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Andrew

rear view of man on mountain road against sky

The Long Read: Britain, Cycling And Pillory By German Seven-Year-Olds

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A German student, Hannes, has sent me some questions about cycling in the UK and cycling from the perspective of British person… and I need your help. I’m going to write answers to Hannes’ questions but, as most of you are British and live in the UK, I think it would be nice for you to add your comments into the mix. (Even if you aren’t British and / or don’t live in the UK you may have valid points to make.) You may or may not agree with what I write and it would be good for Hannes to have more than just the one opinion. So here goes…

BREAKING NEWS: There’s No Breaking News…

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It’s foggy and cold outside, CNN is on the TV (as with much of the world, I’m sitting here waiting and hoping for that 253 to change soon) and it’s the first Saturday of Lockdown 2.0. Not a great deal to do other than ponder over the future… That could be a real Pandora’s box but let’s keep things focussed on cycling.

The Yorkshire Dales… On A Bike Called Wanda, The Film

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I’m standing on the shoulders of giants with this; I have long admired the films of people such as Barry Godin (who curates the films shown at the Cycle Touring Festival) and, more recently, Ryan Van Duzer (who I interviewed for the most recent episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast) but also the long-format cycling films such as Tom Allen’s Janapar: Love, On a Bike from 2012. There are dozens of other cycling filmmakers doing similar things to an incredibly high standard. And now there’s me…

Dales Autumn Escape: Day 4/4

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So my short trip to the southern Yorkshire Dales came to an end yesterday with the long cycle back to West Yorkshire’s Calder Valley. Cycling friend Craig offered to join me for the ride and we met up for coffee in the busy farm shop in Airton which, by the time we left at around 10:30am was already heaving with cyclists.

Dales Autumn Escape: Day 3/4

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A full day of cycling but not a particularly strenuous one. If you remember, I have purposefully switched off Strava and the like for this trip to the Yorkshire Dales. The only things measuring my distance are the CatEye ‘computer’ (the word seems a little grand for the […]

Dales Autumn Escape: Day 2/4

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If I were being assessed against my objectives, today I would have been granted some kind of promotion or pay rise. Most of the pre-trip ‘requirements’ were ticked off; I even ended the ‘working day’ with a bit of sketching… But it started off the bike with a […]

Dales Autumn Escape: Day 1/4

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Well that’s all gone rather well. Yesterday I spent all evening watching TV, eating and drinking. (For one week at least, Tuesday night was the new Friday night…) I kept staring at the rug in my living room where I normally assembly a pile of cycling kit prior […]

Distance = Speed x Time (Do You Give A F*ck?)

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I was teaching this formula to a group of disinterested 14 year olds earlier in the week. (Not including the bit in brackets.) They had clearly been reading the book I have just started reading myself; Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck… I give a f*ck far too often. I think I shouldn’t. I’m not sure if this ties in with what I’ve written below but I think it might. If it doesn’t, well, I don’t give a f*ck and clearly the £18.99 spent at Waterstones wasn’t wasted. I’m going to go back and remove the apostrophe in ‘Waterstone’s’ as I’m trying to no longer give a f*ck. I digress…

A Look Back At The Last Five Winners Of The Giro d’Italia

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Usually the first of the three Grand Tours, the 2020 Giro d’Italia gets underway this month after being rescheduled amidst the coronavirus pandemic. While the startlist is still yet to be confirmed, we do know that last year’s winner Richard Carapaz won’t be defending his title, as the Ineos Grenadiers’ cyclist rode at the recent Tour de France and instead, the British team will be pinning their hopes on Geraint Thomas.

A Short Film About Sketching (And Coffee)…

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I have adopted a new hobby; sketching. I mentioned this a few weeks ago and have been busy sketching ever since. Today, I even made a short film about sketching and have called it, rather unimaginatively, A Short Film About Sketching. There’s some coffee in there too as well as a bit of walking. Just watch the thing!

Ten Years Of Cycling Europe: Keeping It Simple

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Last night I gave an online talk to the Halifax Rotary Club here in West Yorkshire. Usually, my talks are all-singing, all-dancing when it comes to the visuals but after experiencing issues with streaming video and complex graphics during online Zoom talks earlier in the year I took a more simple approach. The last ten years of my life was paired down to 30 static slides. Here is the what the Rotarians saw. You’ll have to fill in the commentary for yourselves…

REI Presents: Pedal Through

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I noticed earlier that Ryan Van Duzer – subject of the most recent episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast had interviewed two people involved in the making of this film; Pedal Through. You can watch the film below. Worth 15 minutes of your time. Cycle touring continues to be a very white-dominated activity. Endeavours such as this might help nudge the imbalance in a good direction.

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 025 – Ryan Van Duzer – Duzer TV

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Duzer TV is a YouTube channel run by 40-something American adventure cyclist Ryan Van Duzer based in Boulder, Colorado on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains of the USA. His videos recount his adventures going back over 10 years in the Americas and beyond. He spoke to The Cycling Europe Podcast about cycling, filmmaking, bears, alcohol, eating termites, his ‘mom’ and even the Muppets! It’s from them that he gets his motto: “I know I drive some people crazy with what seems to be ridiculous optimism, but it has always worked for me.”

Episode 025: Ryan Van Duzer / Duzer TV

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Duzer TV is a YouTube channel run by 40-something American adventure cyclist Ryan Van Duzer based in Boulder, Colorado on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains of the USA. His videos recount his adventures going back over 10 years in the Americas and beyond. He spoke to The Cycling Europe Podcast about cycling, filmmaking, bears, alcohol, eating termites, his ‘mom’ and even the Muppets! It’s from them that he gets his motto: “I know I drive some people crazy with what seems to be ridiculous optimism, but it has always worked for me.”

The Cycling Europe Podcast: UK Capitals Tour Teaser

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An upcoming episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast will tell the full story of my cycling trip around the four capitals of the United Kingdom during the Coronavirus summer of 2020. Here’s a short teaser to whet your appetite. It focuses upon the background to the journey and cycling day one from my home in West Yorkshire to Bolton Abbey at the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales.

UK Capitals Tour Teaser

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An upcoming episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast will tell the full story of my cycling trip around the four capitals of the United Kingdom during the Coronavirus summer of 2020. Here’s a short teaser to whet your appetite. It focuses upon the background to the journey and cycling day one from my home in West Yorkshire to Bolton Abbey at the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales. The full podcast telling the whole story of the capital-themed tour will be available later in the autumn.

Signs Of Life: To The Ends Of The Earth With A Doctor

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Signs of Life is no ordinary cycling travelogue. In fact, to refer to it as a ‘cycling travelogue’ is probably doing it a significant disservice as the book is much, much more than that. The bicycle itself plays a secondary role in this six-year odyssey around the planet. If you are looking for tails of mechanical tribulations, inconveniently timed punctures or day-by-day breakdowns of kilometres cycled and towns visited, you might want to look elsewhere. Dr. Fabes’ approach is much more selective. How could it be anything otherwise when in one volume of writing such a long period needs to be addressed? That said, he manages to be selective without making the reader think they have been short changed. Many of the 75 countries are mentioned only in passing or not at all. Even one or two of the continents do not take up as much space as you might imagine, especially in the early years as he makes his way through Europe and Africa. This might have been a very long, very slow journey for author; it is anything but for the reader.

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 024 – Dr. Stephen Fabes – Signs Of Life

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In January 2010, Dr. Stephen Fabes set off on a bicycle tour around the World. He had quit his job working in the A&E department at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London and was to spend the next 6 years cycling nearly 90,000 km, visiting 75 countries in the process. His achievement puts almost all other cycle tours into the shade. The Cycling Europe Podcast met Stephen at Hyde Park Corner for a chat about his cycle and his book – Signs of Life – that has just been published by Profile Books.

Episode 024: Dr Stephen Fabes / Signs Of Life

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In January 2010, Dr. Stephen Fabes set off on a bicycle tour around the World. He had quit his job working in the A&E department at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London and was to spend the next 6 years cycling nearly 90,000 km, visiting 75 countries in the process. His achievement puts almost all other cycle tours into the shade. The Cycling Europe Podcast met Stephen at Hyde Park Corner for a chat about his cycle and his book – Signs of Life – that has just been published by Profile Books.

The Great British Cycle Tour 2020: Days 19 – 28

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If you are a lover of silent films, this will be a treat for you; the final instalment of The GReat British Cycle Tour 2020 videos. (It has no sound…) It’s longer than the previous ones covering ten days from Liverpool along the coast of north Wales to Anglesey and then across the principality via the Lon Las Cymru before a final sprint for the 4th and final capital, London…

Cycling Day 28: Reading To London

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It started with a cycle to Edinburgh in July… and has ended with an arrival in London in early September. Via, of course, Belfast and Cardiff (and a couple of weeks back home in Yorkshire). The four capitals of the UK have been joined by a cycle touring […]

Cycling Day 26: Cardiff To Bath

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A long, flat day… it started here in Cardiff: It finished at 9pm at the Youth Hostel in Bath. There was a transporter bridge: And a catch up with Paul Gentle in Bristol who joined me for the cycle along the old railway path to Bath where we […]

Waiting For My Panniers To Arrive…

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You’d think that in the summer of 2020 with all its ‘complications’, time to answer emails would be easy to find. And I dare say it is. Yet I have four emails sitting in my inbox to which I have yet to respond. All are cycling-related and I have no good excuse as to why I have been so tardy in replying to the people who wrote them. Some comments from the senders are worthy of sharing…

bright daylight environment forest

It’s Not Easy Being Green…

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Caroline Burrows, the poet who is behind the “Verse Cycle” initiative which is involving her in writing a verse of poetry every day about the challenges and rewards or “being green”, has just penned her 331st verse. And I get a mention, which is very nice indeed.

The Great British Cycling Tour Returns – Definitely!

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I’ve done it! In our COVID world of 2020, having no accommodation booked in advance is not the best option for a touring cyclist so I have spent a few days sorting out my overnight stays. As you can see it will be a mixture of Warmshowes, campsites, youth hostels and one night with a friend in my old stomping ground of Reading. Some cheap – very cheap! – train tickets have been purchased and all I need to do now is start pedalling…

Radio 4’s War On Two Wheels / Cycling UK’s Priority Campaign

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“Lois Pryce argues that bicycles need to be reclaimed as simply a mundane means of transport – and cycling needs to be uncool again. As a passionate advocate of two-wheeled transport, whether it’s powered by an engine or her own legs, Lois is tired of disapproving looks. And she thinks that in the case of bicycles, it’s partly because cycling has turned into an identity. She wants to revert to the time it was just a way of getting around.”

gray concrete building bear body of water

The Great British Cycle Tour 2020 Returns (Hopefully…)

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Two capitals remain; Cardiff and London and I am beginning to piece together a plan for an 10-stage cycle which would see me return to Liverpool (the point at which I paused in early August) on the train, cycle across the north of Wales to Holyhead on Anglesey where I would pick up the Lon Las Cymru cycle route to Cardiff and then head west along the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames (national cycle route 4) to my final destination, London.

Cycling Britain: The 1,200 Mile Picnic

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If you have listened the the most recent episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast – episode 023 – you will have heard me chatting with the cycling writer Rob Ainsley. We met up a couple of weeks ago in North Yorkshire and after a day spent cycling from Bolton Abbey to Hawes (as part of my 2020 ‘Great British Cycle Tour’) sat in a pub in Hawes to chew over the interviews that I had conducted with the Guiness World Record breaker David Haywood’s cycle to the most countries in 7 days and James Brigg’s journey from ‘Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads’ because, well, he’s a fan of David Bowie and why not?!

Virtual Cycling Kit Boot Sale: UPDATE

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I’m not looking for any payment for these items but they do need to go to a good home rather than in the bin… Any takers? Most come complete with fittings, straps, keys etc… I will post the small items if you are willing to cover the cost of postage. The larger items will need collecting.

Changing Disc Brake Pads… In 10 Tweets

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A bit of a saga. Has taken most of the afternoon but I seem to have changed the pads, sorted the problems and retensioned the carbon belt. I sometimes wish I was far more mechanically minded. Perhaps I should learn to be… The responses can be read by visiting clicking on the tweets of course…

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 023 – Cycle Tours With A Twist

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Have you ever struggled to come up with an interesting, different, perhaps even unique idea for a long cycle ride? The Cycling Europe Podcast is coming to your rescue! In this feature-length episode of the podcast recorded on location in the Yorkshire Dales and the English Lake District, Andrew P. Sykes chats with fellow cycling writer and master of the innovative cycle ride Rob Ainsley, Guinness World Record breaker David Haywood and David Bowie fan James Briggs who all reflect upon their inspirational cycle tours with a twist. If this episode of the podcast doesn’t get you thinking about your own next ride, nothing will!

Episode 023: Rob Ainsley, David Heywood & James Briggs / Original Cycle Tours

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Have you ever struggled to come up with an interesting, different, perhaps even unique idea for a long cycle ride? The Cycling Europe Podcast is coming to your rescue! In this feature-length episode of the podcast recorded on location in the Yorkshire Dales and the English Lake District, Andrew P. Sykes chats with fellow cycling writer and master of the innovative cycle ride Rob Ainsley, Guinness World Record breaker David Haywood and David Bowie fan James Briggs who all reflect upon their inspirational cycle tours with a twist. If this episode of the podcast doesn’t get you thinking about your own next ride, nothing will!

Cycling Day 17: Portrush To Belfast

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If you follow the @CyclingEurope Twitter account, you may have seen the tweet I sent this morning from Portstewart, just a few kilometres along the coast from Portrush where I had stayed overnight in a B&B. I made the following comment: “Welcome to Portstewart. The end of the […]

Rest Day 4: Belfast

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Welcome to… Apparently it is owned by a property developer, which isn’t that surprising. I have spent the day wandering the city centre; from 11am on an organised ‘free’ walking tour with a couple from Hamburg, Germany although she was originally from Belfast. They were good company, as […]

Cycling Day 12: Troon To Culzean Castle

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Just don’t pronounce the ‘z’… Yesterday the issue had been the rain. Today the issue has been the iPhone. The two might be connected (but for goodness sake don’t tell Apple before I can get to an Apple Store…) I noticed last night in the swanky (too many […]

Cycling Day 11: Edinburgh To Troon

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The story of the day is best summarised by the map and the elevation profile: The distance cycled was clearly more than I would normally do in one day; 178 km. You do need to bear in mind two things; the weather and the terrain. The weather? How […]

Rest Day 3: Edinburgh / Onward Planning

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I’ve spent a nice day wandering the streets of the Scottish capital as Wanda has been taking a rest in our hotel room: We were watching the James Bond film ‘You Only Live Twice’ last night thinking about where we should have cycling; Japan… Anyway, the weather has […]

Cycling Day 10: Dunbar To Edinburgh

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The cycling world is full of genuine, nice people. I know that you are already aware of this as you are probably one of those genuine, nice people. But it is worth pointing out from time to time. Any scroll through social media will reveal the darker side […]

Rest Day 1: Rydal Hall, Ambleside

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This may simply be the only ‘rest day’. I suppose it depends what happens once I’ve arrived in Edinburgh. Much will, I suspect, depend upon the weather. (Sorry to mention it again…) It’s an interesting factor that I have rarely had to contend with before. Not the weather […]

Yorkshire To Edinburgh By Bicycle

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The cycle touring summer of 2020 has been somewhat delayed by the outbreak of COVID-19 and the lockdown restrictions that were implemented in March. However, to a greater extent, limitations on travel have now been lifted and it seems an appropriate time to head off on the bike. If you read the post from a couple of days ago you will know that my plan is to head north from where I live in Pennine West Yorkshire in the direction of… Edinburgh. Here are some more details.

Summer 2020: Plan B…

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Plan A was, of course, to cycle the length of Japan. I should have arrived in the country today and be looking forward to cycling for around six weeks from north to south via Tokyo to take in the atmosphere of the Olympics. Next year? Perhaps… Time will tell. So it is on with Plan B which, until a few days ago, was a very vague “well, I’d like to go camping somewhere in the UK…”. The pesky Coronavirus has, of course, reached its tentacles into most aspects of our lives in recent months and ‘camping in the UK’ is one of them. Although many campsites have now reopened, many remain closed or open with limited capacity and facilities or, bearing in mind all the staycationers this summer, have no availability.

The Changing Face Of The Cycling Europe Podcast

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Today – at this very moment – I should have been on a plane flying to Japan. Clearly I’m not. So how best to use my time? How about an update of the podcast artwork? Great idea! You’d think that going from the ‘before’ picture on the left to the new ‘after’ picture on the right would be a simple business…

Ding Dong! The Sonorous Sound Of The Crane Bell, No?

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Should you be so inclined, you can visit the CyclingEurope.org YouTube Channel and watch all of the videos. It would take you a while so you might be inclined to prioritise those that have been very popular… Bearing in mind the time and effort it can take to make some of the videos, might I recommend such epics as the recent masterpiece that is Scammonden: A Valley of Contrasts in all its 4K glory? Or perhaps one of the films from my 2019 cycling odyssey across northern Spain and Portugal? Or how about a hiking film from the ‘Hiking Europe’ collection? The Three Peaks… Of Borrowdale is a personal favourite but there are plenty of others from which to choose. Yet if you do just that…

Caroline Burrows: It’s Not Easy Being Green

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I lived without a car for about 5 years when I lived in Reading and worked in Henley-on-Thames. I managed just fine but it was always – and it remains – a struggle to persuade most people that normal life is possible without having a car sitting outside your house. I remember the caretaker at the school in Henley asking me one morning if I was still cycling to work as if it was something out of which I would grow. It took a move to Yorkshire and a decision to become a supply teacher to persuade me to buy a car again but during lockdown I do wonder why I pay for an annual £350 service, hundreds of pounds of petrol, insurance, repairs…

CYCLOPS: Cycle Optimised Protected Signals

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It’s certainly something I’ve never heard of before but an email has arrived from Transport for Greater Manchester telling me all about it. And from the picture provided, it looks like an impressive bit of transport engineering. Clearly it requires the drivers to play ball and not drive like maniacs but with things like this, perhaps in some places at least, we are slowly – very slowly – making progress towards what is the norm in some countries.

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 022 – Women’s Festival Of Cycling

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It may be flatter in The Netherlands but can that really explain why women set off on their bicycles 25-times more often than here in the UK? It seems unlikely. Cycling UK’s Women’s Festival of Cycling takes place from 11th-31st July. Its aim is to encourage more women to cycle and The Cycling Europe Podcast talks to Cycling UK’s Helen Cook about the thinking behind the event and what will be taking place. On July 11th the 4th list of ‘100 Women in Cycling’ will be published by Cycling UK. The podcast speaks to Susan Doram who appeared on the list in 2019 about her cycling journey from the company car to cycling the globe, via much, much more…

Episode 022: Helen Cook & Susan Doram / Women’s Festival Of Cycling

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It may be flatter in The Netherlands but can that really explain why women set off on their bicycles 25-times more often than here in the UK? It seems unlikely. Cycling UK’s Women’s Festival of Cycling takes place from 11th-31st July. Its aim is to encourage more women to cycle and The Cycling Europe Podcast talks to Cycling UK’s Helen Cook about the thinking behind the event and what will be taking place. On July 11th the 4th list of ‘100 Women in Cycling’ will be published by Cycling UK. The podcast speaks to Susan Doram who appeared on the list in 2019 about her cycling journey from the company car to cycling the globe, via much, much more…

The Koga E-WorldTraveller Bicycle

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I don’t have a great deal to say about this but the Koga E-WorldTraveller bicycle shown here is basically an e-bike version of Wanda, my Koga WorldTraveller Signature. Give me another 20 years and I might be investing but there are more and more eBikes on the road and it’s not just the older generation. I see quite a few younger people cycling them and it no longer seems incongruous. Better a young person on an eBike than in a car!

Max’s Podcast Story: “The Best Yet”

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I write the books and post things to this website because I enjoy doing so. It’s as simple as that. The same goes for the podcast which has now come of age following the release of episode 021 earlier this week. It is, however, rather humbling to receive the positive feedback that so many of you make the effort to give. Below are a few comments that I have been delighted to read this week. Thank you to everyone who has listened to the podcast and to all those people below, thank you for taking the time to get in touch. The latest instalment of The Cycling Europe Podcast investigates the epic cycle of Maximilian J. St. George at the start of the 20th Century. Max was the man who invented bikepacking about 100 years before bikepacking itself was invented… Or should that now be ‘re-invented’?

A Tale Of Two Cycles: It Was The Best Of Rides, It Was The Worst Of Rides…

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With a nod to Charles Dickens, that just about sums up yesterday’s cold, rain-drenched ride from Tadcaster back home after collecting Wanda the WorldTraveller from her pit stop at CycleSense. One of those days when it would have been all but impossible to actually get off the bike, fumble with the phone with numbed fingers and take any photographs. So there is no photographic proof that the conditions were as bad as they were; you’ll just have to take my word for it.