They certainly packed them in at the municipal campsite in La Rochelle. As predicted, it was a noisy evening, including fireworks at one point. Things did quieten down after midnightish but then at some point in the early hours the couple in the text next to mine decided to have a, err… loud romantic interlude. I’ll leave that there.
Google estimated the distance today at 121km. I wouldn’t normally trust Google distances when it comes to cycling but when I compared the Google route on Google Maps and the EuroVelo 1 / Vélodyssée route on Open Street Map they looked the same so I gave the Google distance a bit more credence than I normally would. How naïve am I? I tell the story in today’s video in which I’ve included some commentary.
I’m getting a little tired and weary. Not of the cycling – that’s fine – but if all the names of places. In Brittany it was a case of not being able to spell the towns and villages properly. Down here on the west coast it’s actually remembering the dam things. Just look at the title today. It’s a miracle it fits on a web page.
Up early again this morning and almost the first off the site. I was beaten to it by a French solo cyclist, about my age who I exchanged a few words with before he set off home at the end of his week long jaunt along the Loire. The Loire à Vélo is, I suspect, what the majority of cyclists on last night’s site are there to ride. Perhaps a few for the Velodyssée but as it’s so close to the mouth of the river – about 25km – it’s a good place to set up camp at the end of day 1 taking into account you will probably have travelled from elsewhere to get to the start of the route. It’s also, of course, the start of the EuroVelo 6. I suspect (there’s a lot of suspecting going on tonight – perhaps someone can confirm) that the EuroVelo 6 is one of the most cycled routes, if not the most cycled, vying for position with the Rhine Cycle Route or EuroVelo 15. I digress…
It’s been a good day on the bike… and as I write this, it’s not quite over. At 5:30pm there remains about 15km (and a train and a ferry) to ride. All will become clear. With no convivial breakfast on offer at last night’s campsite as there had been back in Gouarec courtesy of Geoff and his team, I was the first off the site at around 8am.
I was up early this morning (when am I not up early in a tent? I’ve said this many times before but for me it’s not a case of ‘waking up’ when I’m camping it’s a case of when to stop trying to make an effort to get back to sleep…) and was packed by 8am. My official campsite advisor Tim Sanders (who until only a few minutes ago was my ‘unofficial’ campsite advisor but as nobody else has offered their services, I’ve upgraded him to the honorary post; it’ll give him something to chat to Ed Pratt about the next time they meet at their local Park Run in Somerset. Anyway, back to the point…) …My official campsite advisor Tim Sanders messaged at 8:05 asking “Have you met Geoff?”
Today was planned to be a short cycle of 50km. In ended up being the second longest cycle yet at 98km. If nothing else, it will work wonders on the daily average which had dipped down to 75km. I need to get it back up to 80km+ to be in with a realistic chance of making it back to Rotterdam before the return ferry sets off on September 3rd.
According to the bird’s eye view of Morlaix in the image below, that’s the motto of the town. Original, no? It’s been a hot day so far, despite Brittany being the cold corner of the map of France on last night’s TV forecast. I’ve returned to the hotel for a siesta… I’ll head back out soon for anothercwander. There’s a festival of all things Breton taking place in Place Allende this afternoon so I’ll perhaps update this later. In the meantime, note that episode 055 of The Cycling Europe Podcast was published this morning – part 4 of my ’Grand Tour’ series – so if you have 55 minutes to space… All the links can be found by navigating over to the podcast page of the website.
Finally writing this up… Not many will read this (as the post was published last night without any text) but it will, at least, be an aide-memoire when I later use these notes to write a book. In a way the ‘Mercedes afternoon’ I had experienced on the previous day continued until the following morning. Yes, it was a cheap, municipal campsite but it was packed to the rafters with screaming children. One particular specimen gets his / her starring role in episode 055 of The Cycling Europe Podcast which has now been published.
The omens were not good at 8am. The campsite at Saint-Quay certainly lived up to its name by having a ‘belle vue’. Indeed my pitch – as with many others – was facing north-east and if there were no clouds, we were in for a cracking sunrise. I happened to be awake at 5am so I clamped the GoPro to its tripod and set in motion a time lapse video. Alas it was cloudy and the resulting video merely showed black clouds become grey ones. Nothing too spectacular there. However, by 8am the sun had risen and was beginning to poke through the clouds. Perhaps an opportunity to get the drone in action to capture the magic. And it did. You can see that shot at the start of today’s video.
A shorter day – just 50km – but it helps me out when it comes to getting to Morlaix by the end of Saturday. Where I am now – a place called Saint-Quay – is about half way between Mont-Saint-Michel and Morlaix and this makes the two planned long days of cycling to Morlaix a bit shorter and hence more manageable. My average has now dipped below 80km per day but I’m sure that will be rectified as I speed along the flat(ish) lands of the Velodyssée next week.
You are not reading this on Wednesday 20th as, yesterday evening, my 25GB of data ran out. I was expecting this to happen at some point and also expected to be able to easily purchase more data. But that’s when it got problematic. A phone call to Vodafone is on the cards when their call centre opens on Thursday morning. I suppose if all else fails I can buy a French SIM card. There’s also the matter of me having had to change my mobile number (could that be complicating things?) but that sorry tale is for another day (and probably another website…)
If I wanted variety after having cycled along the seemingly endless disused railway tracks of the Veloscenie, I certainly got variety today after my day of rest / escape from the heat. The cycling was varied, the landscape was varied, the weather was varied…
Last night on the campsite there were at least seven cyclists and another four walkers in the cycling-walking section. All except me have now left and I have been joined, so far, by just two cyclists. It will be interesting to see if people are, like me, staying put for the day and not travelling in light of the extreme temperature. That said, it clearly didn’t dissuade any of my fellow campers last night. Perhaps it was something I said…
If cycling along disused railways for fun (and why else would you do it?), then the Veloscenie is for you. Prior to embarking upon my Chartres to Mont-Saint -Michel section of the route (which is about 80%) I’d read that the Veloscenie connected the capital with the north coast by linking up defunct railway lines but I wasn’t expecting them to be such a dominant part of the route. It must be at least two-thirds of the total length and, in temperatures such as those provoked by this current heatwave, you couldn’t wish for a better place to cycle, the sun been screened for much of the time by the surrounding vegetation.
If yesterday was a spinning class of a ride, today was a spinning class with that knob below the handlebars cranked up several notches. If your route passes the ‘highest point in north-west France’ you can probably guess you’re in for an up and down day and, at gradients that a train could cope with when they plodded up and down these valleys many decades ago, that’s what happened. More disused railways – the area must once have been a maze of lines – with a handful of pencil-straight-Roman roads. More satisfying that yesterday and a much more welcoming end at a municipal campsite that breaks records. Keep reading…
Today was the equivalent of a cycle touring spinning class. Well, mostly. Almost the entire route from Nogent-le-Rotrou to Alençon was off road and along a very long disused railway line. I almost felt guilty for having made all of those men work so hard 100? 200? years ago in building the railway line in the first. Now it’s ‘just’ being used by cyclists and walkers. But hey! At least it’s still in use…
To answer Joe Stafford’s question (that he posted to YouTube a few moments ago) immediately; yes, it’s hot but if you take the necessary measures to protect yourself then I think you’ll be fine. Joe is coming to France soon but as long as he does what we are told to do; cover up (I’m on my second hat of the trip…), plaster yourself in factor 50 (I’m still looking very pale compared to the French), drink lots of water (my two Cycle Touring Festival bottles are drained at least three times a day) and keep eating (no problem there if you are burning lots of calories), you’ll be fine.
Back to the writing. I’m currently on a busy train that’s about to set off for Le Mans. I’ll be getting off at Chartres, one step along the Veloscenie cycle route from Paris. Busy in terms of people, busy in terms of bicycles; the current count is six of which three are laden touring bikes. It’s a sight that would leave your average Trans Pennine Express train guard seeking counselling. There are people clambering over the bikes as they make their way down the carriages to find their seat. Now far be for me to say but if people actually worked out which carriage to get on when they are on the platform, like would be somewhat easier. Anyway, I digress… and we are off. Six bicycles it is.
CURRENT LOCATION: La Tartine, Rue de Rivoli, Paris Today the words are in the video… LATEST CYCLING EUROPE POSTS: Subscribe to the Cycling Europe YouTube Channel Since 2009, CyclingEurope.org has established itself as a valued, FREE cycle touring resource. There’s now even a podcast, The Cycling Europe Podcast. […]
If yesterday was tick, tick, tick, today was hot, hot, hot. Yet with factor 50, a hat and plenty of fluids, I’m surviving. It’s not quite as hot as it was back in 2013 as I cycled along the Mediterranean – that will takes some beating – but it can be energy-sapping and I’m glad that, for the moment at least, the terrain is forgiving.
Tick, tick, tick… Basically that’s what I’ve spent today doing. Ticking off all the things that you might, in an ideal world, want a disused railway line, converted into a walking-cycling greenway – voie verte here in France – to have. If the département of Seine-Maritime set out to build what I consider to be an unbeatable bit of cycle-touring infrastructure, they succeeded.
CURRENT LOCATION: Dieppe If you missed anything, here’s the first week in video. Enjoy! LATEST CYCLING EUROPE POSTS: Subscribe to the Cycling Europe YouTube Channel Since 2009, CyclingEurope.org has established itself as a valued, FREE cycle touring resource. There’s now even a podcast, The Cycling Europe Podcast. If […]
Let’s start with some good news. Upon arrival in Dieppe yesterday after a long cycle in the heat, I sat down for a beer by the harbour and was, imho… fleeced €9 for a 50cl Leffe Blond on draft. (That’s a price Copenhagen’s harbour cafés would be proud of.) The evidence in my favour was a menu that said the price was €4.50 and that the drinks were served as 50cl or 75cl, giving the impression that it wasn’t an option for the premium Leffe to be a modest ‘demie pression’ (25cl). The drink was delivered and €9 demanded. I immediately complained and walked out in digust. Well, OK, being British, I smiled and tossed a cherry ‘merci’ in the waiter’s direction handing over my cash while seething internally. So where’s the good news? Well, having visited the local tabac-café this morning and paid the princely sum of €1.50 for a coffee (all in the name of price research), I’m back here now enjoying a 25cl draft Kronenbourg for €2.80. Success!
Phew! What a scorcher… And it’s apparently going to get hotter. I daubed myself three times today with factor 50 but I’ll be investing in a cap of some description tomorrow (as well of more supplies of the sun cream). Yet I’m staying well hydrated and fed by the French. Today’s food has all come courtesy of the toil of French labour; pastries from the boulangerie in Le Crotoy, fruit from a market in the same town and now a three-course meal in Dieppe at a restaurant called Le Sully. So far – a starter of smoked salmon and herring on a bed of new potatoes – so good, but I’ll update you as the meal progresses… I feel like Rick Stein without a film crew (and a bicycle).
A day to remember… Some of you may think that politics has no place on a website such as this. Yet I disagree. A head of government represents the country. He or she is not seen by those in other countries as a Tory or a socialist or a liberal or whatever. They are simply an embodiment of what the ‘majority’ are thinking. (Majority! Well, not in our archaic first-past-the-post system but that’s another argument.) So when I meet people and ask them what they think of our prime minister, it’s embarrassing to be told that he is thought of as an ‘idiot’ or ‘joker’ because in a small way they are saying that about me and you. We, collectively, gave him the power. I never voted for him but I am part of the system that did. I am glad that he will soon be gone. I watched him speak live on my phone this lunchtime. Just as he finished, I passed in front of a magnificent hotel in Le Touquet called… Le Westminster. Everyone, irrespective of the politics, should be glad that he will soon be replaced.
Is he still there? By the time you read this (posting is going to be delayed until Thursday morning due to the lack of a good mobile signal) he may well have been dragged out of Downing Street, kicking and screaming. Last night I had the pleasure of staying with a WarmShowers host in the outskirts of Ostend. He has lead the development of a co-housing project and he now lives on a large plot of land not far from the airport along with 17 other families – around 70 people in total – with separate homes but shared facilities. It’s a real village and it was wonderful to spend a few hours last night in their company talking about the development, the motivation for creating such a place and the practical advantages of doing so. (There are many – I’ll list them in the book!) I spent much of the evening chatting to a retired firefighter called Michel and the subject moved on to politics. I asked him what people in general thought of Boris Johnson in Belgium. “A joke” was his response…
France is a top destination for cycle tourists and, with its great diversity of landscapes – from windswept cliffs in the north to vast swathes of forest in the west to sun-drenched villages in the south to vertiginous climbs in the east – it has (almost) everything that a traveller on a bicycle might want to discover. Lyn Eyb from FreeWheelingFrance.com has been exploring and writing about France ever since she arrived in the country over a decade ago. She shares her thoughts with The Cycling Europe Podcast and takes time to answer listeners’ questions about the practical aspects of being a cyclist in France.
Subscribe to the Cycling Europe YouTube Channel Visit the dedicated Grand Tour page of CyclingEurope.org to find out more about the planned 2022 cycle along some of western Europe’s most iconic cycle routes. Since 2009, CyclingEurope.org has established itself as a valued, FREE cycle touring resource. There’s now […]
Earlier today some of you must have been scratching your heads just a little upon seeing the Twitter post or the Facebook post or the Instagram post relating to my decision to ‘tweak’ the route of my upcoming cycle around the Baltic Sea. It is, admittedly, one hell of a tweak. So much of a tweak in fact that the only remaining part of that planned Baltic Sea Cycle that remains in the new planned cycle is the rather short journey from the ferry port in Rotterdam to the Hook of Holland. And yes, even that section is nowhere near the Baltic Sea. The new route will see me not turn left upon arrival in The Netherlands but turn right in the direction of Belgium, then France, then (after quite a while) through Switzerland, then Germany before finally returning to the Hook of Holland and my return journey across the North Sea to Hull. Mmm… Perhaps ‘tweak’ might not have been the most appropriate of words. So why the change?
The Cycling Europe Podcast mainly features, well, cyclists. The interviewee in this episode, however, is first and foremost a mountaineer. But he’s not just any mountaineer. His name is Tim Ralph and he’s a seven summiteer; a man who has climbed the seven highest mountains on each of the continents. In the last few years, he’s also taken up cycle touring and has just published a book called ‘A Life Accomplished: From Spain to Norway on a Bike’. So what can mountaineering teach us about cycle touring? What can cycle touring teach mountaineers about climbing mountains? And what happens when an experienced mountaineer sets off to cycle from Europe’s geographical southernmost point at Tarifa in Spain to its northernmost point at Nordkapp in Norway?
Tim Moore has been referred to as ‘Bill Bryson on two wheels’. Any reader of his adventures – both on and off a bike – will appreciate why the comparison is justified. In his first cycling travelogue, he set off on the route of that year’s Tour de France just weeks before the professionals. He went on to recreate ‘the most appalling bike race of all time’ – the 1914 Giro d’Italia – on a vintage bike. More recently he embarked upon a brutal cycle following the stages of the 1941 Vuelta a España. Ever the glutton for punishment, he’s also ‘The Cyclist Who Went Out In The Cold’ who set off on an East German shopping bike along the route of EuroVelo 13, the Iron Curtain Trail… The Cycling Europe Podcast chatted to him in a Tube carriage at the London Transport Museum.
Declan Lyons trained as a zoologist but after several years working as a journalist and management consultant he started to research and then write two Cicerone guides for people interested in cycling the Canal de la Garonne from Bordeaux to Toulouse and the Canal du Midi from Toulouse to the Mediterranean coast at Sète. Together the canals are known as the Véloroute des Deux Mers – the ‘two seas cycle route’ – and in this episode of the podcast he talks about the history of the canals and how they have been transformed in recent decades into one of France’s most popular cycling routes. Also: we hear from Ian Yarroll, an experienced cycle tourist, who, after developing balance problems, took up a recumbent trike…
In a week when the news here in Europe has been dominated by… well, let’s not go there other than to note that Putin needs to ride his bike a bit more often and shed the macho persona he so loves, I have been transported off to France and then across the whole of Europe courtesy of two conversations that I have recorded for upcoming episodes of The Cycling Europe Podcast.
The 2020 Tour de France was one of the most significant races of the last decade. Since 2012, Team Sky dominated the ultimate event in road cycling under the governance of Sir Dave Brailsford. He masterminded a team that would remain the dominant force on the roads for years to come. It started with Bradley Wiggins, and then Chris Froome took over as the heir to the throne, claiming the yellow jersey in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017. In 2018, injury struck the ageing star, paving the way for teammate Geraint Thomas to take the crown.
Anyone with even a passing interest in cycling is keenly aware of the most important event in the world of competitive racing: the Tour de France. Winners of the Tour de France typically go on to become household names, as well as the de facto best cyclists on the planet. For any competitive cyclist, entering and placing in the Tour de France is a lifelong dream, one that countless riders have spent their entire lives training for.
I cycled a bit of this way back in 2010. It was an impressive, if rather damp, section of the route to southern Italy, my version of the EuroVelo 5. The EuroVelo 19, coming in at around 1,000 km is a manageable length and takes in cycling through three countries; Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Here’s a new video from the European Cyclists’ Federation to promote the route.
With one of cycling’s three Grand Tour’s now behind us in 2021, it is time to look ahead to what is on the horizon and with the Tour De France back in its more familiar timeslot this year, we cannot look much further than events in and around Paris this month. After the 2020 edition of the Tour was threatened by the still ongoing threat of COVID-19, it was eventually staged across August and September and although it had a rather difficult look and feel to it, there was no shortage in drama.
The Paris-Roubaix cycle race has been postponed until later in the year. No surprise there bearing in mind the new lockdown just announced in France. Cobbles are an (almost) every day part of cycling here in the Calder Valley of Yorkshire. My bones have been shaken on a regular basis in recent years since my return to God’s Own County. Perhaps they should have just moved it to the north of England rather than waiting until the autumn of 2021… I wrote about the Paris-Roubaix in Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie.
As I was croaking my way through recording the links for the latest episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast that was published overnight, I mentioned that I would put all the relevant links to the accommodation providers on the website. We, here I am doing just that. The four people interviewed were Tahverlee Anglen from the accommodation sharing website WarmShowers, Simon Ainley from the Youth Hostel Association of England and Wales, Simon Kershaw from a new hotel – soon to be a chain of hotels – called Bike and Boot in Scarborough and the wild camper Tim Millikin. You can find more details about Tim’s travels and the book he has written by visiting his website.
The countries of continental Europe and the European Union itself have been much criticised in the (right-wing) British media in recent weeks on matters relating to the distribution of the COVID vaccines. In those criticisms there is, of course, a non-too-subtle dollop of British smugness. To at least 48% of the British population (of which I am part), these are sentiments that make us squirm. They are predictable and fail to take into account the ‘bigger picture’ of a continent which, in terms of the quality of people’s lives, is light years ahead of most parts of backward, squalid Britain.
In 2015 I cycled from Tarifa in Spain – the southernmost point of mainland Europe – to Nordkapp in Norway – the northernmost point. It took me over 100 days. In 2019 Dr Ian Walker – an academic at the University of Bath – completed the journey in the opposite direction… in 16 days 20 hours and 59 minutes. In the process he became the fastest person ever to cycle across Europe north to south. That’s no mean feat for a man in his mid-forties who had only taken up ultra-long-distance racing a few years prior to breaking the record. I needed to find out how he did it…
“Sometimes fate – and a Michelin map – lead you and your bike exactly where you were meant to be. In this case, it was the outskirts of Pernes-les-Fontaines in Provence, where I saw this statue…”
A short but rather beautiful animation from Citroën commemorating the Tour de France ‘broom wagon’ on Mont Ventoux.
Like so many other sporting events, this year’s staging of the Tour De France has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and although at one point it looked as if cycling’s greatest spectacle would not be held in 2020, thankfully the show is set to go on.
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 […]
If you listened to Episode 015 of The Cycling Europe Podcast you will remember that Paul didn’t make it quite as far as Nordkapp, for fairly obvious reasons. But he did make it as far as Nice in France and will hopefully one day soon return to complete the journey. But here in the written world of these CyclingEurope.org posts (as opposed to the spoken world of podcasts), Paul has just arrived in France and is heading in the direction of Nice…
The 2020 Tour de France is scheduled to take place a little later this year, with 29th August pencilled in for the opening day of the Grand Tour. This year’s Tour is expected to be wide open, with a large pool of cyclists likely to be hopeful of coming out on top after 21 gruelling stages. Here is a look at who we think are the four biggest contenders for the latest renewal of the most famous cycling event in the world.
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.
If you listened to Episode 015 of The Cycling Europe Podcast you will remember that Paul didn’t make it quite as far as Nordkapp, for fairly obvious reasons. But he did make it as far as Nice in France and will hopefully one day soon return to complete the journey. But here in the written world of these CyclingEurope.org posts (as opposed to the spoken world of podcasts), Paul has just arrived in France and is heading in the direction of Nice…
If you listened to Episode 015 of The Cycling Europe Podcast you will remember that Paul didn’t make it quite as far as Nordkapp, for fairly obvious reasons. But he did make it as far as Nice in France and will hopefully one day soon return to complete the journey. But here in the written world of these CyclingEurope.org posts (as opposed to the spoken world of podcasts), Paul is in Barcelona and about to set off in the direction of France…
Imagine you set off to cross a continent on your bicycle only for a global pandemic to stop you in your tracks. That’s what happened to Paul Gentle as he attempted to cycle from Tarifa in Spain to Nordkapp in Norway. The Cycling Europe Podcast spoke to Paul about his plans, his cycle through Spain and France and his race against the clock to get back home to the UK while it was still possible.
Europe offers some of the best cycling routes in the world. Here are some of the best routes to take your eBike with you for an unforgettable ride.
The Cycling Europe Podcast returns with a celebrity interview! Mark Beaumont? Tim Moore? Josie Dew? Not quite… This celebrity not only has surprising long-distance cycling credentials but also some thought-provoking comments to make about the joys of heading off on your bike for a long-distance adventure. His name? […]
One for the maps geeks. (Of which I am one…) You may wish to turn away if you have a dodgy internet connection as clicking on the links below is likely to test your patience in terms of download time, but I will persist. It is often a […]
The British people have spoken and, by popular demand, The Cycling Europe Podcast returns with episode 013. In this latest audio extravaganza of all things cycling, we head to Matlock in the English Peak District to meet the travel writer and long-distance cyclist Helen Moat. In 2015 she […]
Every EuroVelo could do with one of these… Hopefully sometime soon they will. A glossy 90-page brochure giving an excellent overview of the EuroVelo 8 Mediterranean Route that I cycled back in 2013. The route is broken down into 15 sections starting in Cadiz and finishing in Cyprus […]
The Cycling Europe Podcast is back in the UK and heads to Scotland to chat with Paul Cheese, musician and long-distance cyclist. His travels took him on an astonishing journey to almost every nook and cranny of Britain with a bicycle between his legs and a microphone in […]
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 […]
By Kevin Raneri European cities provide a great experience for anyone looking to explore their destinations on a bike. Exploring beautiful routes with the wind in your hair is a unique experience. The cities boast excellent cycling routes, stunning views of the countryside, infrastructure for cyclists, and bike-sharing […]
It seems an appropriate day to post this. Indeed an appropriate time as the eleventh hour of Remembrance Sunday approaches. I have been exchanging emails with a chap called Gavin Parnaby for some time now. He is currently cycling across Europe, raising money for the charity Combat Stress […]
I wish this would happen more often than it does… Back in January I received an email from a cyclist called Paddy Ducey. He told me about how he had read the books that I have written about cycling across Europe and that he had not only enjoyed […]
As I write, I’m watching the arrival of the Tour de France in Paris. I’ve heard it’s been a vintage year for ‘Le Tour’ but have to admit that I’ve only been following from a distance via the third parties of social media and the odd news report […]
“On the 6th July 2019 at 1.30pm we will be setting off to cycle over 1700 miles for Chestnut Tree House, unsupported. From The Rose and Crown, Worthing the journey will include riding through France over the Alps into Switzerland, then into Italy and all the way to […]
The ship hasn’t been far today; an early morning arrival in Strasbourg (from Mannheim – see previous post…) and we’ve been moored here – adjacent to the EuroVelo 15 of all things – ever since. Rainy outside but I did spend an amiable few hours wandering the streets […]
Well this is all new to me. But I have to admit, I’m already missing the bike. Let me recap… As you may recall (because I told you in this post only last week), I have been asked to deliver some talks on a river cruise boat along […]
An interesting present from an old friend yesterday; a bottle of ‘Tom and the Peloton‘ wine. It’s an AOC from the Ventoux area of France and is dedicated to Tom Simpson, the cyclist who died near the summit of Mont Ventoux during the 13th stage of the Tour […]
So, summer has arrived. Well, meteorological summer. Pedants who insist on sticking with the astronomical one (which starts on June 21st) will still have to live in spring for a few more weeks but the rest of us are already basking in the sunshine… (That’s how it works, […]
Welcome to Andermatt… Alas I’m not there at the moment. Although if I were, I dare say it wouldn’t look like it did in August 2010 when the picture above was taken. I suspect it might be somewhat whiter. I was, of course, en route for southern Italy […]
I have received an email from Ian Johnston. It has provoked me to do a bit of digging in the Cycling Europe archive and as a result I am writing this longer-than-normal post. Enjoy. The Tende Pass is perhaps one of the lesser-known Alpine passes but it is […]
By John Mullins What makes the Tour de France so special? Why is it that this one cycling competition transcends all other events on two wheels? Even if cycling isn’t your thing, you’ll know what the Tour de France is all about. Since 1903, the world has been […]
In these dying days of Britain being within the European Union, a retrospective photographic look at what the freedom of movement – across a peaceful continent of countries with shared values and aspirations – means in reality… That freedom is about to be curtailed for most people within […]
I remember cycling from the southern tip of Spain to the northern tip of Norway back in 2015 – my third crossing of Europe by bike – and coming to the conclusion that however wonderful the experience was (and it was usually just that), I had inadvertently sacrificed […]
It seems timely… Here’s the route being taken by today’s cyclists in the Tour de France compared to my own cycle into Paris in 2015 en route to Nordkapp: Somewhat different although the two routes do coalesce somewhere near the Champs Elysées. Here’s how I described the journey […]
DEADLINE FOR BIDS – MIDNIGHT ON TUESDAY 31ST JULY IF YOU’D LIKE THE COPY OF THE CICERONE GUIDE MENTIONED BELOW, IT WILL GO TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER! YOUR BID MUST ARRIVE BEFORE MIDNIGHT ON TUESDAY 31ST JULY . I’LL DONATE THE MONEY TO THE TEENAGE CANCER TRUST AND […]
By Sally Fox What could be more exciting than loading up the bike rack and catching the ferry to France for two weeks of pedalling pleasure? These beautiful destinations are perfect for your next two-wheeled adventure. If you’re after coastal charm, Normandy is a winner. At only 3 hours […]
A slew of Tour de France-related emails have arrived this week promoting this product, that cause etc… The race itself, of course, sets off today from the Vendée in western France. Of all the emails that I have received, two stick out from the rest. The first comes […]
Cycling the Yorkshire Dales Cycleway (eastern loop) from Malham to Settle and back, travelling in Japan and an interview with Mike Webb of PulpedTravel.com and cycling to the summit of one of the Tour de France’s most iconic climbs: Mont Ventoux
Three years ago today, I trundled into Paris… …arriving in, well, triumph at the Arc de Triomphe late in the afternoon. Here’s how the story unfolded in ‘Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie‘: Having attempted to cycle several times along the Thames Valley into central London […]
From the perspective of this seasoned continental cyclist, the best thing about a ferry is the fact that it isn’t an aeroplane. No hassle packing up the bike; just a case of riding over a ramp, finding a seat and relaxing while someone else does the hard work of […]
Regular readers of these posts will know that I quite often receive emails from people asking for information about cycling in Europe as occasionally I post my exchanges with such people on the website. In the case of Simon Ruddenklau, however, I didn’t. Perhaps it was a busy […]
This website is very nearly ten years old. Back in the early days(!) I used to answer many emails that I received on the website. In more recent years I haven’t done it so often but I’m going to do it now as this week I received two […]
A couple of European cycling-themed videos from Brut Nature FR, a French ‘new media’ company that seems to exist on social media but nowhere else. Anyway, I digress. Both are short and both worth watching; the first about the EuroVélo 6, the second about how the bicycle has […]
I find that by searching for ‘snow’ in the back catalogue of CyclingEurope.org posts, I’m not short of pretty photographs. From Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Slovakia, France, Switzerland, Norway… There was even a film!
Cold? This might warm you up… …as might reading this; my 2nd (and favourite) book, Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie, where I cycled the length of the EuroVelo 8 from Greece to Portugal:
As 2017 draws to a close I take a few moments to look back over the 150 posts from the past 12 months on CyclingEurope.org. It started in reflective mood, looking forward to the publication of Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie in May. Here I […]
Last week I was contacted by Nicholas Waite, a cyclist who is planning to travel from Tarifa to Nordkapp by bicycle in 2018. As with anyone attempting such a feat, he has done the wise thing and read my book: Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie […]
CyclingEurope.org often veers off topic, but here’s a story that is bang on topic. It starts with an email from Harry: Hi Andrew, I’m planning to cycle EuroVelo 3 in September this year, and was wondering if I could ask you a few questions? My father read about […]
From the EuroVélo website… (and the reason why I was in Brussels last week): “A new application has been launched for smart phones and tablets to help people plan and then cycle the route of EuroVelo 5 – Via Romea (Francigena). Over a thousand years ago, pilgrims used […]
I’m currently reminiscing, putting together a short presentation* for my visit to Brussels next week where I’ve been asked to reflect upon my 2010 cycle from the UK to southern Italy along the EuroVelo 5. Browsing through the photos and website posts from the time (I came up […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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…
A selection of photos to keep you going. I’ll write up when home.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
