I hate to admit this but… As chief executive (well, I write most of it) of CyclingEurope.org you’d think I’d be off on my bicycle every day doing this and that, cycling to work, heading off into the countryside every weekend seeking out nooks and crannies on my bicycle. Hmm… Think again. Today, to my great shame, is the first time I’ve ridden my bike Reggie since (brace yourself) the first week in December. That’s now over two months ago! OK, here come the excuses. I have some good ones… Reggie, the bike, needed a good service at my local bike shop before I transported him up to the north just before Christmas. What with new hand-built wheels and the like it wasn’t a quick job and I didn’t pick him up until shortly after I left my teaching job in Reading. As a result, the final two weeks of commuting were on the train or in other people’s cars. Then I moved most of my chattels, including the bike, to Yorkshire shortly before Christmas. I could probably have benefitted from a good outing on the bike over the festive period but with stomach full of turkey and all the trimmings that didn’t happen and I returned south before the New Year to finalise the selling of my flat… without Reggie who was stored away in my brother’s garage. Last Thursday I returned to Yorkshire having completed the sale of the flat and today, finally, I got him out of the garage and we have come for a ride. And what a nice ride it has been…

Setting off along the local canal from Elland (see Friday’s post below) I cycled as far Sowerby Bridge before embarking upon a steep climb to Sowerby village. Some great views looking down from the hills of the Calder Valley. The descent into Mytholmroyd was cold and into the wind but the short ride further along the valley to Hebden Bridge, which is where I now find myself, brought some relief in the form of a hot coffee.

So, not quite the biggest cycling adventure in the world but my two months of (enforced!) cycling lethargy has been broken.