Tuesday 24th July Chalon-sur-Saone to Dôle: 3 hours 50 minutes, 70km “Today was a good day. It just had that feeling about it. The sun was yet again shining and I was in a good mood. You see, what mood you’re in becomes harder to detect when you’re […]
A couple of Warmshowers visitors have passed this way over the last few days; first there was Bob, a novice touring cyclists in his 60s and then there was Wade, a novice touring cyclist in his 20s. I’m a novice touring cyclist somewhere in the middle! Bob is […]
Monday 23rd July Blanzy to Chalon-sur-Saone: 3 hours 16 minutes, 49km “To say I slept well last night would be a lie. It was a restless night, I kept waking up expecting to see a farmer with a flash light and shotgun. As soon as the sun’s rays […]
Sunday 22nd July Gannay-sur-Loire to Blanzy: 8 hours 10 minutes, 130km “I think I may have solved my dew issues. By pitching under a shaded area (where it seems the dew strikes last) and waking up early enough to avoid it setting in, I was able to pack […]
If you have signed up to The Times’ Cities Fit For Cycling campaign, you will have just received another email from the editor of the newspaper, James Harding; Dear Reader How far cycling has come since we started the Cities fit for Cycling campaign less than six months […]
Well, three shifts down, I’m into the swing of being an Olympic volunteer as well as driving a BMW around London. I have mentioned the utter hypocrisy of what I am doing previously; being an advocate of all things on two wheels and then abandoning them for four […]
Saturday 21st July La Charité-sur-Loire to Gannary-sur-Loire: 4 hours 32 minutes, 87km “I slept in late today, which however unintentional, seemed to be the right thing to do. Despite the long haul yesterday, my legs felt surprising fresh. I made my way into town and picked up a […]
Friday 20th July Orleans to La Charité-sur-Loire: 8 hours 7 minutes, 165 km “The rain poured through the night and I stayed in my tent as late in the morning as possible, hoping for it to cease. That didn’t happen and so I eventually gave in and packed up […]
Thursday 19th July Blois to Orleans: 3 hours 10 minutes, 64km “Last night, I had offered to help set up things for the 60th birthday party. So when three Frenchmen arrived mid morning with a 6 by 12 metre tent, I proceeded to help them assemble it in […]
Wednesday 18th July Tours to Blois: 3 hours 42 minutes, 72km “I met Nate at the main square the next morning. Wearing a typically French horizontally striped shirt, he was sitting at one of the tables in the centre of the square and waved to me, signalling his […]
Tuesday 17th July Chinon to Tours (via Azay-le-Rideau): 3 hours 36 minutes, 68km “I was woken up by a bird flapping on the roof of my tent this morning. It now takes me about 40 minutes to pack everything, load up the bike and cycle off. After exploring […]
Monday 16th July Angers to Chinon: 4 hours 50 min, 88km “The day started with me on the side of the road, dismantling my front mudguard. I was trying to figure out how to align it correctly so that it did not touch the tyre. What baffled me […]
Sunday 15th of July Ingrandes to Angers: 4 hours 26 min, 67km “I was woken up at 11pm last night to what sounded like a French revolution! From the number of bangs, I presumed it was a magnificent fireworks display (I was too tired to even lean out […]
It’s time to get up to date with Matt Krog as he cycles along the Eurovelo 6 from Nantes to Budapest. Saturday 14th July Nantes to Ingrandes: 4 hours, 68km “Breakfast came included with the hotel price and so I decided to take advantage by helping myself to […]
I can see why Mark Zuckerberg paid $1 billion for Instagram (but can’t figure out how he’ll ever get his money back; then again, I didn’t start Facebook and he did…). These are four of my recent Instagram photos. I am, predictably, CyclingEurope…
For the cycling info., pay attention at 3 minutes & 30 seconds!
I wouldn’t like to stretch the comparison too far but there are parallels between cycling long distances and embarking on this volunteer role at London 2012. Despite my training (which, whatever you may believe from reading the papers was thorough, professional & above all useful), I’m still not […]
Is cycling set to have its own version of Top Gear? “ITV4’s new cycling based chat show. Broadcast Mondays 8pm, repeated Saturdays 5:30pm in HD. Sponsored by chainreactioncycles.com and produced by Century TV. The Cycle Show is a light hearted chat show with pedal power themed features, where cycling […]
A couple of weeks ago I posted the BBC Olympic Trailer; sleek, stylish, arty… It’s not quite like that in some places around the World as these three television trailers for the London Olympics demonstrate. They all have their charms however, kicking off with NBC’s Hollywood take on […]
Matt Krog stayed in Reading a few weeks ago (one of my WarmShowers visitors). He has just started to cycle the Eurovelo 6 from Nantes along the Loire & towards Bratislava. He has kindly agreed to allow me to re-post his own blog entries from his Tumblr website which […]
An update from Morgan who is cycling the Eurovelo 5; “Arrived in Metz yesterday from Verdun; got two days of rain from Reims-Verdun 120km; Verdun-Metz 66km and got completely wet so I decided to stay in Metz today to dry my stuff; however I went to the Centre […]
In my book, Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie (have I ever mentioned it?) I make the following comments about Brooks saddles; “I did at one point in my two-years of preparation consider changing to a Brook’s leather saddle which apparently moulds itself to your […]
Brian Palmer has written a review of Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie for The Washing Machine Post; “Sykes has a glorious, yet understated wit, which is way more satisfying than any rip-roaring induced laughter at each paragraph end. The best writers and indeed, the […]
Can you spot him? (And his owner of course…) This was the moment that the Olympic Torch came to Henley-on-Thames by the way. What a great atmosphere!
Waking up to find that your book is top of the charts on Apple iTunes is never a bad way to start the day. 🙂
Here is Morgan Ruffini looking increasingly anxious about his journey along the Eurovelo 5. He set off a couple of days ago from London and is heading for Parma. And below, in his own words (which have already appeared on this site over the last couple of weeks […]
After meeting the man himself today, this bit of bicycle mirth is probably worth a re-blog…
I had seen that Michael Palin was going to be in town a few weeks ago; Waterstones in Broad Street had cranked up the publicity machine and it had done the trick as I, along with many others were in the queue by the time the great man […]
Please note the use of inverted commas in the title. I won’t be signing this petition but I think Mark Tyrrell should be given the oxygen of publicity so everyone can see what a plonker he really is. If he’s on Twitter, he may be one of these; […]
A touching video & a great cause. The boys set off on 16th August. Here are the links to their website & JustGiving pages. Good luck! They are also on Twitter where their 140 character bio sums up who they are and what they are doing quite well; […]
I have shamelessly stolen this entire post (apart from this paragraph) from the most recent Sustrans email. It covers my corner of the World; West Yorkshire. I don’t live there now but I suppose it will always be ‘home’… NCN West Yorkshire cycle routes map This is the first […]
Cycling in the UK this summer is not like this… That orange thing in the sky seems to only appear very sporadically. I’m getting slightly anxious that the Olympics might be a wash out 🙁
I’m delighted to have just discovered that I am still younger than James Bond!
I think I prefer this shorter version than the longer one aired last night; it packs more of a punch!
Excellent! You have watched the video in the previous post (A Public Information Message For London Drivers: Don’t!) and you have committed yourself to not driving your car into London during the Olympic or Paralympic Games. You deserve a medal already. OK, perhaps not but you’re still reading this […]
Well, apart from those who really do need to use the capital’s roads during the Olympics or Paralympics. OK, I’ll come clean; I will be driving a car for the Olympics this summer. I’ll be in one of those cars driving along the ORN or Olympic Road Network […]
A couple of weeks ago, James Mudd emailed me after having read Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie telling me of his plans to do something similar; I am setting off with two friends on 2nd July 2012 from Home (Leeds) to Rome. I was inspired by […]
“I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in cycle touring, but also to anyone without any interest in cycling at all. It’s well written, very witty and never gets bogged down in statistics or technical issues, but the author’s concise descriptions of the route, scenery […]
“I just loved this book and was gripped from start to finish. The author is such an everyman but is so inspiring as he cycles across half of Europe. I really found it difficult to put this book down and it really cheered me up every morning and […]
I love these fly-over videos of the path of the Tour de France; here’s the 2012 version. I played it three times to three different groups of kids at school. One of the boys asked me if I’d ever cycled the Tour de France myself; I let him […]
Looks interesting… almost makes me want to get off down to Paris this weekend… There’s even a website. A kind-of mini Eurovelo, no? Eurovelo 0.3?
I spent a few minutes at the weekend updating my Warmshowers recommendations… and so has Matt Krog who visited Reading the weekend before last; “I stayed with Andrew the first night of my London – Dublin tour. As well as being a world-famous author, he is also an […]
It looks like I’m not the only one to be image conscious this weekend. Warmshowers.org is preparing to reveal its own improved look…
In the recent CTC review of Good Vibrations, Chris Peck noted ‘Never judge a book by its cover‘ before going on to extol the virtues of the read (‘I can’t recommend a better book for inspiration‘). Others have made similar comments about the cover (‘why choose a litter-strewn, […]
My weekend is visitor free! I make it sound as though I have people staying here all the time; this is not the case and it was great to see Matt, Ross & Pirrko but it did make for a non-stop weekend, my visitors departure and arrival sandwiched […]
I really should spend more weekends like this. In bed at 10:30 on Sunday evening, I am knackered, but it’s a good knackered not a bad one. Following last night’s visit from South African cyclist Matt (see below) & my err… interesting experience driving and being driven by […]
Here’s Matt Krog from Cape Town. He has been my first Warmshowers guest of the weekend and today he heads off to Devizes before cycling to Wales & then Ireland. It’s his shakedown for his main trip of the summer along the Eurovelo 6 from Nantes to Budapest. […]
“As the review title says, I truly enjoyed this book. It is well written account of a trip made by a man who sounds pretty much a normal sort of guy. This is… what makes the book so appealing, [it] makes this sort of adventure sound do-able.” T. […]
Today is the last day of the half-term holiday… Back to work tomorrow. But skipping over five days back at the interactive whiteboard, next weekend looks interesting. If you remember a few weeks back, I had Kate Clabby staying here in Reading after she contacted me via Warmshowers.org. […]
Let it never be said that I don’t respond to the wishes of my valued readers! Tim has just commented on the home page of CyclingEurope.org; The Kindle version of your book comes with no map. No idea why, the kindle screen produces perfectly good black and white […]
Inspiration is one of those elusive things; it can’t be touched and can be as ephemeral as an English summer’s day. However, we are increasingly hearing the word as the London 2012 Olympics approaches and I myself think back to the day when I was inspired by watching […]
From the other side of the Atlantic, Mary Reynolds has written a review of Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie for Examiner.com; “With a dry British wit (and some very wet days), Andrew Sykes tells of his amazing bicycle journey from Reading, England to Brindisi, Italy. […]
The Rhine Cycle Route (or as it has been recently rebranded, the Eurovelo 15) has a sexy new website. Can a website be sexy? Actually, not going there… It’s worth a look (and you won’t feel obliged to delete your Internet browsing history after having been there…). The […]
You’ll only enjoy this video if you were born before 1980…
Just received an email from a guy called Ross who is passing through Reading with his wife on a cycle trip in a few weeks’ time. He has contacted me via Warmshowers.org, just as Kate Clabby did a few weeks ago. I’ve been to the WarmShowers website to […]
I’ve shamelessly stolen the headline from an article on The Guardian website so I won’t do much else here other than link to their story. But not before I equally shamelessly nick their photo… Quite an achievement (this guys cycling feat, not my theft…)
… I’ve just finished watching another series of The Apprentice; it was, once again, very entertaining. Congratulations. It’s fun watching the ‘best young business brains in Britain‘ (as the narration sometimes reminds us) trying to persuade you to hand your £250,000 over to them. The only person who […]
Her Majesty doesn’t appear to be the most enthusiastic of cyclists – this picture of her in Hyde Park as a young girl seems to be the only one I can find of her on, well, three wheels – but I won’t hold it against her. Cyclist or […]
I note with equal amounts of respect and jealousy that Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com has this week, to his credit, become very rich indeed by selling his website. I have never seen my own little corner of the world-wide web as a money-making venture (although let it be […]
“‘Never judge a book by its cover’ to which I would add: ‘nor its title’. I embarked on this book a little wearily but was quickly won over by Andrew Sykes’s engaging, self-deprecating style. His account of his transformation from daily cycle commuter to trans-European long distance cyclist […]
What a cool way to store / display your cycling pride of joy. Reggie? Where are your old drop handlebars?
If you go down to your local newsagent today, you’re sure of a big surprise. Well, a nice little one at least. A couple of months ago, I was interviewed by a journalist called David Motton who writes for Britain’s top-selling cycling magazine, Cycling Plus. He was in […]
…of Wembley stadium after extra time & penalties! It’s amazing how quickly one side of a 90,000 seater stadium can empty once the final whistle is blown.
A few posts ago, I mentioned how Sally Gunnell was pitting herself against Chris Boardman in a race to the Olympic Park at some point last week… Well, they did just that, Gunnell on foot, running, Boardman on a bike, err… cycling. As shown in the video in […]
So, the Olympic flame has arrived. And so, it seems, have the sceptics. Or at least they have crawled from out of their hiding places to appear in the columns of newspapers, on our TV screens & through our radios, on Twitter, Facebook and every other possible orifice […]
I do like this music… I hope they use it for the Olympics when they start in July.
Another five-star review of Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie; “Looking for something different I stumbled upon Crossing Europe on a Bike called Reggie and found it surprising and inspiring. The book works on a number of different levels. As a travelogue, the author takes […]
An email has arrived from Jack who fancies cycling around Europe… He writes in blue, I write in red. Well, I am a teacher, albeit one with a sniffly nose today. And on the day that Francois Hollande becomes the French president, it does give this post a […]
Dogberry is a bicycle… ridden by his owner, Richard, an actor of stage & screen.
This website doesn’t always live up to its name, CyclingEurope.org. I’ll ignore the fact that I’m just a budding author & traveller (& teacher) and not by any stretch of the imagination an organisation. I’m talking about the ‘Cycling Europe’ bit. This post, however, certainly ticks the boxes […]
This may be worth looking out for next week for all us Games Makers (or anyone else!) who want to make sure we get to our shifts on time during the Olympics & Paralympics during the summer. I do hope the bike (presumably ridden by Chris Boardman) wins. […]
I have never used the ‘re-blog’ function before so not sure how this works, but here’s a fun post by Isobelandcat about how to be kind (or not) to people you are writing about in your book. Anything that mentions me in the same paragraph as the master […]
There are some great cycling logos around and about; I just came across another this morning while browsing; it’s the one in the bottom left hand corner of the montage above. I suppose the best cycling logos have a recognisable bike somewhere within them (although I’ll agree with you […]
What bike is? As I type, friend Sally is pedalling the streets of London on a Boris Bike. She has beaten me to it! I must have inspired her with my tale of cycling to Italy for it is the very same Sally who advised me where the […]
As you can see, I’ve given up not using exclamation marks. Sorry Isobel. I will however continue to use them carefully and only when needed. I’m not sure one was actually needed in the title to this post but there you go… So, to Warmshowers, the site that […]
I’ll let you into a secret; please don’t tell anyone. Here goes… When I post reviews of Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie on here, I occasionally edit them ever so slightly so as to give them a seamlessly positive tone (and to be honest, […]
I received an email on Friday from someone called Kate, a travelling cyclist who was planning on making Reading a stopover en route from London to Oxford. She’d found my contact details on WarmShowers, the social network for cyclists looking for and offering accommodation. I used the site […]
A sad end to the life of a once great Trek bike. Not mine I hasten to add but kindly fly tipped close to where I live with a collection of other chuckle. Chuckle? Yes, you did read that right. Chuckle, noun (uncountable): a collection of waste items […]
Well, actually it was Huddersfield Town 2, Yeovil 0. But fear not; I’m not about to start giving a classified check of the League 1 results every Sunday morning, As mentioned a few posts ago, my brother (and several hundred other people) cycled from Yeovil to Huddersfield in […]
My cousin is a teacher of English language in Portugal. He works for the British Council in the beautiful hilltop city of Coimbra some 40 kilometres from the Atlantic coast. I’d certainly recommend it as a place to visit. Anyway, away from my travel advice, you’d think he’d […]
You really can’t fault the marketing arm of London 2012. They seize upon any opportunity to remind us all that in only a few months (probably better to now say ‘few weeks’) the Olympic Games will be upon us and I’ll be strutting my stuff as a London […]
On the BBC’s Countryfile yesterday afternoon, the weatherman shown here explained how April 2012 had been very wet indeed. He used this graph to explain that in southern England since January 2010, there had only been three months that had received above average levels of rainfall. Of those, August […]
“Just finished [Good Vibrations]… and thoroughly enjoyed it. It brought lots of memories of my experience of cycling touring even though mine was no where near as ambitious… Many of the cycle touring books I have read have been about people selling up and hitting the road for years on […]
I’m used to working long days; I do it five days a week, but yesterday’s visit to London for the Games Maker training was exceptionally long. I set off from Reading at just after 5am and trundled from station to station across Berkshire and through the western suburbs […]
It didn’t take long! Here is my new key for the Barclays London Cycle Hire Scheme… Roll on Saturday!
“Andrew Sykes’s enthusiasm, determination and wry humour come through in this entertaining read. It will suit both armchair dreamers and two-wheel travellers considering their own possible adventures… Andrew’s trip from England to the toe of Italy during his summer break from teaching has the feel of a minor […]
Time to catch up with a few of the cyclists who I have been following or I will be following over the coming weeks and months. There are quite a few… First of all my brother, Matthew, who is cycling with quite a few other supporters of Huddersfield […]
Have you ever used the Barclays Cycle Hire bikes in London? The ‘Boris bikes’? Me neither (well, unless you just answered ‘yes’ to the question I pose…). On my fairly frequent forays into London I regularly walk past the docking stations and consider having a go but then […]
“This guy deserves a pat on the back; well written and thought about and kept me on the edge of my seat on what was going to happen next. I do recommend this book; you won’t regret [reading it].” ‘sifi’, Amazon.co.uk review of Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on […]
Another 5* rating on Amazon for Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie; “I’m sure I heard Andrew on The Bike Show podcast giving a rough outline of his trip. It was such a good podcast I noted the title down & bought the book on […]
Now, let me first say that the video below is extremely aspirational and in no way (unfortunately) reflects the life that I lead. But I am a real sucker for a good bit of advertising and a great piece of kit. I picked up Reggie earlier from A.W. Cycles […]
Films like this should still be shown at the cinema before the ‘main feature’. An encouragement to anyone to drive safely when you see a cyclist. Great little film. Did it bring a tear to your eye?
