From Sustrans: World record breaking cyclist Mark Beaumont is calling on families to take up the challenge of ‘Around the world in 10 days’ as part of Sustrans Big Pedal 2018 – a UK-wide event to get more young people cycling and scooting to school. The Big Pedal […]
The Adventure Junkies top 25 list is just out and CyclingEurope.org is up ten places at number 9: # BLOG SCORE 1 Bike Packing 268 2 Travelling Two 261 3 The Path Less Travelled 254 4 Tom’s Bike Trip 254 5 Rodadas 254 6 Bike Touring Pro 252 […]
This is all very reminiscent of planning past continental adventures, the only difference being that this one will be in my back yard of Yorkshire (read here to catch up on the plan). My maps have just arrived from Sustrans and they nearly cover all of Yorkshire. In […]
Second post of 2018. Second quote from a book – a different book – that I’m reading: “Cycling is a popular pastime in Yorkshire, especially in the industrial areas – there are no fewer than sixty clubs in West Yorkshire alone. Indeed, the county’s dedication to cycling led […]
I woke this morning to the sound the radio (that had been playing quietly all night although, having gone to bed beforehand, I have no recollection of hearing Big Ben at midnight). I stared around the room a little whilst at the same time trying to catch the […]
As 2017 draws to a close I take a few moments to look back over the 150 posts from the past 12 months on CyclingEurope.org. It started in reflective mood, looking forward to the publication of Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie in May. Here I […]
It’s been a quiet end-of-year here at CyclingEurope.org but it’s back to normal service in 2018, a year that marks the 10th anniversary of the site. Tempus fugit… The card, by the way, is courtesy of the Cambridge Cycle Campaign where I gave a talk earlier in the […]
Last week I was contacted by Nicholas Waite, a cyclist who is planning to travel from Tarifa to Nordkapp by bicycle in 2018. As with anyone attempting such a feat, he has done the wise thing and read my book: Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie […]
By Nancy Moss When looking to upgrade your bike for a more comfortable ride, cyclists will generally look to pedals, saddles and handlebars to make the difference as these are the three key touch points that connect you to your bike. Now while riders will generally spend a […]
…while I wait for the bus. Again. There are towns and cities across the globe; in the developed, developing and (probably even) the under-developed world where you can turn up at a bus / tram / train stop and, with a high degree of certainty, expect a simple […]
Cycling Plus is an admirable publication, even more so in November 2017 (issue 333) as ‘Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie‘ gets a mention…
Yes, it’s true… …however you write it, Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie and Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie are now available for Amazon Kindle for a mere 99 pence or 99 cents. (If you buy the paperbacks from Amazon you can download the […]
Some of you may have been there… look out for yourself if you were. The film does seem to link the two previous posts on CyclingEurope.org together quite nicely: the film-themed podcast and this morning’s cycle into the Peak District, just. Eroica Britannia is back in Derbyshire in […]
I now have cold feet…
It’s the first of the month (white rabbits etc…), which means just one thing; the next episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast is available to download from your preferred podcast purveyor or direct from this website! It’s episode 003 already (I’ll stop when I get to 999) and […]
The cycling film special! The Leeds Bicycle Film Club (Ian Street), Mongolia (Jimmy Hyland), bikepacking & filmmaking (Barry Godin) & the definitive list of the greatest cycling films ever, perhaps (BFI/Harry Bunnell).
Harry Bunnell appeared on these pages a couple of weeks ago and he will be soon heard on The Cycling Europe Podcast (available to download from 1.11.17) talking about the greatest cycling films ever made. Here he is cycling around the coastline of Sicily:
The end of the month approaches…. which can only mean that The Cycling Europe Podcast is just around the corner. November’s podcast – episode 3 – will be film themed. Here’s a short extract from the part of the podcast where I visit The Leeds Bicycle Film Club. […]
CyclingEurope.org often veers off topic, but here’s a story that is bang on topic. It starts with an email from Harry: Hi Andrew, I’m planning to cycle EuroVelo 3 in September this year, and was wondering if I could ask you a few questions? My father read about […]
…Stainland to Halifax. New commute; the (inevitable) new film:
Yes, it’s true, kind of… The story of a cyclist from London who became the first person to ‘Everest’ Mount Etna in Sicily. On 16th September 2017, Harry Bunnell took on the volcano multiple times until he reached the same elevation as the world’s highest peak, 8848 metres. […]
Since the publication of Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie in May 2017, the speaking tour has taken in the Cycle Touring Festival in Clitheroe, Oxford, Bristol, The Immrama Festival of Travel Writing in Lismore, Ireland, London, York, Cambridge and an audience of hundreds in the […]
…then three – one for each book – come along all at once! Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie: “Five stars as it kept me smiling throughout, written simply but in a compelling style that made me want to get on my bike, forget Strava and just […]
I’m delighted to announce that as from tomorrow, I return to life as… a regular cycling commuter. It is now nearly three years since I said goodbye to my colleagues at Gillotts School in Henley-on-Thames where, for most of the previous eight years I had regularly cycled to […]
I’m going to start with a short extract from ‘Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie‘. I was in Denmark at the time and, having just paused to buy some new tyres, was en route to Copenhagen: Cycling route 8 had now finished and was replaced with […]
Episode 2 of The Cycling Europe Podcast is now available to download! More details on how to do so here… or simply click on the arrow below, sit back and relax: This is what you’ll find in episode 002: The Cycle Show (o minutes 40 seconds) Ridgeback Bikes (1″14″) […]
The Cycle Show, La Vuelta a Espana (Matej Mohoric, UAE Team Emirates), Brussels (Eurovelo 5), The Ryburn Valley Greenway.
It’s Cycling UK’s verdict of Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie of course…
A few words from the Tour de Yorkshire, including some very good news for the CyclingEurope.org’s home town, Halifax: The eight host locations for 2018 Tour de Yorkshire have been unveiled today. The stages for the newly expanded fourth edition will begin or end in: Barnsley (South Yorkshire) […]
I am writing to ask if you could write to the motorists of Britain (as you wrote to the cycling associations of Britain last Friday), asking them to follow the Highway Code. Specifically, could you remind all drivers about the following things: respecting the speed limits, even in […]
If only you could bottle autumn evenings like this one…
A few weeks ago at the start of September, I posted an article to CyclingEurope.org about something called the Ryburn Valley Greenway. You may want to read what I wrote at the time (and watch the videos that I made) before you continue to read this but basically… […]
A rather beautiful film about an Australian cyclist travelling the length of New Zealand… The full story can be read here.
Well, from the perspective of a touring cyclist it is… all €8,133 of it. The Van Nicholas Deveron, as described by the company’s sales director earlier today at the Cycle Show at the NEC in Birmingham. More snippets from the show in the podcast: download on October 1st. […]
Fantastic news from Welcome To Yorkshire, organisers of the Tour de Yorkshire: Yorkshire has received a huge boost today with the news that the Tour de Yorkshire will grow from three to four days in 2018. Organisers Welcome to Yorkshire and A.S.O had been seeking to extend the […]
It’s that time of the year when the cycling world heads for the NEC in Birmingham for the annual Cycle Show… I’m off to the press and trade day today; the show opens to the public tomorrow and continues until Sunday. Expect a few posts about the event […]
I had the pleasure of visiting Bergen – host of this year’s UCI World Championships – a few days after arriving at Nordkapp back in 2015. I recommend a visit… These pictures (see link to original post below) may tempt you to book a flight (or perhaps even […]
From the EuroVélo website… (and the reason why I was in Brussels last week): “A new application has been launched for smart phones and tablets to help people plan and then cycle the route of EuroVelo 5 – Via Romea (Francigena). Over a thousand years ago, pilgrims used […]
The following report will be included in the next episode of The CyclingEurope.org Podcast published on October 1st. It was recorded during my visit to Brussels last week to meet up with the project team developing the tourism aspect of the Eurovelo 5. It also includes a look […]
A busy day…
I’ve spent much of the past three years thinking about cycling from southern Spain to northern Norway; planning the journey, completing the journey, recovering from the journey, writing the book about the journey and, more recently, marketing the book about the journey. (What? You hadn’t noticed?) The next […]
As predicted a few weeks ago here on CyclingEurope.org (10 Things To Know About… La Vuelta A España), Chris Froome did indeed win the Vuelta. OK, it wasn’t a difficult prediction to make and anyway, I was merely quoting the predictions of those with greater knowledge at Cyclist.co.uk. […]
I pick out this review for Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie from Amazon.co.uk as I’ve rarely (well, never) been described as ‘heroic’ before. I have already updated the CV… “A book which serves up so much. It will delight not just avid touring cyclists but […]
I’m currently reminiscing, putting together a short presentation* for my visit to Brussels next week where I’ve been asked to reflect upon my 2010 cycle from the UK to southern Italy along the EuroVelo 5. Browsing through the photos and website posts from the time (I came up […]
Yes, single speed. Just to clarify: with one gear. It sounds a crazy idea to most but not to Markus Stitz, an Edinburgh-based bikepacker from Germany. In the autumn of 2015 (shortly after I finished my own somewhat-less-epic ride from Tarifa to Nordkapp), Markus set off to cycle […]
It’s rest day at La Vuelta.. have you been keeping up? With just six stages remaining, here is some background information about the race published on CyclingEurope.org back in the hot, sultry [are you sure?] days of August. Interesting to compare the names mentioned in point 10 with […]
‘Greenways’, ‘Vias Verdes‘, ‘Voies Vertes‘… they are all the same thing – in English, Spanish and French respectively – and they have cropped up from time to time in this parish, most recently a couple of months ago when I had the opportunity of cycling along the Waterford […]
It’s Friday 1st September 2017. On this day in history… …Louis XIV died (1715) …the last known passenger pigeon, Martha, died in captivity in Cincinnati Zoo (1914) …Ernest Hemingway’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel, The Old Man and the Sea was published (1952) …the wreck of the Titanic was discovered […]
UK to Istanbul, the Calder Valley of Yorkshire, ‘Along The Med…’, CTC Birthday Rides, Cycle Touring Festival.
I went walking in the Picos De Europa back in 2007 and they are certainly a spectacular range of mountains in northern Spain. Here’s a good blog post from ‘Reading, Running, Cycling‘ about attempting them on two wheels… A few years ago, I watched the whole of the […]
Only four days to go… A monthly digest of news, interviews, reports, rides, readings, features… from the people behind CyclingEurope.org. If you think you might have something to contribute, please get in touch. Whether you’ve embarked on an epic ride or simply decided to to get back into […]
“You should read this book. It is a wonderful tale of a bicycle journey…” So says Tom Ivar Horvei in a review of Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie in a review just published on Goodreads, the respected literary review site, where the book is currently […]
Here is a post from Rachel Cullen’s website. She’s a runner but has caught the bug for cycling… For anyone who knows the Calder Valley (as I do), the hills she refers to will be familiar. I feel her pain!
It’s back: will you pledge? You can do so here. Here’s what the organisers have to say: Cycle to Work Day, the annual event encouraging workers across the UK to take to two wheels for their commute, will celebrate its 5th anniversary this September 13th. The event invites […]
Does the world need another cycling podcast? We are about to find out…
What is the CyclingEurope.org Podcast? Here’s your answer. Over to, err… me: Subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or listen on the Awesound website.
Hola! This year’s Tour of Spain got underway last weekend with a really absorbing Team Time Trial in the ancient city of Nîmes. My first image is of the team with the magical name ‘Sunweb’ – They put in a great performance, but lost out to eventual stage […]
A sample from the soon-to-be-launched Cycling Europe Podcast. The full podcast which includes reports and interviews from across the world of cycling, adventure and travel is published on September 1st (and every first of the month thereafter!).
Here’s a cycling event with a difference: ‘Up The Buttress…’. The buttress in question is a steep, cobbled 365 metre lane from Hebden Bridge in the direction of Heptonstall in the Calder Valley of Yorkshire. In the words of the organisers: “£10 to attempt the Buttress, then your […]
After this year’s visit to see the Tour de France and my ever-growing enthusiasm for the Tour de Yorkshire, I feel I should know the other big ‘classic’ races better than I do. Yesterday saw the start of La Vuelta, Spain’s grand tour, so I’ve just given myself […]
A guest post by Alexa Cobb Whether you’ve seen someone riding down the street on one or you’ve read about them in a magazine, electric bikes are becoming a popular phenomenon. For some, an electric bike enables them to get to work without needing a shower when they […]
The observant amongst you will notice that, on September 1st, the first CyclingEurope.org podcast will be unleashed into the world! It is still very much a work-in-progress but I’ve decided to share with you a snippet (well, it’s a 15 minute long ‘snippet’ that will probably be trimmed […]
CyclingEurope.org has just received a bit of a makeover… and what better way to mark the event than an initiative that seeks to reinvent a disused railway tunnel into something that could benefit generations of future cyclists: The Queensbury Tunnel. This website has seen how disused railway infrastructure […]
It’s a tradition that dates back many years – nearly 50 I think – and is held every August in a different location over the course of a week. Around 500 members of Cycling UK (although these guys hang on to the original name, the CTC) pay a […]
A few weeks ago, as the Tour de France made its way across the French countryside, I had the opportunity of visiting the Dordogne region of France courtesy of the organisers of the Tour de Yorkshire, Welcome to Yorkshire. If this is news to you (or you have […]
12:33am: Talk went very well. Good crowd of 30ish. It’s been a long day. Another two hours until home… Goodnight from Leicester Forest East. 5:55pm: Bicycles and… err… cows: 5:45pm: Business on the Cam is brisk. Well, there seem to be lots of punters… (I’ll get my coat…) […]
Don’t believe any author, actor, painter, candlestick-maker… who says they don’t read their reviews. Of course they do. They then just deny it so as to sound self-deprecating. However, perhaps because of the long road along which I have pedalled both literally as well as metaphorically to becoming […]
Updated 31/7/17 – Scroll to bottom for a few notes about ‘audax’ On the day of perhaps Britain’s largest and most well-known sportive – the Prudential Ride London – a few reflections about language. As a French speaker I know the meaning of the word ‘sportive‘ in its […]
Here’s a sad tale. The Transcontinental Race is described as follows: “Race from Flanders to Istanbul via checkpoints at some of cycling’s most iconic locations and Europe’s historic landmarks. The route you take is up to you but will be at least 2500 miles of riding and some […]
I joined Warmshowers – the cycle touring community’s accommodation sharing website – over 7 years ago but after finishing my last long trip in 2015 and moving up to Yorkshire, things went quiet. In Reading – in the Thames Valley – I was en route to London from […]
I’ve just spotted this on the Cycle Touring Festival twitter feed… Over to you Laura! Regional Gatherings [Read the original post here] The best thing about the Cycle Touring Festival is the chance to spend time with like-minded people. The worst thing is that it only happens once […]
Hang on! Isn’t this my territory???? There I was thinking I had cornered the market in crossing Europe on a bike called anything – I’ve done it three times don’t you know – but I read today that the hirsute Sean Conway is muscling in on my niche! […]
I have spent much of my time in the last few months marketing the new book, Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie (there I go again…), and, perhaps as a result, there has been renewed interest in books one and two. A new review appeared yesterday […]
When posting this morning’s video about the snail on his little adventure across my back yard towards the bin (I haven’t seen him since by the way so he could have made it over the wall, across the field and into the jaws of a passing crow by […]
One of those ‘nothing to do with cycling’ posts but this little guy was off on an adventure around the bin this morning so I thought I’d make him famous…
Here’s a post from the summer of 2015 as I travelled across Europe from southern Spain to northern Norway including a wobbly cycle up the Champs Elysées, somewhat slower – see the video – than today’s professionals in the Tour de France. Read the full story in Spain […]
As this year’s Tour rolls into Paris for its final étape, a longer post that you normally find in this corner of the Internet reflecting upon my visit to France last week with Welcome To Yorkshire to witness stages 10 and 11 of the Tour de France 2017. […]
I met Frank at the Cycle Touring Festival in May. He was good company and he has written extensively about cycling on his own website. Here is the latest installment of his current trip around Ireland. Worth a read.
Maxine has featured here before and, with the theme of the week being the Tour de France, I see no reason not to share another of her rather beautiful posts. More available on her own site. Hello! Another scene from this lovely stage – this time showing team […]
I read the review for Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie that I have copied and pasted below whilst sitting in my car outside the Meltham branch of Morrisons en route home from my few days in the Dordogne visiting the Tour de France (see previous posts). […]
It’s here again; a chance to cycle around the cycling track in Elland. Here’s what happened last year:
Kittel won the day, again, but here’s the build up in Eymet as the cyclists, their bikes, the crowds and the media – me included – prepared for the off…
Well, CyclingEurope.org has rarely been closer to the action. Today we are at the arrival line of stage 10 of the Tour de France in Bergerac. More updates later (although let’s face it, you might find out who won more quickly by watching ITV4…)
A selection of photos to keep you going. I’ll write up when home.
It’s taken nine years of blogging, over 2,500 blog posts, 20,000 kilometres of cycling around Europe and three (rather good) books… but I’ve finally been invited on an all-expenses tour of a foreign land. The land in question is the Dordogne region of France and earlier this afternoon […]
One for the francophones (& filmmakers – see below): “Le samedi 17 mars 2018, le GRACQ de Watermael-Boitsfort propose aux amoureux de la petite reine une journée entièrement dédiée aux voyages à vélo. Les projections de films vous feront découvrir qu’ici ou ailleurs, seul(e), en famille ou entre […]
Very often when you look back upon events of the past, they seem to have happened only very recently when in fact they took place many years ago. I have the opposite sensation about the 6th July 2014 as the events of that particularly momentous day appear (in […]
Long-term followers of the website – and I mean very long-term as in those who were here at the start back in August 2008 – may remember one person getting more column inches on this blog than any other. He was first mentioned in this post and this […]
Signed copies of the new book – ‘Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie’ – as well as the first two books – ‘Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie‘ and ‘Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie‘ – are available for £15 per book, two books […]
It was Ireland last weekend and England this weekend: London and York. Thanks to David Hibbs and all at Blue Door Bicycles in Crystal Palace and all at The York Rally. A long but interesting and enjoyable 2 days! More dates to come in August and September (and […]
My cycle along the Waterford Greenway – see previous post – was inspired by my visit to the Lismore Immrama Festival of Travel Writing where I had been asked to give a talk. A more friendlier and welcoming bunch of people it would be hard to find and […]
Here’s the visual story of my day cycling along the Waterford Greenway in Ireland last week. It was certainly Waterford and it was certainly green… I had camped in Dungarvan – my destination at the southern end of the Greenway – on Thursday night… …and a friendly […]
Tried to write this on Friday evening but the WordPress app chose to freeze once I’d finished and my efforts were lost. Second time lucky, hopefully. No images for the time being as the iPhone cameras – back and front – are kaput. The usual remedies have failed […]
