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…
By Ryan McDonald As the location of the highest ski station in Spain and the southernmost in Europe, little can match the majesty of the Sierra Nevada when snow crowns this range of mountains, dominating the landscape as the stunning backdrop to Granada and the iconic Alhambra monument. […]
A photographic retrospective looking back over 11 years of cycling Europe…
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…
Last weekend was the virtual Cycle Touring Festival. I was planning on writing a few words about the event myself but then a chap called Graham Johnson from Derbyshire got in touch. He had never previously attended the (non-virtual) Cycle Touring Festival but had signed up for a few of the online webinars – including the one delivered by yours truly – at this year’s virtual event and was planning on writing something for his local CTC / Cycling UK group newsletter. Could he use some of my photos to illustrate his text? he asked. Yes, of course! Could I publish your article about the festival on CyclingEurope.org? I asked. Yes, of course! Mutual happiness all round. And here is what he wrote, illustrated by the photographs he chose to use. I think it’s all rather entertaining. He is clearly a man with a book inside him.
Earlier this month I talked about the annual Cycle Touring Festival going virtual for 2020 and the time is almost here! The festival kicks off later today (Friday) and continues over this coming weekend of the 25th and 26th April. Laura and Tim Moss, who have organised the festival every year since 2015, have done a magnificent job in putting together, once again, an eclectic, interesting and potentially inspiring programme of events.
