So the time is approaching that I’ve got to make a decision as to if / when to head off to Oban, catch the ferry to Barra and set off along The Hebridean Way. I’ve mentioned the plan a few times on here and there’s even a dedicated page that you’ll find by clicking on the ‘cycles’ tab and the top of this page and choosing ‘2021: The Hebridean Way’. What you won’t find there is any kind of day-by-day plan. That’s where this post comes in…
This is brilliant! Perhaps I should just have cycled around my own (tiny) garden instead of planning to cycle the length of Japan in 2020 or 2021…
Just been watching Tom Pidcock win the mountain biking gold medal at Tokyo 2021. The urban triathlon route earlier today wasn’t very inspiring but the mountain biking route – in the hills outside of Tokyo – was much better. I should of course have been there; not competing(!!) but cycling through Japan… But there you go. Or rather, there I didn’t go. An email arrives from Italy to lift my spirits. It’s about two new cycling routes in the Trentino area of northern Italy. Trentino is basically the hilly bit to the north-west of Venice, and much more cycle-friendly than the nearby iconic coastal resort.
The travel writer and cyclist Simon Parker first appeared on The Cycling Europe Podcast in February 2021when he talked about his โEarth Cycleโ TV programme. He returns to discuss his latest project; an end-to-end cycle around Britain in the midst of a global pandemic. His main aim was not to clock up the kilometres but to meet the people and hear their stories. He told his own story in a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph and here he looks back upon a cycling staycation to beat most others.
The travel writer and cyclist Simon Parker first appeared on The Cycling Europe Podcast in February 2021when he talked about his โEarth Cycleโ TV programme. He returns to discuss his latest project; an end-to-end cycle around Britain in the midst of a global pandemic. His main aim was not to clock up the kilometres but to meet the people and hear their stories. He told his own story in a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph and here he looks back upon a cycling staycation to beat most others.
Thirteen years ago this weekend I was sitting on my sofa at the start of the school holidays. It was 2008 and the Beijing Olympics had just started. Just outside the Chinese capital it was wet. Very wet. Nicole Cooke, the British cyclist was sodden, rain dripping from every square centimetre of her body. I watched, bleary-eyed (perhaps I was still recovering from the end-of-academic-year festivities) as she cycled under the fortifications of the Great Wall and then, as she approached the finish line, raised her fist and punched the damp air to celebrate her victory. She had just become the Olympic cycling road race champion. It was to become a pivotal moment in my middle-aged life. There and then I resolved to set off on an exotic cycling adventure…
