Category: Travel

Susanna Thornton: “Hong Kong To London, A Big Bicycle Adventure”

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After posting the latest episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast to YouTube yesterday, someone called Rat Whittleym commented asking “Have you watched Susanna Thornton on here? Very inspirational”. Sharon Merredew followed that up by posting “Would you be able to interview Susanna at some point? Sheโ€™s amazing.” I don’t think I had ever heard of Susanna Thornton before so I did an online search. She has a YouTube page – quite a simple one – with a number of cycling / bikepacking / cycle touring videos, many recounting tales of her travels on a Brompton. Her latest video was uploaded only yesterday and it looks back at a cycle she completed in 2006 which took her from Hong Kong where she had lived for some years to London where she had been offered a new role by the company she worked for.

YOUTUBE EXCLUSIVE: Episode 065 Of The Cycling Europe Podcast

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Matthew Sturgeon is an architect and cyclist from Ilkley in Yorkshire and heโ€™s onย  a mission to visit every one of mainland Britainโ€™s 186 lighthouses. Inspired by his late late wife Angela, who raised ยฃ40,000 for cancer research, Matthew is raising money for his A Bit Of A Break charity. It funds visits for cancer patients and their families to holiday properties around the UK. He started collecting his lighthouses with a ride along the Northumbrian coast and has now visited 100. But why lighthouses? Whatโ€™s his favourite lighthouse? What has been the most disappointing lighthouse? What has been the most difficult to cycle to? And what will be lighthouse number 186? Matthew tells his story to The Cycling Europe Podcastโ€ฆ

EuroVelo 8 – Mediterranean Route: (My) Once-In-A-lifetime Experience

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It will soon be 10 years that I set off to cycle along the Mediterranean coast from Cape Sounio in southern Greece to Cape St. Vincent in southern Portugal. My route was inspired by the EuroVelo 8, although it was much less developed back then than it is today. I saw some EuroVelo 8 signs in Catalonia but aside from that, I’m not quite sure I saw any elsewhere. And after Valencia, when I was beginning to run short of time – I needed to be back at work at the beginning of September – I headed inland, away from the coast in order to complete the journey without resorting to jumping on the train.

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 064 – Laura Massey-Pugh – Around The World On A Tandem

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An ever-increasing number of people have cycled around the world. Not many have done it on a tandem. Even fewer have broken a world record in the process. Laura Massey-Pugh was on the back and her husband Stevie was on the front of their custom-made tandem when, in June 2022 they set off from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, destination the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. 175 days later they completed their journey. Before setting off, Laura recorded a short monologue for episode 32 of The Cycling Europe Podcast. Now she returns to tell the full story of what it means to cycle 18,000 miles around the globe. Is it as easy as riding a, errโ€ฆ tandem?

Episode 064: Laura Massey-Pugh – Around The World On A Tandem

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An ever-increasing number of people have cycled around the world. Not many have done it on a tandem. Even fewer have broken a world record in the process. Laura Massey-Pugh was on the back and her husband Stevie was on the front of their custom-made tandem when, in June 2022 they set off from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, destination the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. 175 days later they completed their journey. Before setting off, Laura recorded a short monologue for episode 32 of The Cycling Europe Podcast. Now she returns to tell the full story of what it means to cycle 18,000 miles around the globe. Is it as easy as riding a, errโ€ฆ tandem?ย  ย 

Markus Stitz: Home Is Where The Trails Take You

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A new film from Germanyโ€™s permanent representative to the Scottish bike packing fraternityโ€‹. His reputation precedes him and he has featured many times previously on the pages of CyclingEurope.org. He is, of course, Markus Stitz. This time his filmmaking skills have taken him to the Cairngorms National Park to discover is cycle routes and meet its peopleโ€ฆ

The (Virtual) Cycle Touring Festival 2023

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Regular listeners to The Cycling Europe Podcast will see some familiar names on the list of participants in this yearโ€™s virtual Cycle Touring Festival. From Timmy Mallet to Anna Hughes, from Candy Whittome to Rob Ainsley. Just four of the many speakers at the event which takes place from Saturday 28th January to Sunday 5th February.