Month: May 2024

Exploring Emilia-Romagna By Bike: Top Cycling Routes

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In publishing Le Grand Tour at the start of the month, I was required to get to grips with producing a properly formatted ePUB document. Nothing to do with drinking in your local; everything to do with eBooks. It’s the format that is required by the online distributors. Earlier today I spent a bit of time going back over my first book – Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie – and reformatting it as an ePUB document. It means that it is easier to navigate. I took the opportunity of re-reading the prologue to that book. It was interesting reading what I wrote at the time, especially my comments regarding the development of the Italian section of the EuroVelo 5 back in 2008 (when I was beginning to plan the trip).

Le Grand Tour: The Audio Book Saga | Behind The Scenes

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You might think that once you’ve written a book and it’s been published that you’d be able to sit back and relax. It never seems to be like that, for good reason. Lot’s of people have been getting in touch directly with kind comments about Le Grand Tour – I always take time to respond – and the marketing is an ongoing process. However, there is one thing that I started doing yesterday that I haven’t done before. I spent a serious amount of time thinking about and researching the options available to make an audio book of Le Grand Tour. I even had a go at recording.

Move Over Tim Moore*: “An entertaining travelogue…

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The words of Richard Peploe in his review of Le Grand Tour… which has just been published on the Seven Day Cyclist website. But it gets better. A couple of years ago you may remember that I headed off down to London to meet up with one of the greats of cycle-touring literature, Mr Tim Moore. His publisher is a master of coming up with a catchy title for a book: French Revolutions, Gironimo, Vuelta Skelter to name but three. I wonder if a title such as ‘Le Grand Tour on a Bike Called Wanda’ would have ever got further than the trash can; I was once told by an important person in the publishing world that the title ‘Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie’ was one of the worst titles he had every seen! Anyway, I digress…

Shetland 2024? / Cycle Camping UK: Can You Help?

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If you happened to listen to the interview that I did with Talk Radio Europe on Friday (see previous post), I mentioned in passing future long-distance cycling trips. Should I revisit the aborted plan to cycle the length of Japan? Perhaps in 2025? And this year? I noted that I had a couple of friends who are (separately) cycling in Shetland. They have been posting some fantastic pictures online and I hope that Anne and Tim don’t mind me reposting a few of their pictures here on CyclingEurope.org.

Le Grand Tour… En España, Part 3

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Does it ever worry you that you forget things that, really, you should remember? I’ve just had one of those moments. I searched CyclingEurope.org to see if I posted anything about an interview that did with Talk Radio Europe shortly before setting off on the 2015 cycle from Tarifa to Nordkapp. I was in southern Spain at the time and I went down to the studios of the radio station in Estepona for a chat about the upcoming trip. It’s not something that I seem to have recorded here on the webiste, not even in passing. Strange but there you go. My search did, however, reveal that back in late September 2011 I appeared on Talk Radio Europe to chat about my 2010 cycle to southern Italy. I have no recollection whatsoever of having done so but the proof is there. I did. You can listen to that interview from 13 years ago at the foot of this post.

Van Life At The Cycle Touring Festival 2024

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It’s now almost a decade since Laura and Tim Moss organised the first Cycle Touring Festival. The ‘in-person’ event ran each year from 2015 until the arrival of COVID. After a number of online festivals running alongside some ‘gatherings’ in Clitheroe in Lancashire, 2024 saw a return of the festival to its pre-COVID slot on the calendar – May – but to a new location: Coniston in the Lake District. I’ve had the privilege of attending each of the festivals apart from that first event in 2015 (I was cycling from Tarifa to Nordkapp at the time) and at many of the events I have given a talk.

Le Grand Tour: Moving On…

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It is fair to say that writing a book takes up a lot of time. It’s also equally fair to say that once the writing has finished, marketing a book also takes up a lot of time. This is my excuse for not having posted to the website or produced many episodes of the podcast in recent weeks and months. However, it’s now over a week since Le Grand Tour on a Bike Called Wanda was unleashed from my protective shackles and I’m hoping to begin to return to the life of a blogging, podcasting cyclist. As for the book, it is now at the mercy of those who choose to read it and, perhaps, review it. So far, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and I am very grateful to everyone who has posted on social media or messaged me or indeed written a formal online review. To all those who have done so, thank-you.