I caught the cycle touring bug in 2007, when I had the chance to ride in the Pyrenees for one day.
I thought of myself as a runner at the time, and was in training for the Great North Run half marathon that October. But one ride in the mountains was enough to convince me I had to become a cyclist.
After some one-day charity rides, I cycled coast to coast across Northern England the following year and again in 2009 (both ways). Then I did my first epic tour in 2010, when three of us rode from Notre Dame in Paris, unsupported, to Venice – nearly a thousand miles and fifty thousand feet of climbing in two weeks. It was the adventure of a lifetime, and I had to repeat it!
In 2016, we climbed the Col du Soulor and the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees to celebrate my 60th birthday and in 2017 I rode from St Malo to Notre Dame solo, and then onwards to Lourdes with the group, from where we climbed the Soulor again and the Col d’Aubisque on our final day.
In 2019, we met up again in Inverness and did a two-week tour of Scotland, finishing in Edinburgh. 2021 saw us in South Wales for a week, including the Brecon Beacons.
These epic trips and countless other rides of various lengths mean I have learned a lot about cycling, training, fuelling and the agony and the ecstasy of cycle touring and how we can always do a bit more than we think we can.
Now I want to give you the opportunity to enjoy the cycle touring experience, the incredible adventures and the massive, almost overwhelming sense of achievement we all get from a tough challenge well met and overcome.
So, this website is not about me – it’s very much about you and Your Cycling Adventure. The experience of a lifetime you will want to repeat again and again.
Roy