Most people cycle for exercise or to get to the office or shops. But there is the option to use pedal power for a grander purpose – to see the world and change your life. Just like couple Tristan Bogaard and Belen Castello have done.

They have spent the past three years on an epic bike ride, clocking up 15,000km (9,320 miles) across seven countries and three continents, from California and Oregon to Italy, Spain and Norway, and across the dizzyingly extreme landscapes of Central Asia.

They’ve cycled along one of the world’s highest roads, had their breath taken away by epic glacial valleys, peaks and fjords and pedalled across volcanic Martian-esque plateaus. And the adventure has been recorded for posterity in a stunning coffee table book called Bike Life, published by Lannoo.

Dutchman Tristan and Spaniard Belen are both talented photographers and the tome is brimming with incredible pictures they took along the way. The tome also contains vivid descriptions of the highs and lows of the odyssey, plus invaluable tips on where to sleep, eat and drink and the cycling-friendliness of each country.

It goes deeper, though. In the prologue they say: ‘In this book we will be exploring what it means to travel by bicycle. The pros and cons, the healing, life-changing effect it can have on you… and your visual and mental understanding of the world we live in. On your bike you adopt a different approach to prioritising what really matters in your life.’

Scroll down for a peek at some of the mesmerising photography in a book that, as Lannoo says, breathes adventure…