La Vélo Francette – The Film Première
YouTube, Saturday 21st February 2026, 12:00 GMT
Coming Soon: La Vélo Francette – The Film
It’s taken a while but I’m hoping to have the complete film edited before the end of February. Watch this space!
The Cyclist Film Festival: Coming To A City Near You In 2025
A few years ago, Ian Street, Leeds’ leading welshman, organised what he called the Leeds Bicycle Film Club. I used to travel over once a month to watch the films that he curated and which were shown in the projection room of a pub just outside the city centre. Cycling films form a rich genre of celluloid splendour, although what quite contitues a ‘cycling film’ is a grey area. Ultimately, who cares? The events were good fun and usually involved beer so what’s not to like?
HammEdventures: “You Are Coming With Us Every Step Of The Way”
Since this website was created back in 2008 – over 16 years ago (scary!) – I’ve been contacted by hundreds of people asking questions, offering advice and giving their opinions. One of the first people to contact me was Chris Hammersley. In 2009 he was planning to travel along a similar route to my own in 2010 from the UK to the south of Italy. From memory, I think he ended up travelling a few weeks behind me. In fact he did! I’ve just been trawling through the CyclingEurope.org archive and he set off on August 9th 2010. And I’m delighted to see that the website that he set up 15 years ago is still going strong!
Route YC: Cycling The Yorkshire Coast
Markus Stitz has been featured several times on this website and here he is again. And when I write ‘here’, I really mean ‘here’. He’s been to Yorkshire with Mark Beaumont and Heather Graham to cycle the length of the Yorkshire coastline. The route the trio followed has been rebranded and relaunched as ‘Route YC’ (Yorkshire coast) and Markus has made another beautiful film to add to his growing collection of stunning cycling films.
La France À Vélo – À La Rencontre De Ses Habitants
Time to dig out your French dictionary and start regretting not having done your French homework all those years ago. Here’s a fun – and very well made – film about cycling across France during the COVID 19 epidemic. His route is not dissimilar to that of my own journey south across France in 2022. Other films about cycling across France are available, notable my own… Thanks to the ever-supportive Simon Johnson for pointing me in the direction of Tortuga’s film. One for all lovers of France (and those in training to become one…)
HikingEurope.org: Le Tour Du Mont Blanc – Teaser
Here’s a short teaser video for a film that I’m currently putting together to tell the story of my two-week hike along the Tour du Mont Blanc earlier in the month. Enjoy!
Paris: À Vélo (Vélib’)
Following my arrival in the Alps (see previous posts) I embarked upon a two-week trek along (most of) the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB), one of the world’s classic hikes. Keep scrolling for a selection of photos but before you do, I did manage to squeeze in some cycling whilst passing through Paris on my way home. Yesterday evening, with a hiking colleague from the TMB group who had also made the correct decision to take the train home rather than fly, I cycled from my hotel down to the Eiffel Tower. This morning I set off again on a short Parisian odyssey on one of the Vélib’ eBikes taking in the Louvre, Champs Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Seine (a bit bumpy of the cobbles!) and back to the Gare du Nord.
Happy Yorkshire (Cycling) Day
The weather may be more reminiscent of winter but it is August 1st and that means it’s Yorkshire Day. What better an opportunity (especially bearing in mind that it’s chucking it down outside) to sit back and watch three Yorkshire-themed cycling videos from recent years. If you happy to live in Lancashire, you’ll also benefit from a few minutes of your county at the start of the Way of the Roses film. Happy Yorkshire Day!
“How Did You Remember That?”
It’s a question I am occasionally asked. My quest to re-cycle the route of last year’s Grand Tour around Europe in written form continues… Today I will hopefully ‘arrive’ in La Rochelle. It was one of the longest days of cycling from Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie to La Rochelle on the west coast of France. 140km in total. At least the landscape was flat and it was a beautifully sunny day. This is the fourth book that I will have written about my travels on a bike. When I think back to writing that first book, it was very much a detective job as I didn’t record much information about the cycle from southern England to southern Italy in 2010; a few short web posts, a few photos, no video to speak of and not even a GPS track. Why would I bother? It wasn’t as if I was ever going to need all that detail again…
The Culzean Way
Here’s an interesting email from the cyclist and filmmaker Marcus Stitz… I’ve featured his films on CyclingEurope.org before; he is based in Scotland and many of his films are about routes in Scotland but he also ventures further afield. The Culzean Way, however, is one of his Scottish films and when I saw the name I did think it sounded familiar. I’ve just realised why… Culzean Castle!
Camping & Hiking In Wasdale And Eskdale
I’ve just made a return trip to The Lake District and the National Trust campsite in Wasdale. I stayed there for a couple of nights back in 2018 when I climbed Scafell Pike (see the film at the foot of this post). Last week I was there with a friend to do some hiking in and around the valley. I wasn’t on the bike so this is one for HikingEurope.org rather than CyclingEurope.org although we did drive up the Hardknott Pass, one of Britain’s more challenging cycling climbs. It was hard work in a car never mind on a bike but perhaps one to add to the list of future two-wheeled challenges…
“One Of My All-Time Favourite YouTube Videos… Epic Stuff!”
On July 3rd 2022 I set off from The Hook of Holland in The Netherlands, turned right and pedalled off in the direction of France. It was an anti-clockwise tour of the continent; the EuroVelo 12 along the Belgian coast, the EuroVelo 4 to Dieppe, L’Avenue Verte to Paris, La Véloscénie to Mont St Michel before rejoining the EuroVelo 4 to Morlaix, the EuroVelo 1 / Vélodyssée to Royan, the Canal de la Garonne to Toulouse, the Canal du Midi to Sète, the EuroVelo 17 beside the Rhône to Andermatt in Switzerland and finally the EuroVelo 15 / Rhine Cycle Route back to The Hook of Holland and the return ferry to Hull on September 3rd.
Tenerife: Day 5
A few mindful moments just after sunrise on my final morning staying in Costa Adeje on the Spanish island of Tenerife. It’s interesting seeing how, from the perspective of the drone, the natural and man-made worlds have collided rather sharply. But at 8am there was still calm to be found before people crawl from their beds and take up position beside the pools, in the cafés and bars and on the beaches…
Tenerife: Day 4
When I was thinking about what to do today, top of the list of ‘possibles’ was staying at the hotel and cracking on with some writing. I was hoping to knock off at least another couple of chapters of the new book this week, but it hasn’t happened, yet. And it never happened this morning. With it been another nice day, it seemed a waste to sit at my computer, especially when there are so many things I haven’t done on this island. That includes getting anywhere near Mount Teide. Would today be the day I did?
Tenerife: Day 3
The cycling day… It’s strange being on a cycling holiday without a bicycle. That’s how it felt yesterday. Today the normal order was restored and I have been cycling. Not on my bike but a hire bike from a local company called Mr Bike Tenerife. I don’t think that’s his real name but Mr Bike delivered the ‘Pro Mountain Bike’ to the hotel this morning at just after 11:30 as promised. Let the cycling commence…
Tenerife: Day 2
I still have to jump on a bike but… I suppose that was never the plan until day 3. Today was spent wandering very slowly along the coast from Costa Adeje to Los Cristianos and then back again via a route slightly inland. My fitness app tells me 20km and 27,000 steps. Thant will work wonders on the average.
Markus Stitz: Home Is Where The Trails Take You
A new film from Germany’s permanent representative to the Scottish bike packing fraternity. 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 people…
Danny MacAskill’s Postcard From San Francisco
I noticed a new video from Danny MacAskill this week: Postcard from San Francisco. I haven’t really been keeping up with his videos in recent months and years but when it comes to spectacular cycling films, his are difficult to beat and, with the financial might of the Red Bull corporation, the production values are cinematic. How he manages to balance on top of that tennis net is a mystery known only to the man himself. I like how he has to push his bike through Alcatraz and it’s good to know that he does fall off once in a while (probably significantly more than that…). Enjoy the film!
Le Grand Tour: The Film Premieres
In recent weeks, indeed since returning from my ‘Grand Tour’ of the continent early in September, I haven’t posted much to CyclingEurope.org. But I have been busy. Busy film editing… It was always my plan to make use of the significant amount of video footage – over 3,000 clips – in a film that retold the story of the epic cycle from The Hook of Holland to The Hook of Holland via much of France, Switzerland and the Rhinelands.
Le Grand Tour: Part 3 – La Véloscénie (Paris To Mont-Saint-Michel)
Later this year I will be releasing a film about my 5,500km journey by bicycle and train from the Hook of Holland, along the Dutch and Belgian coasts, anticlockwise around France, into Switzerland beside the Rhone and finally along the Rhine to Rotterdam. Editing takes time but, in anticipation of the full film being finished by the end of 2022, here’s a 10-minute segment of the film that tells the story of my cycle along La Véloscénie from Paris to Mont-Saint-Michel via Chartres, Nogent-le-Rotrou and Domfront. Wacth out for the Musée du Vélo! The music is from the skilled fingers of Rob Ainsley and the audio commentary is taken from episode 054 of The Cycling Europe Podcast.
The Kit Required To Blog, Video And Podcast Around Europe
Here’s a post that some will love but others with loathe… I’ve been gathering together my kit for Le Grand Tour for a few days now and there will, inevitably, be a rather clichéd picture of it all laid out on the floor (see previous big trip kit posts ad nausea…). Look out for that perhaps the day before I set off on July 2nd. It will be the usual standard stuff; tent, sleeping bag, packet of spaghetti (“You do know they have dried spaghetti in France don’t you…” some wag will quip)… But what usually gets lost in those photos is the electronic kit that, increasingly, seems to be standard. Although many will disagree…
New Cycling / Cat Film: The Cat Cyclist
Remember the ‘lockdown project’? It seemed that most people had one; tiling the bathroom, writing an anthology of poetry, organising a series of parties that you would later deny were actually parties to the UK parliament (and even if they were, you had nothing to do with them…). That kind of thing. My lockdown project was to make an audio documentary about the life and times of Maximilian J. St. George. (I’ll post the link below.) Well, Easter has just finished and I had an ‘Easter Project’ (you heard it here first)…
The GoPro Hero 10: Next-Level Stabilisation
Just before Christmas 2021, I had a clear out of old electrical items. One of those items was a GoPro Hero 4 camera that I think I bought back in around 2014. I definitely used it – to very good effect – on the cycle from Spain to Norway in the summer of 2015. Athough there was a very small amount of superficial damage to the Hero 4, it still worked fine. The battery life was poor, however, and it was limited to 1080 HD when it came to the picture quality. With cycling the Baltic this coming summer in mind, I have just bought a replacement GoPro – the Hero 10 – and things have moved on somewhat…
Explore Your Boundaries – Mark Beaumont / Markus Stitz
Explore Your Boundaries – a new documentary by Mark Beaumont and Markus Stitz – is all about gravel routes following the council boundaries of Clackmannanshire, East Lothian, Falkirk and Glasgow in Scotland. Markus mentioned the film at the recent Cycle Touring Festival. It was inspired by the national lockdowns and the requirement to ‘stay local’ with our exercise. It’s difficult to comprehend that the first of those lockdowns was nearly two years ago. Life seems to have returned to normal for most people, but I’m still wearing my mask on public transport and in shops. Although it was clearly a terrible time for many, I do look back upon those months of relative peace and quiet with some nostalgia, although I readily admit that my reminiscences are probably very rose-tinted… Here’s the film:
WarmShowers Forums: Swedish Trains And Videos
Earlier this week I received an email from WarmShowers, the accommodation sharing website aimed at cycle tourists, about their ‘forums’. Whenever I think of forums my mind turns back to the early days of the Internet when things were a little more ‘clunky’ than they are now. But they must still be a ‘thing’ and the fact that WarmShowers have them on their website would suggest that, actually, they are still widely used.
NEW VIDEO: Cycling Stirling To Edinburgh… In 10 Minutes
I’ve been taking a break from the website and social media but before I return in early 2022, here’s a short video about a recent trip to Scotland. In late November 2021 I attended a Cycling UK event in Stirling, where I had been asked to give a talk about ‘Cycling Europe’. It was the perfect excuse to embark upon a wee bit of winter cycling – from Stirling to Edinburgh along the northern bank of the Firth of Forth – with a little time to explore the two cities at either end of the route…
Cycling Route 66: Under The Sun
If you live in the north of England, you don’t have to travel far to get to Route 66. The other Route 66 that is; the cycling one. In my part of the north – West Yorkshire – it’s the Calder Valley Cycleway and follows the Rochdale Canal. With friend Craig, I spent much of today cycling in a loop from home to Ripponden, up the hill to Batings Reservoir and then down the other side of the Pennines to Littleborough where we hooked up with the Rochdale Canal.
The Koga (Signature) WorldTraveller Bicycle: Reviewed
A few weeks ago a woman contacted me on social media and pointed out that her husband was holding back on buying a new bike until I published a review of the Koga WorldTraveller bicycle that I purchased back in the early summer of 2019. I have to admit that I have promised a review on several occasions but never actually got around to writing one. Well, finally, here it is. Much to the relief of the husband concerned…
Cycling Europe: Online Catch-Up
It’s now nearly 6 years since I completed my cycle from Europe’s southernmost point to the continent’s northernmost point; Tarifa to Nordkapp or, as it was later immortalised in the title of the book, Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie. Many of you will have read […]
Winter In Spring: April Snow Showers In Northern England
We seemed to have had more than our fair share of snow in the north of England during the winter of 2020-21. Last week, however, the temperatures were in the low twenties and people were sunbathing on the beaches at Scarborough so I wasn’t quite expecting to wake up this morning and see that the snow had returned in April. I put the drone into action and here is the result. I reckon that by midday it will have all melted – probably until next winter – but you never know…
Bicycle Meets Drone
The wind was a pain but at location number three, the cameras rolled… Wanda has met the drone!
The DJI Mini 2 Drone: First Flight
I have a new tool… And the results are rather good: I have to admit that it has taken three days and three short flights to make that 45 second video. Flying the drone is a rather nerve racking experience at first and even during tonight’s third flight, […]
What Did You Do During Lockdown, Sir?
When I woke up this morning I noticed a report on the BBC website titled ‘I’ve been listening to 300 vinyl records to get me through lockdown’. That’s an impressive achievement, I’m sure, and probably a very enjoyable one. On Monday March 8th I return to work after having spent most of the last twelve months on lockdown. It’s been a mixture of furlough from my job at a local arts centre combined with on-off periods of working in local schools as a teacher but that has only amounted to three months out of the twelve. So basically, like many others across the world, I’ve had a lot of time on my hands. Lots of walking, a fair bit of cycling (including the trip around the UK of course and a few days up in the Yorkshire Dales), reading, TV, films… the usual stuff. Ah yes! There’s also been The Cycling Europe Podcast. On that score, it has been a very productive year…
The End Of Winter Is Nigh…
Cycling Films At The Cycle Touring Festival
The virtual Cycle Touring Festival has got off to a good start – perhaps you have already ‘attended’ some of the events – and the programme continues throughout this week. There’s a full run-down of the live events in this post on CyclingEurope.org in which I made a passing reference to the ‘other events’ that form part of the festival. One of those is a programme of films and I’m slowly making my way through the listings. So far I’ve watched the following three films, each of which are very different in their style.
Helmets: Cracking Open A New Kask
I tread wearily when broaching the subject of cycling helmets as I know what contentious / passionate debates they can provoke. Some hate them and will never wear them; others love them and would never not wear one. I stand somewhere in between; I have one and wear it when it’s appropriate to do so. I accept the argument that if you are run over by a truck whilst cycling, there is little that a bit of plastic and foam is going to do to save you, irrespective of how highly engineered that plastic and foam might be. That’s not why I choose to wear a helmet when I do wear a helmet. I wear a helmet when the conditions would suggest that it is prudent to do so. This is not an exhaustive list but I usually do so when it is raining, when it’s windy, when I am going downhill fast or when I feel the traffic is somewhat intimidating. If I’m on a short journey – usually when I am commuting – I tend to wear the helmet as I don’t want to stop to put it on if I need to. Not doing so also requires you to find somewhere else to put the helmet. Your head, apart from anything else, is a convenient place to store a helmet, even if it’s not needed. And why do I choose to wear a helmet when it’s raining etc…? Because I think that it’s at those times when there is the greatest chance of me skidding off the bike and hitting my head on the floor. In that respect, a helmet might save my life.
2020: The ‘Interesting’ Year In Review
So 2020… it will go down in history as the ‘interesting’ year. More infamous than famous. It does seem to have been a year that has passed very quickly. Perhaps it was the soap-opera nature of the whole COVID thing, waiting for the next bit of breaking news that might change our lives for the better but which, more often than not, delivered yet more bad news. However, in a year of many, many negatives it is worth reflecting upon the fact that the global pandemic did have knock-on positives. I don’t usually show it, but I consider myself to be an optimist and if ever there was a year when being an optimist – even a blind optimist – was more useful than ever, it has surely been 2020.
The Great British Cycle Tour: The Film Première!
In these somewhat strange times, heading out to the cinema to watch a film, let alone attending a film première, might be off the agenda for most people. Yet today I can offer you the chance to do just that from the comfort of your own home. You are formally invited to the film premiere of The Great British Cycle Tour: The Film. The film premières on YouTube on Sunday 27th December at 6pm UK time (that’s GMT)…
‘Twas (The Rather Frustrating) Week Before Christmas / Japan 2021?
On Sunday 6th December I was awoken by a ping on my phone. When I looked it was the NHS COVID app. I’d received messages before from the app telling me that all was well and that it was continuing to do its job. This message was different… I was informed that I had been in contact with someone who had subsequently tested positive for the virus and that I should self-isolate for 14 days. For a few moments I pondered the situation. The app is anonymous so I could just ignore it… but that wouldn’t be the best thing to do. In fact it would be the wrong thing to do. So I resolved to stay at home. Somewhat of a pain on several levels, not least the inconvenience of having to, well, stay at home (although living as I do in the countryside, I didn’t see any harm in going for a wander down the valley on a couple of occasions) and that I had to cancel about £1,000 of supply teaching work for which I had already been booked. Not a great start to the month…
The Great British Cycle Tour: The First Rushes Of The Film!
Having just upgraded my computer, I’m now in a position to start editing the film of last summer’s Great British Cycle Tour. Here’s a few minutes from the start of the movie… Hopefully the complete film with be readyy by the end of the month.
A Short History Of Cycling Maps*
When it comes to the mapping of my various cycles, things have come a long way in the past decade. Today a great leap forward took place and here it is in all its 4k glory (if you have a monitor, tablet, phone or TV that is up for the challenge). Sit back and enjoy The Great British Cycle Tour of 2020 animated map.
The Great British Cycle Tour: The Film Teaser
My project for December is to edit the film of this summer’s Great British Cycle Tour. I’ve just started piecing things together and have started to consider options when it comes to the ‘look’ of the film. I’m tempted to go down the black and white route. What do you think? Here’s the ‘teaser’ that I’ve just uploaded to the Cycling Europe YouTube Channel.
The Yorkshire Dales… On A Bike Called Wanda, The Film
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
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.
The Great British Cycle Tour 2020: Days 19 – 28
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 24: Morning In The Wye Valley
The sun is shining so here’s an early, visual, update…
Cadair Idris: The Great Escape
Having just spent the night at the foot of Cadair Idris, perhaps it’s an appropriate time to repost this video from a couple of years ago when I climbed the mountain at dusk with a friend. We got lost and camped near the summit but only found the […]
The Great British Cycle Tour 2020: Days 15 – 17
To be continued? Who knows? If you’d like to catch up, here are the previous instalments:
The Great British Cycle Tour 2020: Days 10 – 14
Slightly renamed… …and if you’d like to catch up, here are the previous instalments:
Man On Bike: “A Film About What Pushes Us Beyond”
A documentary film from Yorkshire – now available for all to see for free via Vimeo – about life, death, and bicycles; “a film about what pushes us beyond”.
The Changing Face Of The Cycling Europe Podcast
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…
Strike Up The Pipers! A Minute Of (Yorkshire) Sun…
Clutching at straws here but it was nice while it lasted yesterday afternoon in the Scammonden Valley. Hoping for more sun next week when, well, more of that later…
Ding Dong! The Sonorous Sound Of The Crane Bell, No?
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
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…
The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 021 Teaser
Available to stream or download from 15.6.20. CyclingEurope.org/Podcast
Ceri Middleton: Bikepacking Across Spain In February
Ceri was one of the cyclists who submitted their photographs to the recent cycle touring photo competition and he even made it to the shortlisted final ten photographs. It was a cracking image (shown above). It was taken during a trip in February 2019 along the Ruta de la Plata in western Spain. In fact, his route from Seville to north-eastern Spain brought back good memories from my own cycling trip along a very similar route back in 2015 as I made my way from Spain to Norway…
Scammonden Valley… In 4K
You may remember a couple of months ago ago at the start of the lockdown period, I wrote a post for CyclingEurope.org about my local wanderings up and down the Scammonden Valley where I live here in West Yorkshire and how I had managed to discover some interesting nooks and crannies. At the time I thought I must make a video. And last weekend, I did just that.
The Cycle Touring Festival This Weekend! (No..?)
At last! It’s here! The weekend of the Cycle Touring Festival in Clitheroe. I’m really looking forward to… What? Really? Ah yes… It was cancelled. Mmm… That pesky Coronavirus thing. Bugger! What’s that? Oh yes, I remember… There was a ‘virtual’ replacement festival that took place in April instead. Of course there was…
The 4K Beauty Of Stainland Woods
One of those posts for the ‘nothing-to-do-with-cycling’ category but I have no hesitation in sharing with you this video that I made earlier today during my lockdown walk through the local woods. I am so grateful to live in a place that, within a few minutes of my […]
Barry Godin: Tour Of Mont Blanc
As lockdown continues, cycling anywhere remotely exotic is most definitely off the agenda for several months to come. Stay local! However that doesn’t prevent us from vicariously enjoying the adventures of others from the pre-Coronavirus era. Barry Godin has just published a new film about mountain biking the Tour de Mont Blanc. Having walked almost all of the Tour de Mont Blanc route over two seperate hiking trips – in 2006 and then in 2016 – it’s an area of the world that I know well and Barry’s film was a pleasure to watch.
Pannier.cc – Rainspotting In Scotland
Worth 17 minutes of your time… I am reminded of my own trip up to Scotland in 2014 when I took the (old) sleeper train north eating haggis in the dining car and washing it all down with whisky. I must return to Scotland soon…
The Time To Stop Cycling? I Think It Might Be…
It seems likely is that in a few weeks time, we will be at the point on the curve where Spain and Italy now find themselves. Yesterday it was reported that in Italy “The latest crackdown effectively bans jogging and bicycle rides, the only types of outdoor exercise that were allowed.” Might it be a good idea to refrain from doing so here in the UK when we are at an earlier point on the curve? I think it might.
Santander To Coimbra 2019: The Movie
If you follow @CyclingEurope on Twitter, you may have noticed that over the past couple of weeks, short videos have been posted recounting the story of my cycle from Santander in Spain to Coimbra in Portugal last summer. The reason for the appearances of the videos is two-fold. […]
Cycling Documentaries: I Travel By Bike / Life Lessons…
Meet Cat, a woman who loves bicycle touring. I’ve just watched this video whilst sitting on the bus, stuck in a traffic jam, here in my little corner of West Yorkshire. Inspiring stuff! (Cat, not the traffic jam…) It’s also beautifully filmed. Here’s another one. (You really should […]
YouTube: Cycling (…Moon And Alpacas)
There is lots of cycling content on the Cycling Europe YouTube channel, but there’s also the moon and a few appearances for the local alpacas…
Cycling Europe 2019: Spain And Portugal – The Movie
It’s time to cast your mind back to the summer of 2019 and my cycle from Santander in Spain to Coimbra in Portugal (via a train along the Douro Valley and Porto). A welcome return to continental long-distance cycling for the cyclist and a shakedown for Wanda the […]
Talking Of Cycling In Spain And Portugal: The Preamble
I’m delighted to say that I have a new talk in production for 2020. It focuses primarily upon my 2019 cycle across northern Spain to the Douro Valley in Portugal and onwards to Coimbra. There is still much to prepare before the talk gets its premiere in Halifax […]
Ghent: “If You Design A City For Cars, You Get Cars; If You Design A City For People, You Get People”
Wonderful film! So many wise words spoken here but they are summed up in the title to this post. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! Meantime in Britain so many are fixated on (cue grunt) “getting Brexit done!“. Sad, sad, sad… This is what progressive nations are doing on the continent. […]
Yorkshire: In The Bleak Midwinter (And Chickens)
The winter solstice has been and gone but the dark nights remain for some time yet. Following on from the post earlier this month about cycling films – read it here – I’ve been busy putting the Canon XA40 into practice and this weekend have produced two, err… […]
Cycle Touring Films: Past, Present… And Future?
Earlier this week I was alerted by Twitter follower Dominic Carroll to a video that is available on YouTube. Made in 1971 by the BBC, the film – in two parts online – tells the story of Scotsman Bill Houston, a former soldier and, at the time of […]
Off The Beaten Track: The Luddenden Valley And Castle Carr
Despite the rather dull, wet weather (at least it wasn’t too cold), I went for a little local jaunt on the bike this afternoon with a friend, setting off from the very Christmassy Piece Hall in Halifax… …keeping out of the bottom of Calder Valley by taking a […]
The EuroVelo 5: Cycling Lucca To London
It’s always nice when people get in contact either to give their own perspective on cycling in Europe (or indeed elsewhere) or seeking advice and guidance. Jess contacted me back in June via this post – The Alps, Security, Water & The Ciclopista Del Sole – that was […]
Sustrans: Trails, Lochs And Glens…
These are nice: “Walking and cycling charity Sustrans has teamed up with mapping experts Ordnance Survey (OS) to launch a series of video clips that explore the National Cycle Network – a network of traffic-free paths and on-road cycle routes spanning the breadth of the UK. Created by […]
Bikepacking Microadventure: West Is Best
A nice little film to start your weekend from Cycling UK, aka the CTC…
The Cycling Europe Podcast: Isle Of Wight Video Promo
Listen to the full episode of the podcast of the podcast page of CyclingEurope.org, via iTunes or search for The Cycling Europe Podcast on your preferred purveyor of podcasts. Read all about the two-day trip to the Isle of Wight in the following post on CyclingEurope.org:
The Long Read: Cycling The Isle Of Wight
In the first of a series of posts, I look back over this year’s summer of cycling that took me and ‘a bike called Wanda‘ to Spain and Portugal preceded by a short visit to the Isle of Wight. Indeed it is on England’s largest island where we […]
The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 010 – The Isle Of Wight
The Cycling Europe Podcast is heading to northern Spain and Portugal* but pauses en route for two days of cycling on the Isle of Wight. Andrew P. Sykes follows the Round-the-Island Cycle Route in an anticlockwise direction before hooking up with the Red Squirrel Trail for a return […]
Last Of The Summer Rides?
Back from the mainland, wandering more locally with Wanda… Hopefully the answer to the question is ‘no, not yet!‘.
Cycling Europe 2019: 21 Days Of Travelling In 20 Videos
Which is your favourite? All Cycling Europe’s videos can be found on the Cycling Europe YouTube Channel.
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 19, Santander
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 18 (Part 2), Vigo To Palencia (Via León)
Just the final train to Santander to go. But while I’ve got a few hours in Palencia…
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 18 (Part 1), Vigo Station
The big ‘training’ day. There are going to be three of them and, as I type, the 7:05 from Vigo to León is just starting its long trundle across northern Spain. We are scheduled to arrive in León at 13:23 (I’ll leave you to work out just how […]
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 17 (Part 2), Porto To Vigo
There could be technical issues over the final few days of this Iberian cycle of 2019. Apologies in advance. All is explained in the video:
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 17 (Part 1), Coimbra to Porto
I’m sure the purists out there will heartily disapprove but, as I have to get back home to earn some money, my journey home from Coimbra will, alas, have to be aided and abetted by several train journeys – probably quite a few in fact – and one […]
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 15, Coimbra
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 14, Porto To Coimbra
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 13, Porto
It’s a non-cycling day. Indeed I haven’t set eyes upon Wanda since I locked her to a large pipe in the underground car park of my hotel here in Porto. I hope the authorities never read that last sentence out of context. She’ll be released in the morning… […]
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 12, Bragança To Tua (Douro Valley)
A late update from Porto after another epic day of cycling. More details tomorrow but here are the statistics and here is the video: You can read the story of today’s ride in this post on CyclingEurope.org.
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 11 (Part 2), Puebla De Sanabria To Bragança
I’ve arrived on Portugal after a much shorter ride than yesterday (see previous posts) and it’s nice to have a few hours to sit, sip wine, soak up the atmosphere and watch the world go by which happens to be exactly what I’m doing right now. I’ll do […]
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 11 (Part 1), Galende To Puebla De Sanabria
I really should read my guidebook more often. Or perhaps not… Yesterday’s long ride was a tour de force when it comes to cycling (for me) coming in at 150 km, but it had its frustrations towards the end of the day. Sometimes, when you open your map […]
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 10, León To Galende
A long, long – epic perhaps – day with a frustrating end. Look at the stats and watch the video. I’ll update the details at some point soon…
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 9, Riaño To León
Well this is rather nice… 100 km of cycling and I find myself in a little local bar in a small square close to my hostel – the Hospederia Rincon De Leon – which must surely be run by the world’s most friendly and useful hotelier. If Basil […]
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 8, Potes To Riaño
What a day! This post may or may not contain the usual video summary. It seems that I have no space remaining on my iPhone to store the edited video (to subsequently upload to YouTube) but the finest technical minds are working to solve the issue. Well, I […]
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 7, San Vicente De La Barquera To Potes
I’m getting back into the swing of writing these end-of-day posts. And this year, they come with added video! So here is today’s cinematic epic: Hope you enjoyed that. The full route details are available to see by following this link. That’s the visual and quantitive boxes ticked. […]
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 6, Santander To San Vicente De La Barquera
OK. A bit of catching up to be done. I’m sitting in a darkened room at Camping El Rosa – excellent site by the way – with three bored teenagers for ‘company’. They aren’t saying much, just staring at their phones away from the prying eyes of their […]
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 4, The Pont Aven Departs
Cycling Europe 2019: Day 3, The Isle Of Wight
A less dramatic day in terms of the scenery, but equally enjoyable. And at 62km, a step up from yesterday’s 50km. Here are the full route details and here’s the video summary: The Military Road – I imagine they call it that because it is very straight – […]
The Trans Pennine Trail
It was an epic 115 km by the end of the day, albeit not all on the Trans Pennine Trail itself. That was ‘just’ the portion from Dunford Bridge to Wentworth Woodhouse (and back). Good preparation for hitting the continent at the end of the month…
Whitby Abbey
Suitably windswept. Interesting museum telling an interesting story run by English Heritage. There’s more to Whitby Abbey than Bram Stoker and Dracula…
