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…
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…
With sign up for next year’s Transcontinental complete, aspiring racers have turned their attention to route-planning, preparation, and gear selection. In the wake of this flurry of activity, I’ve been asked for gear advice a few times over the last week. Rather than respond individually, I thought I’d post some information here as a more…
Last week I drove up to the Cotswolds to have a chat with the guys at Qoroz about the Trans Am Bike Race. During the course of the discussion, I was asked what I meant when I said that the race was “entirely unsupported.” It was an important question — after all, it’s the unsupported…
Well, arriving back in the UK has been a bit of a shock to the system. As soon as the plane descended through the dawn cloud into London Heathrow I knew that training was about to become a whole lot harder. Leaving the airport into a 5-degree drizzle confirmed it. It’s good to be home.…
One of the purposes of this blog is to act as a personal training log — while this is mainly to give me a record that will keep me honest and committed to putting the miles in, I hope it will also be entertaining and informative! This is what I’ve been up to on the bike…
Kristof Allegaert, the man-machine who won the Transcontinental Race, recently produced a list of endurance cycling tips; while I agree with everything on his list, there are a couple of things I’d add: Long over-night rides In the year building up to a multi-day endurance cycling event, do some long over-night rides. This allows for…
Apologies for the lack of new posts recently — it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Regular (or at least intermittent) service should resume from now on. I’ve been feeling the onset of winter sapping my desire to ride recently, so thought I’d share some tips that have helped me push through the slump and…
As a bit of a change of pace from the gear reviews and ride reports I usually post here, I thought I’d answer a question I get asked a lot… Motivation: why ride? One of the questions I’m asked the most — either by strangers whilst on the road or by friends and family when…
