The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. After a day off in Morlaix, Brittany, Andrew sets off cycling south along the EuroVelo 1 - known locally as the Vélodyssée - following a disused railway track and then the Nantes-Brest Canal before continuing along the west coast of France to La Rochelle. He takes time to explore the attractions along the way including the historic town of Josselin and, with the help of a shuttle bus for...

The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. In this fourth part of the ’Grand Tour’ series, we follow Andrew’s progress as he rejoins the Velomaritime near Mont-Saint-Michel and cycles west along the route as far as Morlaix in Brittany. This section of his cycle sees him encounter hills for the first time since leaving Rotterdam - he even experiences his first ’Mercedes moment’ - but he still has plenty of time and energy remaining...

The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. In this third part of the ’Grand Tour’ series, Andrew sets off along the Veloscenie cycle route from the historic city of Chartres to its fellow UNESCO World Heritage site at Mont-Saint-Michel. It’s a journey of four days with overnight stops at a dystopian municipal campsite at Nogent-le-Rotrou, Alençon and Domfront-en-Poiraie before his arrival on the north coast. He also takes time to...

The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. In the previous episode, he had travelled through his first country, The Netherlands. In this episode he continues his journey south along the coasts of Belgium and France following the […]

The Cycling Europe Podcast enters a new era with this episode. Not only recorded on tour, this episode has also been edited on tour! Throughout July and August, new episodes of the podcast will be published telling the story of Andrew P. Sykes’ ‘Grand Tour’ through The Netherlands, […]

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...

Writer, cyclist - and now composer - Rob Ainsley is the master of the cycling ‘end-to-end’: Britain, France, Spain, Poland, Cuba… and now Slovakia, west to east. He chats to The Cycling Europe Podcast about his recent journey across the country, its people, its places… and its beer. He also takes time to reflect upon the attractions of the end-to-end cycle and reveals the name of the country that he believes is home to the definitive end-to-end. We also hear two of Rob’s compositions for...

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...

Nathan Molyneaux is a planning manager in the food industry. He’s also a great believer in the Chimp Paradox, an understanding of which allows you to take control of your emotions in order to act in your own best interests. This theory, developed by Professor Steve Peters, has been instrumental in the planning of Nathan’s upcoming journey around the world. And it’s a proper round-the-world cycle; no planes, every continent, scores of countries and four (or perhaps even five) years in which to...

I am in Hebden Bridge, experimenting. If you are reading this, congratulations! You are clearly a fan of the podcast as I’m making no effort to publicise this secret episode of the podcast. It doesn’t even have a number! You may find the audio of interest, you may […]

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...

Whilst recovering from cancer treatment, Candy Whittome was given a copy of Anne Mustoe’s book ‘A Bike Ride: 12,000 Miles Around the World’. It inspired her to embark upon a long cycling journey herself, if not quite all the way round the world, then a good portion of it. Her doctors were supportive (although her family needed some convincing) and in 2021 she set off on the first leg of her journey cycling from Britain to southern Greece during the second summer of the COVID pandemic. In this...

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...

In 2021 I put out a call for anyone who was interested in recording a short monologue about their experiences of cycling to get in touch and, in the past year, quite a few people have come forward to record such a monologue. In this episode you have a second opportunity to hear Laura Massey-Pugh set out her plans to cycle around the world on a tandem, Laurence Warren tell the story of round-the-world cyclist Colin Martin as well as discuss his experiences of cycling in his adopted home of...

In this episode of the podcast we hear from two groups who are using cycling to highlight important issues in society. Iris and Jan, from Berlin, are currently cycling around the world. As they travel, they are researching approaches towards tackling mental health issues in the countries that they visit.  The Climate Explorers are a small group of cyclists who are aiming to raise environmental awareness. In 2021 they embarked upon the ‘Pedal 4 Parks’ journey across the UK. Your host, Andrew...

The Baltic Sea Cycle Route is one of the longest of the EuroVelos. It’s route number 10 and  passes through every country that touches the Baltic Sea; Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia (twice), Finland, Sweden and Denmark. In the summer of 2019 Bernd Schadowski & his 17-year-old son Tristan, two cyclists from Aachen in western Germany, said auf wiedersehen to the rest of their family and set off from Lübeck with the intention of completing the 9,000 km loop. In this...

The cycle touring world is not short of people who enjoy sharing their two-wheeled adventures in books, on social media, on YouTube and even on podcasts such as this. But for every known cyclist, there are thousands of unknown cyclists embarking upon journeys that often surpass the endeavours of more publicity-friendly adventurers. This episode of the podcast meets two of them; Anne Lawther, who has had a 40-year relationship with long-distance cycling and, via the words of Laurence Warren,...

In episode 038 of The Cycling Europe Podcast, Andrew Sykes spoke to a number of travellers about their experiences of cycling The Hebridean Way. Now it’s his turn to get onto his bicycle, Wanda, and cycle from Vatersay in the south to Lewis in the north along one of Britain’s most spectacular rides. In part 1 of this episode of the podcast he travelled from the island of Vatersay to the island of Berneray. In this second part of the podcast we see him complete his journey across the Isles of...

In episode 038 of The Cycling Europe Podcast, Andrew Sykes spoke to a number of travellers about their experiences of cycling The Hebridean Way. Now it’s his turn to get onto his bicycle, Wanda, and cycle from Vatersay in the south to Harris in the north along one of Britain’s most spectacular rides. In part 1 of the podcast he travels from the island of Vatersay to the island of Berneray. Part 2 of the podcast will see him complete his journey to the Butt of Lewis and it will be published on...

Britain offers some amazing places to explore on a bicycle, but there can be few locations within the UK that offer the remoteness, drama and sheer spectacle of the islands of The Outer Hebrides. The Hebridean Way guides cyclists  from Vatersay in the south to the Butt of Lewis in the north: “10 islands, 6 causeways, 2 ferries and 1 unforgettable adventure”. In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast, writers, travellers and cyclists reflect upon their experiences of cycling The Hebridean...

The travel writer and cyclist Simon Parker first appeared on The Cycling Europe Podcast in February 2021when he talked about his ‘Earth Cycle’ TV programme. He returns to discuss his latest project; an end-to-end cycle around Britain in the midst of a global pandemic. His main aim was not to clock up the kilometres but to meet the people and hear their stories. He told his own story in a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph and here he looks back upon a cycling staycation to beat most others.

Maike Brinksma is an athlete, academic, environmental activist… and cyclist, from The Netherlands. In the summer of 2021 she will be one of the first people ever to cycle the ‘Amazon of Europe Bike Trail’. She talks to the podcast about her plans to explore the riverine landscapes of the Mura-Drava-Danube UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. She also reflects on the joys of being a Dutch cyclist. (Or is she?) Plus: Caroline Burrows, the Bristol-based Scottish poet and cyclist, recounts her experiences...

In June 2020, The Cycling Europe Podcast dedicated the whole of episode 21 to the epic early 20th Century European cycle of the American Maximilian J. St. George. After discovering the podcast, Tim & George, both grandsons of Max got in touch, as did Juniper, great grandson of Max’s travelling companion Varnum Parish. Varnum not only rode with Max for several months but wrote his own diary. The podcast talks to Tim, George and Juniper about their ancestors’ travels in Europe. Plus: Simon...

One hundred years ago, the Great North Road closed and the A1 opened, heralding a century of domination by the motor car. The Cycling Europe Podcast meets BBC journalist (and one-time San Franciscan cycle courier) Steve Silk who set off on his bicycle to cycle from London to Edinburgh to rediscover what remains of the old road, its stories, milestones and coaching inns. Steve’s book - The Great North Road - is published by Summersdale on July 8th. Plus: cycling in Austria with local resident...

In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast we are pointing our wheels in the direction of Istanbul. In pre-COVID Europe, Mat and Harriet Hall headed off on their first long-distance cycle tour along the EuroVelo 15 to Switzerland before hooking up with the EuroVelo 6 to Romania and then finally following the EuroVelo 13 to Turkey. They have now turned their adventure into a series of films that document the highs and occasional lows of life on the road. Plus: this month’s monologue comes...