Welcome to Andrew's Cycling Page
One of my main interests is
cycling, I'm not interested in racing, extreme mountain-biking or death defying
jumps but I enjoy using my bike as a means of traveling around and seeing new
places. I usually tour on road but also enjoy the occasional diversion onto
rough tracks. I go for day rides from my home but my favourite type of journey
is a multi-day ride, camping along the way. This defines me as a Cycle-Tourist.
How it started
In 1998 I decided to go on a cycle touring holiday. I had plenty of experience walking and camping in the UK and been cycling around town for a few years. It seemed a good idea to combine the two activities. After a little research on the web I followed a link to Breton Bikes , a small firm who offer cycling holidays in the Brittany area of north-west France. I spoke to Geoff, the owner and booked a week touring the Finisterre region in July.
This was a group tour, led by Geoff and with all equipment provided. For 6 days we road through quiet French countryside, stopping to gorge on incredibly cheap 3 course meals at small restaurants before putting the tents up at small village campsites in the evening.
I enjoyed it immensely and at the end of the week bought one of Geoff's older tour bikes to replace the cheap one I had at home. After a week back at work I was so depressed I phoned Geoff again and booked a second tour, this time for 2 weeks in the Loire in September. Since then I've been on several other Breton Bikes trips including the Alps and Pyrenees (twice!) and Geoff and his wife Kate have become good friends, as have several others of their regular customers, a mixed bunch of drunken reprobates.
In addition I've toured by myself in Northern England, Wales and Scotland. My only solo cycling trip abroad to date has been to Iceland