Last year, I left England and cycled across Europe to Turkey. It was a three-month, 6000km bikepacking trip that took me beyond the confines of tourist hotspots and introduced me to a whole community of other bikepackers.
One of those was Lennart Monterlos, a fresh-faced Franco-German 18-year-old only seven days into his adventure when we met in Germany. Lennart was taking a break from schooling to explore the world via cross-country, sustainable travel – ie, on a bike. He was more ambitious than me – he aimed to travel a circuitous 35,000 kilometres from his French home to Japan, taking around 400 days to do so.
It was true budget travel. Lennart was relying on an international Givealittle page to sustain himself, and couch-surfing to stretch the coin. When we met, he had just emerged from a home where the residents had graciously let him stay the night, sending him off with a care package to support him.
We rode together for a day, and he exuded a mix of confidence and a little bit of relief as we gently curbed the effects of homesickness by chatting along a 100-kilometre route to Ulm, Germany, before going our separate ways.
That one day of cycling together has linked us together in a frightening case of “what ifs”.
Communications stopped
On June 15, 2025, Lennart posted on Instagram that he was heading for “a crazy adventure in the desert”. Since then, there has been only silence. On July 6, his family posted on social media asking if anyone had seen him. Six days later, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Aragchi announced that the (now) 19-year-old was arrested for “committing a crime.”
Reportedly, Lennart had entered Iran before returning home to France to spend time with family during Christmas. He’d then gone back to Iran in May. A few weeks later, all communications stopped.
Other than the confirmation that Lennart had been detained in Iran, no further information has been provided, and his family has asked for, but not received, proof that he is still alive.
Had things panned out differently, I might have been with him. The ambition of Lennart’s trip planted a seed in the mind of my travel partner, who was eager to extend our trip beyond Turkey. Family members had raved about their own experiences in Iran, and in the coming weeks, he and Lennart kept in contact and decided that crossing Iran and Afghanistan was safer in numbers.
They asked if I wanted to join them. It crossed my mind, but as a woman, heading through conservative countries on something as vulnerable as a bike ultimately did not appeal to my sense of adventure. A new duo was created, and I stayed on course to return home to New Zealand from Istanbul.
Shortly after our encounter, the boys’ plans were well underway when a fresh bout of violence broke out between Iran and Israel following the assassination of Yahya Sinwar, a Hamas leader, in October 2024.
Keeping eyes and ears on the news, alternatives were considered. They thought about going north through the Stans (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) but were underprepared for the cold. They also considered flying to India, but that defeated the loose desire for a zero-carbon trip. Optimistically, they continued their plan, spurred on by the approval of Iranian visas.
But come the end of October, circumstances had changed again and the pair didn’t meet up. Lennart cycled into Iran alone.
Newspapers report that the French Foreign Ministry has been in contact with Iranian authorities regarding Lennart’s condition. His parents say they are relying on French diplomacy to secure their son’s release, insisting that he is innocent of whatever crime he’s supposed to have committed.
Lennart might have fallen prey to hostage diplomacy, where Europeans and dual nationals become bargaining chips to aid Iranian negotiations with the West. It is not new. Perhaps the intensity of accusations from the United States, Israel and the International Atomic Energy Agency about Iran’s nuclear stores and “intention” to build nuclear weapons - not to mention US and Israeli airstrikes - heightened a perceived need for hostage diplomacy.
Analysis from the Washington Institute For Near East Policy quoted a CNN interview with former hostage and Iranian-American dual national Emad Shargi who said, “Every time there are talks scheduled between Iran and the United States, it’s open season for hostage taking in Iran”—because the clerical establishment uses detainees as leverage with the West. Lennart’s name appears on the Institute’s list of hostages and wrongful detainees, 10 of them taken this year. So, he may have found himself a pawn in a terrifying geopolitical chess game.
As well as his case, French authorities have mounted more pressure in negotiating the release of a French couple, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who were detained during a trip in 2022. They are being held under charges of spying and could face the death penalty in accordance with Iranian law. They live in abhorrent conditions; once every few days, they’re let into sunlight for moments at a time and once every few months, they are allowed a security-monitored call.
Euro News reports that French Prime Minister François Bayrou urged countries “not to persecute innocent people who are sometimes unaware of the risks they face”. Bayrou also said young travellers must respect travel instructions and declared Lennart had “made a mockery” of these.
Lennart is paying a high price for attempting to cycle through Iran. His whereabouts remain unspecified. A student whose family and friends insist on his innocence, now facing unimaginable uncertainty in one of the least stable regions on earth.
Louise Barnes is the NZ Listener’s content producer.
