Drink Wine - It Makes You Ride Faster.

 Only girls shave their legs.

Out of Shape Cyclists and Charity Shop Specials.

I'm not going to lie, I'm very unfit. I thought I was in top physical condition until yesterday when I went on my first 'proper' ride since winter set in a couple of months ago. While most genuine cyclists have been indoors on their turbo trainers i've been in the pub. I've never subscribed to the idea of cycling indoors, for me it defeats the object completely, however i'm no racer and have no concept of training so I guess I should cut those guys some slack.

It was the day of the 'apocalypse' so I thought I should squeeze in one last ride before armageddon so I got out of bed early and got the lycra on and headed out. It was pretty cold, rain was spitting and the road was wet and slippery, all told the weather was not conducive to a pleasant cycling experience but I felt pretty hardcore out there in the conditions. Anyway I was only 40 miles in and starting to feel a little tired, when an elderly fellow, maybe 65 years old, overtook me going uphill, this was the final straw so I limped home feeling pretty ashamed of myself. I hate cycling.

On a positive note while searching through a local charity store the other day I found this for £5, It's a perfect fit, I guess thats karma repaying me for being such a swell guy.  

Another jersey I will never wear.

The Bicycle Tour vs. A Family Holiday.

It's a weird comparison, I know but many people would never consider a bike trip to be a viable substitute for a family holiday. I guess bike touring is more suited to the individual or a small group of friends, however it could make an excellent substitute to the annual drag that is the family holiday. Firstly it costs a lot less than say, a flight almost anywhere, although it's not even necessary to go abroad. To give you an idea of cost, our trip cost me around £600 (not including equipment) which is fantastic value for a month long holiday, including accommodation, food and travel, if you are thrifty you could do it for a lot less than we did.

Instead of being restricted to a specific resort or city you get to see whole countries under your own power, you are completely free to move where you please. Cycling is the perfect speed to take in your surroundings and you will see a lot more than you would from anything with an engine (apart from a steam engine perhaps). The variety of landscapes in France alone is staggering, ranging from the high mountains to dense forests and flat pastoral plains. While it may not be the relaxing holiday most people imagine it's certainly a whole lot more rewarding.

We met a number of families travelling by bicycle, especially at campsites around rivers such as the Rhine where cycle paths make for a safe environment for young children, in fact Germany as a whole has a great cycling infrastructure and a massive network of cycle paths. Cycle touring is certainly a better family bonding experience than your average package holiday to a beach resort, it's also a fantastic way to get your family fit.

Just a thought for your next holiday!

On the Road.

Jack Kerouac's magnum opus 'On the Road' has no doubt led many young people astray since it was first published way back in 1957. The idea of constantly moving, never being stationary is incredibly appealing, in fact Bob Dylan has cited the novel as one of his biggest influences, thats one hell of an endorsement. The lifestyle Kerouac describes is not for the faint hearted, debauchery, substance abuse and theft are part of the day to day search for 'kicks'.

'On the Road'

Now don't get me wrong, i'm talking about bike touring, not getting loaded and being promiscuous, I don't need that to get my kicks. However I feel that Kerouac's description of life on the road runs parallel to cycle touring, never being in the same place for very long and exploring the whole of a country is exactly what he preached. Our lives are are too predisposed to routine and to be able to escape from the everyday rat-race can only make us realise what it is to be free. I guess what i'm trying to say is, don't take drugs, get a bike instead.

A Recollection of the First Day of a Long Trip.

Truth be told it wasn't really the first day of the trip at all. The day prior we had cycled a rapid 60km from the ferry terminal at Caen to our first planned campsite at Blangy-le-Chateau, a remarkable place with a large chateau situated in the centre of the site. We arrived late and the reception was closed, we eventually found a member of staff and were told to pay in the morning. Tents were pitched, cous-cous was cooked and I was out like a light

Le Brevedent.

I was awoken at 6am by Jamie in what was to be the first in a long sequence of early wake up calls that left me with a desire to kill him if only I could be bothered to get out of my sleeping bag. I eventually clambered out of the tent and skulked off for a shower which was cold, not the best start to the day. We cooked a breakfast of eggs, packed all of our belongings and slid €20 and an apology note under the door of the still closed reception hoping that it would be enough. 

The first thing I did upon leaving the campsite was to get on the left (wrong) side of the road, it takes some getting used to at first. Anyway this first day really wasn't very eventful, it was more the distance covered in relation to our lack of fitness that caused the issue. For some reason I had decided to wear a pair of jean shorts and a vest, I must have looked like an idiot. It was beautiful cycling weather, not too hot and the Normandy countryside is reasonably flat. We were surrounded by fields of crops the majority of the day, life was just dandy. We stopped for lunch in the town of Gisors, made famous by the Chateau de Gisors a large castle positioned on top of a hill.

It was outside the Carrefour in Gisors that we met one of the characters of the trip, we still speak of him now in fact. He was some sort of meth-head rave enthusiast who seemed to have boarded the wrong train from Paris and ended up out in the sticks. He was smoking something that didn't smell much like tobacco and he engaged us in a 'conversation' regarding dance music, we appeased him with half a left over camembert and made our escape. It was soon after that Jamie made a fool of himself by falling off twice in quick succesion due to his inexperience with clipless pedals and cycling shoes, It wasn't to be the last time either.

According to our plans this day was supposed to be no longer than 180km which sounded reasonable to us, however by the time we arrived in Meru the situation was looking dire as it was clear to us that it was going to be a lot longer than the original estimate. I cannot think of one good thing to say about Meru, it really is a toilet. I was getting a little shaky so we visited a McDonalds for the first and only time of the trip. One Big Mac later and we were back on the road, rather unsure of where we would spend the night.

The sun was starting to dwindle and I was confident we would have to rough it in a field somewhere. It was at this point that we sighted some kind of saint, an elderly Frenchman getting into an ancient campervan. We managed to explain to him in our broken French that we were looking for a campsite and to our joy he told us that there was one only a few kilometers down the road. We made it to Campix campsite at St Leu d'Esserent (near Chantilly) as it was starting to get dark, we gladly paid the receptionist and set up camp. I ate beans, it turns out the French haven't grasped the idea of baked beans as they had nothing on Heinz. Jamie drank a bottle of wine to improve his sleep, I didn't need any. We had cycled 226km which equates to just over 140 miles and I know I felt like I had in the morning.

Campix.

Jack Bobridge.

© Caleb Smy.

A bit off topic but the Tour of Britain came through my home town Guildford a few months ago and I got this shot of Jack Bobridge, He had been on a solo break but had been caught, probably why he looks so pissed off.

Nostalgia - Berlin to London 2010 - In Short.

The Reichstag, the start line.

Berlin. What a beautiful city. A cyclist's city. And what precedence two wheels has over das auto; the perfect way to start a bike tour with two friends I met in Brazil. Additionally, it was a test for my new Genesis Croix de Fer.

The first official night of the tour couldn't have been any more different in comparison to the four nights prior to my departure spent in a Berlin hostel. These were spent gorging on kebabs in the Turkish quarter and drinking beers by the banks of the Spree. This first official night was spent trying to get some sleep on a ferry bobbing on a very choppy Baltic Sea, from Poland to Sweden. I was not a happy bunny. 

We left Berlin in the early hours of the morning, dodging the numerous tram lines. It wasn't long until we hit the forests north of the capital. At one time we didn't leave forest for 15 km, however none of the infamous Berlin wild boar were sighted. 

The North German Plain was the perfect way to lead us into Poland, it's hard to imagine that these lands were subject to WW2's bloodshed. Within 100 m of crossing the border the silky German roads abruptly ended and were replaced by the potholed roads of Swinoujscie. It was from this port town that we barely caught the 9pm UnityLine ferry to Ystad, Sweden. I had totalled 215km, without clipless pedals and cycling shoes, sacrificing efficiency, which was not a wise choice.

Following approximately 1 - 2 hours of sleep on the ferry, we arrived to a chilly, overcast Sweden, where we hastily cooked up some pasta with pesto and where off again. We rode for approximately 60 km through the sparsely populated, rolling agricultural lands of southern Sweden till we rolled into red bricked Malmo. From here we took the train over the Øresund Bridge into Copenhagen, where we set up camp in a central camp-site, followed by a brief tour of this beautiful, yet costly, city. 

Little Mermaid, Copenhagen.

Following a well deserved sleep, we left the city and started to eat up the miles. The roads down  Denmark's Zealand island went as far as the eye could see, and before we knew it we hopped off the bottom of the island, back onto German soil where we rough camped, precariously hidden from the nearby main road. 

Thanks to the flat northern German topography, it was not long until we rocked up early to a hotel-turned-hostel in Hambourg, where we took advantage of an early night sleep, helped along by the drone of the local Straße. The next day we woke relatively late, and made our way into the centre. A lovely city to cycle through and coincidently there was a bike fair on, where we saw a carbon bike, weighing in at a ridiculously light weight, far from the other end of the weight spectrum, where our ladened bikes stood. 

Back on the road again we ate up the kilometres, where for 3 consecutive nights, we roughed camped, the third night below sea-level 30 km outside of Amsterdam. The next day we were in a hostel in central Amsterdam getting a well deserved shower. Here we took another day off, touring the canals and visiting cafe's (not that kind...honest). 

The next day was the Hoek van Holland sprint, 80 km to get the 14:30 ferry to Harwich. A feat which we failed to achieve. Alas, we took the 21:30 for the overnight ferry, the best sleep of the trip. 

Back on Old Blightly's soil it was a short trip to Chelmsford for a night at a friends house. Then from Chelmsford through a rough (to say the least) East London to Buckingham Palace, the trips finishing line. 

Her Majesty's house, the finish line. The Croix de Fer's first run in.

Total - 1500 km over 9 days

Bike Review - Genesis Croix de Fer.

When we did John o’ Groats to Land’s End in 2009 we rode completely unsuitable bikes, mine was an aluminium flat barred road bike while Jamie rode a Halford’s Carrera subway. Needless to say these were not suitable for extended laden touring purposes. We decided to invest in something more up to the task of lugging all our kit and ourselves on lengthy continental adventures.

The bike we settled on was the Genesis Croix de Fer, these bikes are suitable for long distance touring as proven by Vin Cox’s epic round the world trip completed on a slightly modified hub geared version. While essentially a cyclo-cross bike (too heavy to race) they really do everything well, I guess you could call them a jack of all trades which suits us well as they fulfill the role of commuter hack when not on tour and negate the need for multiple bikes (we aren’t made of money!).

Jamie’s 2010 spec version came equipped with Shimano disc brakes, which were prone to squealing like a stuck pig upon heavy braking. I purchased mine a year later (I’m a copycat), which had the updated and noise free Avid BB7 brakes, of course the addition of disc brakes makes it impossible to install a regular pannier rack and mudguards, a disc specific rack is required. Jamie’s version came with a 9-speed cassette at the rear as opposed to my 10 speeds, which was advantageous for me on the climbs. The Shimano Tiagra groupset works flawlessly, it’s not the lightest but that’s not the point. Gear changes are smooth and it seems like it will continue to function well for years to come.

It also makes a reasonable 'party bike'.

The frame is comfortable and the steel soaks up bumps well enough and we found all the stock parts (bars, stem and seatpost) to perform well and I have no real desire to change any of them out. The white color scheme looks great, and doesn’t get as dirty as I had anticipated. Genesis has now changed the colour to black, which doesn’t look nearly as good. We are both 6’ 2” and found the 58cm frame size to be a great fit. Of course the saddles had to go, these where replaced by a pair of Brook’s leather saddles, the standard for bike touring, and I will testify that they live up to the hype and are worth paying extra for. I have used a B-17 in the past and now use the much more slender Swift model (which I will review). Jamie uses a B-17 and is very happy with it. For my next tour I will more than likely switch out the stock brown faux leather bar tape for some Brooks leather tape as it gets slippery with sweat and isn’t comfortable to grip for long periods.

My only real beef with the bike was the stock wheels. It seems to me that the spokes are of very low quality and tend to snap extremely easily; by the halfway point we had each broken 4 spokes. It seems to me that Genesis could have used stronger spokes, especially considering the Croix de Fer is marketed as a go anywhere, do anything bike. Jamie’s freewheel also seized up literally 100m from the ferry terminal at St. Malo, it was a real spot of luck that it gave up there after 2070 miles rather than out in the middle of nowhere. I’m currently looking into getting completely new wheels built for the next trip, as there is nothing more frustrating than unreliable wheels. It’s also worth bearing in mind that 700cc wheels with disc brakes are a fairly new concept and still aren’t very common, the owner of the bike shop we visited seemed baffled by them and didn’t stock replacements. The bikes came fitted with cyclo-cross tyres, which we both switched out for continental slicks to lessen rolling resistance.

Overall I would recommend the bike to anybody looking for a light-touring bike that is capable of doing most things to a reasonable standard. I paid £999 for mine (from epic cycles) and consider the value to be outstanding, however I would have happily paid more if Genesis decided to supply better wheels with the bike. I can see the bike lasting me for many years to come and carrying me on many more tours.

You Know When You Get a Song Stuck in Your Head?

I know the feeling pretty well and it can be annoying as hell. When you're perched on a bicycle for up to 12 hours a day you have a lot of time to think and before you realise it you have a song on repeat in your head driving you wild.

This is my top 5 from the tour:

1. Queens of the stone age - I Think I Lost my Headache.

(All the time, that riff incessantly going around my mind) 

2. Tame Impala - Solitude is Bliss.

(Mostly on long descents)

3. Death from Above 1979 - Little Girl.

(Another one on repeat all the time)

4. Kevin Bloody Wilson - I Gave up Wanking.

(Sing along favourite)

5. Mozart - The Magic Flute: Queen of the Night Aria.

(I reckon a lot of Frenchmen are scarred after hearing me try to hit the high notes)

*BONUS TRACK*

Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie and Clyde.

(When in France)

Thats a pretty eclectic mix!

The Art of Camping

Camping is half the fun of the bike tour, if you're not camping you aren't doing it right. Before we left I had heard nothing but good things about French campsites and this turned out to be true (except they aren't all full of hot French girls). The majority of sites we stayed at had all the facilities conducive to a good camping experience, all had showers, not all had hot water. They all had washing up facilities for cookware and clothing.

The French have a 5 star rating for campsites much like hotels, the highest we stayed at was 4 star and this included a swimming pool a bar/restaurant and a euro disco playing crap music late into the night. All this comes at a price however, 30 euros in this case. We preferred the low budget 1 & 2 star sites without all the unnecessary extras, these could be found for as little as 5.50 euros for the both of us.  

French campsites generally have a good atmosphere about them, there is a real sense of camaraderie amongst campers. We also noticed a large amount of dutch holiday makers everywhere (I wonder if Holland is deserted during the summer months) they are great people and always keen to lend a mallet for hammering tent pegs into hard ground. 

Wild camping was an option but I would prefer to pay for the peace of mind of not being awoken by a French farmer with a shotgun. I'm sure you could get away with it as the majority of France is pretty desolate and rural, maybe next time.

5 Things I Couldn't Have Lived Without.

There's no excuse for eating badly on tour.

1. Tabasco sauce: Sounds weird but it makes the most mundane foodstuffs a whole lot more interesting, it's really good with pasta.

2. Wine: Wine is cheap in France and there is nothing better than a glass (or mug) of wine after a long day, Beer is a good alternative.

3. Coffee: I struggle to get out of bed at the best of times let alone at 6.30am everyday, coffee makes it a bit more bearable.

4. Inflatable Mattress: Don't risk a bad nights sleep, invest in a decent mattress.

5. Cycling Cap: Ok, so you may look like a dork but they prevent sweat getting in your eyes and offer protection from the sun.

Looking for a Little Inspiration?

http://thegrreatescape.tumblr.com/

I've been following this blog for a long time and it's always been a source of inspiration. These guys cycled 4000 miles around the U.S.A. (something I hope to do one day) and have relocated to the Alps to continue their adventure. The photography is great so check it out and get inspired.

10 Tips for Successful Touring.

1. DO IT! Leave as soon as possible, don’t put it off, book the time off work and go A.S.A.P. It could change your life, who knows!

2. Don’t plan too much, you can make the most detailed plans but you will have a much more enjoyable time if you ‘go with the flow’. Your bike may malfunction, you may take a wrong turn and end up miles from where you had planned to be. Remember, Europe as a whole is a civilised place and it’s unlikely you will starve or freeze, it’s an adventure after all!

3. Take a friend, and a good one at that. You will be spending every minute of every day with this person so make sure it’s somebody that you can tolerate and spend time with without wishing to wring their neck.

4. Bring a good knife with you, you will need it for preparing food, whittling a stick when you’re bored and stabbing your intolerable companion.

5. Cleanliness is next to godliness so make sure to shower and wash your clothes every night. You will be sweaty and gross after a long day in the saddle, so for the sake of your health and for those around you, stay clean. Campsites in Europe have all the necessary facilities for you to do this, however some showers are better than others.

6. Pack light. I cannot emphasise how easy it is to take with you a whole load of bonus stuff you will never need. On John O’ Groats to Land’s End we took a monstrous amount of junk (Jamie packed a large hardback book). For this trip we thought we had mastered the art of packing light, however we were wrong. By the halfway stage we managed to fill a bin liner with unnecessary items that were doomed to landfill. Whatever you take has to be lugged around with you and when you’re trying to ascend a Pyrenean climb the weight really makes a difference.

7. Water is necessary for human survival and you will need a lot of it. When cycling in 40 degree heat you tend to dry out pretty fast, so make sure you stock up with plenty of water. Before we left I attached two extra bottle cages to the front fork of my bike but took them off because i thought they looked stupid, I really regretted that. We ran out of water on three occasions, fortunately most French villages have drinking fountains.

8. The French don’t do much on Sundays, all the shops are shut so it is vital that you stock up the day before so you don’t end up huddled in a ball in you’re tent after a long days ride imagining how good a Big Mac would be right now.

9. Have faith in people, about 1000 miles into the journey we had both broken four spokes each (probably because of over packing) as a result our rear wheels resembled pringles and the bikes were virtually unridable. We spent hours in a Decathlon store trying to get the wheels fixed however the staff there managed to make the problem worse, to the extent that they gave us 20 euros to get them fixed elsewhere. It was at this point that we met Clive an English man with a French family, they put our bikes in their car found another bike shop, took us out for lunch and drove us to a campsite. We picked the bikes up the next day and continued on our journey but without them it could never have happened, cheers Clive!

10. Wear Sunscreen.

Honestly though, it’s hot out there kids, don’t get burned. A cycling cap also helps keep the sun out of your eyes and off your head.

11. This isn’t Spinal Tap.

Intro.

This year my friend Jamie and I set off from England for a month long tour of Europe. This wasn’t our first experience of travelling lengthy distances by revolving our legs, in 2009 when we were both 19 years old we completed John O’ Groats to Land’s End. In 2010 Jamie cycled from Berlin to London with a group of friends. We had both caught the touring bug, however it took us three years to get ourselves together and plan this slightly more ambitious undertaking.

The plan was simple, leave the ferry at Caen, head East through Northern France, cut through Belgium and Luxembourg, go South through Germany, Switzerland and into Italy, round the French Riviera, take a short rest at Jamie’s aunts place in the Pyrenees and then head north towards St. Malo and home. If only it was that easy, within two days this meticulously crafted plan had been thrown out the window, we realised we were not capable of cycling 250km a day fully laden with our tents and belongings. The Tour ended up taking us on a 2000 mile circumnavigation of France with a couple of days in Germany and Switzerland, not all we had planned but maybe it's better that way. 

This trip was without the best thing I have ever done, when I am in bed struggling to sleep I often remember some forgotten road or an amazing view, if I could, I would love to make touring my life. I am writing this blog to share with you some of our experiences, keep you updated on upcoming tours and to give advice to people planning trips of their own - If you have a question don't hesitate to ask.