Category: Other

A shorter day, and a princely one, but only because it was Rainier. At least it was almost all car-free and, like yesterday, involved a lot of promenade paths with me gazing at the water. Much of it this time landing on my head in the form of heavy showers. Anyway, after a quick bit…

Whenever I learn of extreme places – End to Ends, alphas and omegas, highests and lowests – I can’t help plotting a bike route between them. So when I found that Britain’s Biggest Church and Smallest Church are connected by endless miles of mostly car-free, pleasant promenade riding, I had to ride it. SEE THE…

I’m on a quick overnight jaunt to Blackpool to ride the illuminations, thanks to a £25 Travelodge offer. The best way to experience the lights from the saddle is to join the thousands of other cyclists on the opening night, when they shut off the prom road to cars. I did just that in 2016,…

Fans of the ferric will love Bennerley Viaduct. The 430m-long former railway bridge glides over the marshy flats east of Ilkeston, on sturdy iron pillars. A victim of axe-murderer Dr Beeching, it was saved from demolition and reopened as a foot and cycle bridge in 2022. Today was sunny, I had some morning article research…

The six highest roads in England are close together in the North Pennines, south-east of Alston. Close enough to make an inviting, but strenuous, day ride. (I wrote an article on it for Cycling Plus magazine. You can read the online version of it at https://www.bikeradar.com/features/routes-and-rides/englands-six-highest-roads .) The exact summit heights are, and therefore identity…

I’m diligently researching a ride for an article that asked me to combine beer and cycling. Hmm. Clearly a mix to be approached with care, like ice skating while juggling machetes, or putting Brexiteers in the cabinet. I came up with the idea of a circuit round Kent: Canterbury–Ashford–Tenterden–Faversham–Canterbury. This should be an enjoyable one-…

Another day researching birdspotting routes, this time on back lanes through woods filled with birdsong, and investigating two reserves noted for their birding possibilities: Pensthorpe and Sculthorpe, near Fakenham. (‘Do you like Fakenham?’ – ‘I don’t know, I’ve never faked one.’) The first two hours was a thoroughly lovely trundle along those quiet roads, where…

Identifying rare birds while riding is easy, even for beginner-spotters like me, if you know what to look for: a sixties couple with woolly hats and binoculars, standing at the side of the road, or sitting on a bench in a hide. They’ll have done all the hard work for you, locating and naming that…

Gainsborough House, Sudbury, is a cracker. The painter’s home, furnished in the style of the time, is a museum and gallery; behind it, a well-architected annexe is a spacious and airy art gallery and events space. I sat out in the garden under the same mulberry tree that Gainsborough knew, planted to provide food for…

The Painters Trail is a seventy-mile roam of Suffolk back lanes that follows the Stour Valley in the oily footsteps of some famous daubers, chiefly Constable and Gainsborough. From the saddle you can enjoy the same views they did over two hundred years ago – all virtually unchanged, except for electricity pylons, telegraph poles, housing…