Tag: United Kingdom

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 065 – Matthew Sturgeon – Cycling To Mainland Britain’s Lighthouses

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Matthew Sturgeon is an architect and cyclist from Ilkley in Yorkshire and he’s on  a mission to visit every one of mainland Britain’s 186 lighthouses. Inspired by his late late wife Angela, who raised £40,000 for cancer research, Matthew is raising money for his A Bit Of A Break charity. It funds visits for cancer patients and their families to holiday properties around the UK. He started collecting his lighthouses with a ride along the Northumbrian coast and has now visited 100. But why lighthouses? What’s his favourite lighthouse? What has been the most disappointing lighthouse? What has been the most difficult to cycle to? And what will be lighthouse number 186? Matthew tells his story to The Cycling Europe Podcast…

Gaslight Alert: “£200 Million To Improve Walking And Cycling Routes And Boost Local Economies”

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Here we go again… The announcement of another pot of cash which will fund a handful of schemes across the country and have minimal impact on the lives of the majority of people in the country. Good for those who receive it but for those that don’t, simply gaslights us into thinking that the government are committed to transforming our country into one where active travel is the norm. (Remember Boris Johnson’s “golden age of cycling”?) There is a scheme near where I live in West Yorkshire – a disused railway that runs along the Ryburn Valley from Sowerby Bridge to Ripponden and Rishworth (see below) – that would be a great candidate for a slice of this cash but it’s unlikely to happen. Expect the money to be allocated predominantly in Tory ‘red wall’ constituencies. And when the beauty contest decisions are made later in the year, expect the same announcement to be made again. Meanwhile in The Netherlands they are putting their money where their mouth is (as they have being doing for decades) and have just opened an underwater bike parking facility in Amsterdam…

Markus Stitz: Home Is Where The Trails Take You

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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…

“£32.9 Million To Create A National Network Of Walking And Cycling Experts”

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An interesting email from the Department for Transport. Very laudable that the government are using nearly £33 million to create a network of expertsdedicated to encourage active travel; walking and cycling. Yet I can’t help but feel that I would be slightly more delighted – excited even – if the headline was tweaked slightly. Just a couple of very minor modifications are needed. Here goes…

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 060 – Cycling The Route of ‘The Wheels Of Chance’ By H.G. Wells

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Tristam Newey is a science-fiction writer from Southampton who loves all things sea, air, space.. and cycling. Inspired by H.G.Wells’ 1896 comic novel The Wheels of Chance, in July 2022 Tristam set off to retrace the journey of the book’s main protagonist, Mr. Hoopdriver – a frustrated draper’s assistant from Putney – from London to the south coast of England (and halfway back). As he travelled, he rediscovered the places that H.G. Wells wrote about and recreated the sketches that appeared in the original book. In the words of H.G. Wells himself, “Whoop for freedom and adventure!”,

Le Grand Tour: Day 0 – Halifax To Hull (17km)

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Welcome to Le Grand Tour! I can’t decide whether the cycle officially started in Halifax when I shut my front door behind me or whether it will start when I get to the Hook of Holland tomorrow. I’ve compromised and called this ‘first’ day, ‘Day 0’. Now I think about it, that’s not a compromise is it? Oh well…

‘Cycling Stuff’: Hostels In Scotland And Great British Gravel Rides

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Having a presence online, as I do, can create a rather skewed image of the person writing this. The books, podcasts, films, social media etc… don’t help in this regard. I dare say some of you think I lead a rather different life to the one that I actually experience myself. Yesterday, a colleague in the school where I toil asked if my work as a teacher subsidised the ‘cycling stuff’ or the other way around. I broke the news gently that, without my income from cajoling the 11 to 18-year-olds of my small town in West Yorkshire into engaging with the educational process, I would be living on the streets. Perhaps one day the ‘cycling stuff’ will be the bread winner and the teaching a nice add-on. For the time being however…

Cycling The Way Of The Roses: The Film (Premiere)

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If you are reading this before 7pm on Thursday 2nd June 2022 you are invited to a film premiere tonight at 7pm! That doesn’t happen every day, does it? It’s the film that I’ve made about my recent cycle along the Way of the Roses from Morecambe to York. If you are reading this after 7pm tonight well, your invite to the premiere is no longer valid, sorry. But you can, of course, still watch the film in all its 4K glory below. Don’t forget that you can get the full story of the three days of cycling across the Pennines by listening to episode 50 of The Cycling Europe Podcast. Full details below.