An off road bike requires off road shoes! I bought these on offer a few weeks back after much hand wringing having realised just how much I had spent on cycling so far this year! So my criteria for offroad shoes were simple: Be comfortable. Be simple in terms of not having random colours/shapes/flashes...
The Bwlch – The West Side from Neath/Port Talbot
OK folks, its time for instalment two of my write ups of climbs in/around the South Wales area. Today, we’ll work our way up one of the three ways you can ride the Bwlch, in particular the Western side which you can get to from Neath/Port Talbot with ease. A lot of sportive rides including...
Go big, then go bigger
A few posts back I tried to make sense of the post event slump I felt after my France trip this year and figure my way through it. Once you push through to inevitable low following achieving a goal you set it’s hard not to look to whats next so I recently pulled the...
The Black Mountain – Southern Side
When I first started out cycling and was ready to venture further than the immediate 5 mile radius from my house I was a little stumped on where to go and how to get there. There’s a lot of books out there detailing climbs, like Simon Warren’s popular 100 Greatest Cycling climbs, but unless...
The Off Season
Is there such a thing? Is a cyclist ever really in an off season? Is it just riding but in different temperatures? (According to the thermals I’ve found myself digging out at the moment, that last part is definitely true.) Technically, I am now in the off season and it got me thinking about a...
Gravel Bike: The ride
A couple of days ago in a woodland not too far away, I hit the trails with my newly built Gravel/adventure bike. If you’re interested in the build, shoot on over to my other post about the build. It was Wednesday after work and the sun was shining (no birds were singing) and I...
The Gravel Bike: What, why and how.
Buckle up folks, this one is going to be a long one! I mentioned in a previous post that I had the intention to build a gravel bike and that has now come to pass! I had been toying with the idea of building a winter bike for a while but anytime a potential...
The Slump
You spend nearly a year preparing for an event. You train. You diet. You focus. You say no to nights out as you need to train in the morning. You say no to pizza to keep the weight down. You push, you sweat, you grind, you plan and you count the days off until...
La Marmotte 2018 – Part 1
So, a little history before we get into the main event. I started cycling about 4 years ago when back to back calf and knee injuries put an end to my pursuit of running and whilst in a bit of a slump over the frustration of not being able to hit the trails, my...
La Marmotte 2018 – Part 2
Day 2 – 07-JUL -2018 Before we’d left to go to France we had all discussed in great detail our prep and plans for the lead up to the big day and I had been adamant that I’d go for an easy spin on the Friday (which we did) then I would spend the...