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 […]
In fairness, the climb to the third of my Yorkshire Three Peaks was always going to struggle to meet the standards set by the wonderful hike to Ingleborough (see previous post). That said the not-always-favourable comparisons actually started on Ingleborough itself with a treacherous steep descent into the […]
A wonderful climb to Ingleborough this morning. Listen to my thoughts recorded at the top of the mountain: …and here are the photos:
Shortly after completing the previous post about La Vuelta this morning, I looked at the computer and wondered where my summer was going. I then looked outside and questioned the use of the word ‘summer’. Grey sky, breezy… but dry. August? Well, if the calendar says it is. […]
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 […]
One of those ‘nothing-to-do-with-cycling’ posts, although I have tried to include a few bicycles in the photographs taken today and shown below. Between speaking at the CTC ‘birthday’ rides on Thursday, a day of cycling in the Cotswold yesterday (see previous post) and staying to hear fellow touring […]
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 […]
And these really are notes. The plan is to write up an article about my four days in Ireland (for publication?) once back in the U.K. Early start / tiresome drive across Lancashire-Cheshire / North Wales much nicer / echos of the French Riviera (sea, hills, fast corniche […]
On past experience this won’t last long but… at the moment (Saturday 10th June, 9am) Amazon.co.uk are selling Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie for just £6.99. Perhaps they want to celebrate my birthday! Be quick!
It’s election night… 2015. I was in a very pretty portion of western France en route from Tarifa to Nordkapp cycling along La Vélo Francette that was part of the 7,776 km journey that would eventually become Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie. It was cycling […]
I’m off on my travels again next week to a new (for me) European country… Ireland! More specifically I’ll be speaking at the Lismore Immrama Festival of Travel Writing – more details on the poster below – on Saturday 17th June at 12.30pm. If you happen to be […]
To save you looking, here are the results of a little piece of research that I’ve just completed. I searched for the word ‘cycling’ in each of the main manifestos: Conservative Party Manifesto 0 mentions… Labour Party Manifesto 1 mention… Liberal Democrat Manifesto 1 mention… UKIP 0 mentions… […]
There is a theme developing here… The second film of the day, this time from Cycling UK (yes, the CTC as was) promoting Bike Week: Bike Week is an annual opportunity to get out and enjoy yourselves cycling. Run by the world’s oldest transport organisation and membership charity, […]
It’s Monday morning, 8am. You may be off to work (you may even have had a week off over half-term and not really in the mood for working…). Watch this: “The film is a comedy about a man trying to get to his job interview who has a […]
Now back home after my travels to Clitheroe, London, Reading, Oxford, Bath and Bristol over half-term (it was lovely seeing so many of you in Clitheroe, Oxford and Bristol by the way – thanks for coming to hear me speak – more events coming up in June, July […]
Nothing to do with cycling or Europe but some things are so aesthetically pleasing that they deserve to be photographed from any angle going. The Clifton Suspension Bridge is one such object and it has earned its place here, despite its irrelevance to the site… I’ll hopefully see […]
A leisurely stroll around beautiful Bath en route to Bristol for my talk tomorrow evening (see apsykes.com/speaking for details). Some great sights: Seeing the touring cyclist made me regret not having arrived by bicycle myself…
Clitheroe has been home once again to the 2017 Cycle Touring Festival… …with a good selection of bikes – very much used – on display… …some quality talks… …and a wonderful sunrise over the campsite!
One for the linguists… I’m delighted to say that the European Cyclists’ Federation – the people in charge of the EuroVelos – have published an interview with me on their website; in English, in French and in German! “He did it again! Over the past few years, Andrew […]
And a few videos:
It’s been an interesting week as I transitioned from a self-published to a published author on Thursday. Is all the hard work over or has it yet to start? Time will tell. I haven’t quite transitioned away from being a secondary school teacher of French however and continue […]
This isn’t quite my style – too fast by far… – but it is quite an adventure and may be of interest to some. Over to the organisers: “Wolf Pack is a dare. To ride from Geneva to San Remo, over Telegraphé, Galibier, Vars and Cime de la […]
Now available from all good bookshops (links below)… Enjoy the read! Join us tonight for the launch party in Waterstones, Albion Street, Leeds. Full details here. Waterstone’s Amazon – Kindle or paperback Apple – iBook Foyles Stanfords WH Smith Blackwells
Things are beginning to get busy in the run-up to the publication of ‘Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie‘ on Thursday – if you are in or near the Leeds branch of Waterstone’s at 6.30pm on Thursday, come along to the launch! – and I have spent […]
With only a few days until the publication of all 35 degrees of ‘Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie‘ on May 11th (pre-order at Amazon or Waterstone’s), exactly two years ago today, I was cycling from Rochefort to La Rochelle, enjoying the great cycling facilities of […]
The weekend after the wonderful Cycle Touring Festival in Clitheroe – tickets are still available – where I will be speaking about cycling from Spain to Norway… comes The Adventure Cycle Festival. ‘Adventure cycling’ seems to be ‘cycle touring’ with less luggage. Here’s how the organisers describe the […]
No mention, alas, of a certain soon-to-be-published book (perhaps next year?), but these tomes could help you fill your time between now and the launch of Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie next week. Indeed if you are anywhere near Waterstone’s in Leeds at 6:30pm on […]
I did think it would be difficult to replicate the atmosphere experienced in Yorkshire when the Tour de France arrived in the county back in 2014 but yesterday on the cobbles of the ‘Côte de Shibden Wall’ it came pretty close… Wonderful afternoon!
I had the opportunity of watching this film on the moderately-big screen of The Reliance in Leeds where local cycling entrepreneur Ian Street hosts his monthly ‘Leeds Bicycle Film Club‘. I challenge anyone to watch it and not want to jump onto the next plane to a far […]
I was interviewed earlier this week by Keri Jones for the Great Destinations Radio Show (the interview will be broadcast sometime in June and also available as a podcast). One of Keri’s questions was along the line of “which section of your [Spain to Norway] route would make for […]
As I begin typing this, I note that the Tour de Yorkshire is exactly 7 days away, to the minute! Everything kicks off at 12.35pm on Friday 28th April in Bridlington… The images below were taken from the spectator guide that you can find here.
Exactly two years ago, I cycled into a very wet Salamanca in Spain. Below is an extract from ‘Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie‘ recounting my day in the city. Aside from providing me with some beautiful buildings, frogs and reminiscences of teenage reading, it was […]
Last week I posted a letter that I had written in response to a letter that appeared in the Halifax Courier regarding cyclists. Before you continue reading, I suggest that you read this. Done that? Good. Tomorrow the weekly newspaper is published and it will be interesting to […]
One for HikingEurope.org; climbing Red Scree in Cumbria… …the view from the top… …and here are a few shots taken in and around Ambleside and Rydal (where you’ll find a great campsite). Not forgetting a famous bridge en route home:
Last week I had the opportunity of speaking about the 2015 cycle from Spain to Norway (on a bike called Reggie…) in Halifax. Next up on my world tour (well, Britain and Ireland) is the Cycle Touring Festival in Clitheroe, Lancashire. Why not come along? Full details from the […]
My local newspaper is the weekly Halifax Courier (it long since lost its prefix ‘Evening’) and the letters page is always a good read. It’s a (mercifully) watered down version of the comments that appear on the paper’s Facebook page (a scary, dark place, frequented by ill-informed people who probably […]
No pressure then… It’s probably fair to say that most of you are not avid readers of the Halifax Courier so for those not fortunate enough to be within the newspaper’s catchment area of the Calder Valley of West Yorkshire, here is a cutting from the ‘WOW 24/7 Entertainment’ section: […]
Is it possible? I cycled eight countries in nearly four months back in 2015 but five in one day? According to Karsten Koehler, yes it was and in April 2016 he set about proving his suspicion by heading to Belgium with his bike… Here he explains his motivation: I […]
Today, I read, is International Day of Happiness. (Isn’t every day? Mmm… Perhaps not…) Anyway, upon discovering that March 20th is a day of all-round joy (apologies if you’re just not feeling it), I was reminded of cycling through Lower Saxony en route from Tarifa to Nordkapp for […]
I spent the afternoon in Sheffield watching some short cycle touring films at SHAFF, the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival. Below are the films that I was able to see. The text is from the SCHAFF website. COMES WITH BAGGAGE – 18MINS (trailer) “Comes With Baggage” is a lighthearted history […]
…well, the one in Calderdale. Route 66 of Britain’s National Cycle Network. “National Cycle Route 66 runs from central Manchester to Spurn Head via Bradford, Leeds, York, Beverley, and Kingston upon Hull.” according to those in charge. More details here. This afternoon part of route 66 was the final leg of a 46 km […]
Between Trondheim and the sixty-fifth line of latitude, Norway had been comparatively flat. Although my cycling route had taken me along valleys, and beside lakes and fjords, the mountains I was passing were modest in size. There was little to excite your average Munro bagger along the coast […]
It’s been a sunny day in West Yorkshire, the perfect day to film my circular commute to work. More details of the route on Strava. Over to you Bizet…
More details here…
There hasn’t been one of these for a while but that doesn’t mean that things are not progressing. I can assure you that they have and the great news is that the final, final, final manuscript has now been signed off and is ready for printing. According to […]
I don’t suppose that the people who invented Strava ever had my relatively short commute from Stainland to Elland and back in mind when they invented their system but this week I’ve been putting it to good use doing just that. I even have a ‘heatmap’! It’s a […]
It’s Saturday afternoon (or it was when I wrote this) and my half-term break from social media (see previous post) encouraged me to get back out on Dale, the Cannondale… He’s been shamelessly inactive in recent months but this final week in February has finally seen some action! […]
