, the cyclists call him “Coach” because he is – drum roll, please — the head coach of Greece’s National Cycling Team with a UCI Level 3 diploma. When not cycling Michalis teaches physical education.
Fotis Antonopolos, Driver

“All around athlete” is the best description for Foti. His first love is running. He has completed over thirty marathons and at least five ultra-marathons. He also is a hiker and rock climber. Foti is a road cyclist and mountain biker participating in many brevets, and is a skilled bike mechanic.
Stelios Farandakis

Stylianos “Stelios” Farantakis, World Class Cyclist

Stelios Farantakis grew up in Hania, Crete. From his parents, he developed a deep appreciation for traditional Cretan history and culture. When Stelios was 18 years old he relocated to France to pursue his dream of becoming a professional cyclist. Stelios was a Greek champion twice in the elite category and 5th in European championships. In 2020, he was the first to cycle around the Crete via its seaside roads. He is a member of the CycleGreece team during his sojourns back to Crete. Stelios speaks English, French and Greek.
Iro Sipsa, Bike Guide

Iro graduated with a degree in environmentalism. After graduation, she started working as a teacher in horse riding schools. Combining sports with activities in nature is her passion. Her weekly program includes running and mountain running, dancing and cycling in Athens and the suburbs. Since 2011, her bicycle is her primary means of transport in Athens and the Attica region. She is testing the bike’s limits! Her goal is a cycling tour abroad, plus to ride in brevets.
Giorgos Altyparmarkis, Chief Bike Mechanic

Giorgos is, hands down, the best bicycle mechanic in all of Greece. This is not surprising considering he runs his own bike repair shop in Athens that has been in his family for forty years, albeit originally for motorcycles. Name any region in Greece, and Giorgos has cycled there. He knows roads and off-roads better than any Greek cartographer. He has a grand affection for night riding during a full moon.
Jeff Andreoni, Guide

Originally from Rhode Island, Jeffrey is a writer, traveler and creator who currently resides in Athens. Jeffrey Studied Art History in Rome and Florence and Anthropology in London at UCL. After working as an art critic in London he decided to get away from the city and moved to Greece. Jeffrey also studied in Russia for two years and speaks Russian fluently.

He has been leading tours in Europe and Russia since 2006 and is also a travel writer. In 2012, he kayaked the Ukraine’s Dnieper River.

Jeff is active in the sharing economy movement. He’s happy to have his American mother nearby; she retired to live on Aegina island.
Brady Kiesling, History & Archaeology Consultant

Brady has a BA in Ancient Greek from Swarthmore and an MA from UC Berkeley in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. He has excavated at Ancient Corinth, Nemea, and Zagora (Andros) in Greece and Aphrodisias in Turkey.

Brady joined the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer in 1983 and was a political officer at the U.S. embassy in Athens from 1988-92. He returned to Greece as Political Counselor in 2000 and resigned in 2003.

He is author of Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower, a new history of Greek terrorism, Greek Urban Warriors: Resistance and Terrorism 1967-2014, and a forthcoming mobile application on ancient places in Greece.

Brady lives in Athens under the Acropolis, and is an enthusiastic cyclist, road or off-road.
Regina Tassitano, Culinary & Wellness Consultant

Regina was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. After working in journalism, publishing, and public relations in her home country, she moved to London to study Chinese medicine. On holidays, she fell in love with Greek island light, and in 1981 moved to the island of Naxos. In 1991 she came to Athens, where she still lives. Among her passions is traditional foods of the world. She is a skilled cook and had opened Athens’ first Brazilian restaurant. Regina is one of Greece’s best known practitioners of Shiatsu, which she uses along with neuromuscular massage. She is also an accredited Pilates teacher. She is fluent in Portuguese, English, Greek and Italian

Awesome Cycling on Ancient Terrain