A pear and banana for breakfast, plus two steaming, frothy glasses of tap water – yes, it was that cold this morning. The day looked like it was spoiling for an argument, gloomy and grey and short-tempered. But it never really came to that. There was, granted, a shower en route out from Ponferrada (which,…
Author: Rob Ainsley
Camino 6: Hospital de Orbega to Ponferrada
With rain forecast I was a little worried about today’s climb, which involved 700m of ascent. But the weather bots of eltiempo.es also promised me one last day of tailwind, so I’d better use it. A humdrum ride took me into Astorga, an OK looking town with an OK square where I had a fine…
Camino 5: Sahagún to Hospital de Orbega
An excellent night’s sleep, thanks to two blankets, the right amount of wine, and silent dormmates. I left around half eight, after a cursory look round Sahagun, off into the sun with the tailwind still pushing me along like dads do with little kids learning to ride. It was joy, pedalling easily and quietly thanks…
Camino 4: Burgos to Sahagún
Early starts are par for the course of the Camino: the hostel chucks out between 7 and 8, but I was awake and showered well before that anyway. Out, on my bike, free and energised and into the bright but chilly and damp morning. I thought I was following the N120, but found myself heading…
Camino 3: Santa Domingo de la Calzada to Burgos
A dawn chorus of sneezes, snores and snoughs in various languages ensured I was up and about by half sixish. I enjoyed a small portion of Korean rice and veg breakfast kindly cooked up by a mature Korean lady. We chatted and I stole a look at their guide, and at the MTB guidebook of…
Camino 2: Los Arcos to Santa Domingo de la Calzada
A day that demonstrated the value of keeping the faith – and I thought I didn’t have enough to justify doing this trip – because at one point it seemed hard going into the wind with much too far to go. But I got there. Maybe there’s more to me than the doubters, such as…
Camino 1: Pamplona to Los Arcos
I walked the beginning of the Camino de Santiago from St Jean-Pied-de-Port to Pamplona a few years ago with my my chum Gary. We were distracted by the tapas and some Swiss hikers, and we got no further. I’d wanted to complete it ever since, but on a bike. So here I was at Portal…
Bealach na Bà: Height of achievement
The road west over the hills to Applecross, on the north-west coast of Scotland, is Britain’s longest steep hill. Simon Warren’s book on Britain’s top 100 cycling hills rated every one out of ten; this one rated eleven. And today, fulfilling a long-held ambition, I rode it. The hill is Bealach na Bà, usually translated…
Dunwich Dynamo: Long ride to the dawn
I just rode the Dunwich Dynamo, the annual 120-mile mass night bike ride from London to the Suffolk coast, which took place on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Here’s how it all unfolded… Saturday 7.30pm Arrive at the Pub on the Park, London Fields, Hackney. The building appears to float in sea of cyclists. Perhaps…
Lee Valley: Britain’s lowest-headroom underpass?
Is this the lowest-headroom cycle bridge in Britain*? It’s on National Cycle Route 1 following the Lee Valley north, in Walthamstow marshes. The cycle path ducks under a railway bridge at Coppermill Lane and leaves you just five feet of headroom, or 152cm – that’s about the minimum required width for a cycle lane. (The…