By Beth Riley The 2020 Tour de France is almost upon us and following the consistent success of British cyclists over the last decade, the expectations for continued glory remain just as high as ever. Given the Criterium du Dauphine is often regarded as an indication of current […]
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.
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…
“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.”
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.
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?!
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