Having decided to take part in the inaugural Trans Am Bike Race last September, it seems hard to believe that the event is less than a week away. It’s been far from an easy road to the start: during the last nine months I’ve been hit by cars twice, torn a calf muscle, and had…
The last week and a half has been testing to say the least. Having my bike and equipment stolen a month before the start of the Trans Am Bike Race was definitely not in the script and it’s certainly been a challenge to stay on course for the event. If you’d have asked me a…
Some of you may have noticed that my satellite tracker stopped moving in Lyon as I attempted to ride between London and Rome. On Friday night I stopped at a hotel to escape some fairly torrential rainstorms, leaving my bike locked up in a secure car park only accessible to hotel guests (who had paid…
The plan for Easter weekend was simple: cycle from home to Yorkshire on Good Friday, spend Easter with my family, before riding back on Monday. However, like all well laid plans, things didn’t quite go according to the script. Having packed up my gear the day before, I made a good start on Friday morning —…
Apologies for the lack of pictures — it wasn’t the most picturesque route! Cardiff — Buckingham On the 5th April I went down to Cardiff to ride my second Audax – the 400km Buckingham Blinder — rather than travel down on the day I stayed near Cardiff the night before, meaning that I managed to make the…
During a few years working in the bike industry while I put myself though university I was fortunate enough to be able to test ride a large number of bikes. From the latest carbon superbikes to £500 commuters, I’ve found that no matter the price point there are some bikes that make sense straight away…
I’ve been meaning to try an Audax ride for a while, but the stars have never quite aligned — so when I saw that there was a 300km event leaving from Oxford I jumped at the chance to sign up. For those who aren’t familiar with Audax riding (or randonneuring), it’s a discipline of cycling in…
Recently things have really started to come together as I get ready for the Trans Am Bike Race, so I thought it was a good time to post an update. For a while the race has been far enough in the future that it’s felt distant, slightly removed — but now there’s less than three months until…
With 2014 inexorably marching on, the Trans Am Bike Race suddenly seems incredibly close. It’s almost exactly three months until the ‘Grand Depart’ in Astoria and while training, planning, and kit selection are going well, the feeling that there’s limited time until kickoff is hard to shake. There’s no doubt that the next three months…
Distance cycling has given me a lot over the years, but above all it’s taught me that pushing well beyond my comfort zone can yield great rewards. Pushing hard has taken me to remote and wild places, it’s shown me that I’m capable of more than I’d imagined, and it’s expanded my horizons. But, most…
Balance I’ve been stuck for a topic to write about for the last week or so. I’ve been out on the bike a lot, there have been some big rides, and the weather has still been abysmal — but nothing interesting or out of the ordinary has happened. Then, reading back through my blog, I…
It seems that my life has revolved around cycling ever since I began training for the Trans Am Bike Race last September. Don’t get me wrong, I was pretty obsessive about cycling before that point, but things have subtly shifted up a gear during the last few months. I had this epiphany at around 10pm…
