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You would think someone who had just cycled 15,000km from France to Singapore would find cycling around our little red dot pretty manageable.

Nice roads. Plenty of greenery. Cycling paths. What could possibly go wrong?

Australian medical student Clement Lazzerini, 21, recently completed an epic journey from Lyon, France, to Singapore, clocking 15,150km on his bicycle by the time he reached his final destination.

Clement left Lyon on February 2 with a second-hand touring bicycle and very little long-distance cycling experience.

Over the next eight months, he travelled through 19 countries before reaching Singapore on September 14.

And while his final Instagram post was labelled "Day 147", Clement tells 8days.sg that number only refers to the days he actually spent cycling.

"The way I titled my videos was only based on the days that I spent cycling. This did not include any of the rest days that I took, which was approximately one per week," he explains.

He also took side trips by train and bus that weren't included.

"So although I was gone for eight months, I really only cycled for five months of that period," he says.

Which makes what he said during his final stretch through Singapore all the more surprising.

"Cycling in Singapore might be one of the hardest places to cycle in the world," he said in a video documenting the last day of his journey.

Wait, what?

You'd think our nicely paved roads would be an easy finish after cycling through 19 countries.

To be fair, Clement thinks Singapore is bike-friendly. His issue was with how unpredictable some of the cycling routes could be.

"I thought it would be, like, really bike-friendly and, you know, it is. But there's so much construction going on in everywhere. It's just like the bike paths randomly close and fuse with the road, and then the road doesn't have a shoulder. It's a bit hectic," he said.

Singapore did score points in other areas.

"The views are really nice, though. Singapore has way more green areas than I thought," Clement noted.

"But not gonna lie, um, it might actually be the hardest city to cycle in that I've been to,” her added.

Except Clement almost immediately changed his mind.

"Oh, you know what? No, what am I talking about? Recency bias? This is way better than all the Southeast Asian cities. I'm tripping," he said.

Well, that was quick.

Speaking to 8days.sg after completing his journey, Clement explains there was a little more going on when he made that comment.

"In that moment, I was angry because someone had almost hit me and the traffic lights kept turning red and making me wait a very long time," he tells us.

Once he'd had a moment to think about it, however, his opinion changed pretty quickly.

"Honestly, the city is really nice to cycle in and apart from that one section, I actually did enjoy myself quite a lot," he says.

Clement also admits some of his problems were self-inflicted.

"It also didn't help that I chose some pretty horrendous roads to go on instead of just taking the connectors that many people recommended. That's totally on me,” he says.

Clement isn't completely sure where he encountered the section that gave him so much trouble, but believes it may have been around Yishun.

"The main sections seemed to be in the areas where a tunnel was being dug. I'm not 100 per cent sure where it was, I think it was near Yishun. But after getting out of this, I made it onto some riverside paths, which were really awesome and I actually enjoyed quite a bit," he says.

He also clarifies that when he calls cycling in Singapore difficult, he isn't talking about physical difficulty.

"For me, the cycling isn't difficult, more so just dangerous or time-consuming. A lot of the traffic lights in Singapore make it very difficult to follow the main roads, as there is a lot of stopping and starting, which I don't really enjoy when cycling. So I should've really taken the bike paths when thinking about it now," he explains.

So after cycling through 19 countries, where does Singapore actually rank now that Clement has had time to think about it?

"The best way to compare would be to compare the cities, and I think Singapore would easily make my top five, with the cities ahead of it being some nice European cities like Ljubljana and Zagreb, and also some big Chinese cities with lots of road space," he tells us.

From potentially the "hardest city" he'd cycled in to easily making his top five. Good thing he gave us a second chance.

Clement eventually made his way towards Merlion Park, where he brought his 15,150km ride to an end.

Surprisingly, it wasn't always meant to be his finish line.

"I didn't know where I was going to finish the journey at all. I was just thinking of getting to Singapore and then resting because I was so tired," he says.

But after reaching Marina Bay, Clement remembered the Merlion from previous visits to Singapore and figured it'd make a pretty good finishing photo, especially with Marina Bay Sands in the background.

"I really wanted to have that photo to remember the end of the journey, so that's why I went there," he says.

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Photos: clazz.7/IG