The Cycling Europe Podcast

Gerald Huber is an Austrian living in Paris. He commutes to work every day by bicycle. Lots of people do. In 2025, however, he decided to go a little further on two wheels and he signed up for his first ultra-long-distance cycling event, the North Cape 4000 from Italy to the most northerly point of Europe at Nordkapp in Norway. 8 countries, 4000 km. According to the organsiers, it's "a journey that will change your life". He spoke to The Cycling Europe Podcast about his experiences and his plans to go one step further in 2026.

Civil servant Tristam Newey has a job that occasionally takes him away from home. On a recent trip to The Faroe Islands, he decided to take his Brompton bicycle with him and extend his stay by a few days. His plan was to head off and explore some of the verdant islands that make up the Faroes archipelago. Would he recommend it as a cycling destination? Listen and find out...

In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast, we talk to Claire Davies, former diplomat, cyclist and writer. She chats about her journey along LEJOG and her 'end-to-end' cycles around Europe. "Are you braver than you think? That's the question Claire Davies began asking herself as she cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats, ill-prepared, unsupported and alone. At a mid-life low point, craving space and time to think, or not to think, Claire decided that a long bicycle ride was what she needed. Setting off for Scotland just a few weeks later, on a bike named Trixie, guided by a gadget called Guillaume, she had little idea what she was letting herself in for. It turned out to be a journey not only to better physical fitness and mental health, but also to empowerment and self-discovery, partly through the eyes of the people she met along the way."

In this episode of the podcast, Andrew Sykes takes an autumnal short break in the English Lake District. Staying in a camping 'pod' at the National Trust campsite in Eskdale, Andrew sets off on two rides as described in Jack Thurston's Lost Lanes North. 'Still Glides The Stream' takes him on a figure-of-eight loop from Eskdale to Broughton-in-Furness and up the infamous Hard Knott Pass with its 30% incline. 'Mountain High' is a there-and-back roller-coaster of a cycle along Wasdale, to the coast at Seascale and south to Ravenglass before letting the miniature train take the strain on a chilly carriage ride back along Eskdale and the warmth of the pub in Boot.

In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast, Andrew Sykes and Tim Sanders - both experienced solo cycle tourers - contemplate their upcoming joint cycle tour along La Vélo Francette in France. Does artifical intelligence have all the answers? What advice can Rob Ainsley offer? Plus, Andrew Simons discusses being the skipper of a new Dover-Boulogne ferry service aimed at pedestrians and cyclists.

Andrew Sykes heads into the Yorkshire Dales for a few days and this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast sees him travel from Bradford to Skipton, Appletreewick, Grassington and Buckden, via a canal and a couple of steep hills. Much of this episode, however, is given over to other cyclists who have recently contributed to the podcast in the form of a monologue. We hear from Justin Shiels about Welcome To My Garden, Neal Porter about his cycle around the coast of Britain in aid of MND and from Richard and Cath Jeffries about their winter LEJOG...

Joel Stokoe discusses his experiences of cycling on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and Steve Cuthbertson recounts the story of his journey from Romania back to his home in southern England in aid of charity.

In the early autumn of 2023, at the start of a year-long sabbatical from work, Johnny Murtagh cycled from his home in southern England to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. “But the real story isn’t just the journey itself – it’s the incredible group of people I met along the way. A motley crew from all corners of the world, each with their own unique reasons for being there, and together we shared unforgettable moments.” He spoke to The Cycling Europe Podcast about his memorable experiences as a cycling peregrino and his new group of fellow-minded friends.

After a week on Shetland (listen to part 1 of this two-part podcast), The Cycling Europe Podcast takes the late-night ferry south to Kirkwall on the islands of Orkney. Following a day spent exploring the capital, Andrew Sykes cycles west for three nights of camping in the historic town of Stromness. From here he heads first to Hoy, home to the spectacular beach and cliffs at Rackwick and the Scapa Flow Museum where he discovers more about the wartime importance of the deep water harbour. After spending a day off the bike investigating the delights of Stromness itself, Andrew cycles off on a journey around the mainland taking in prehistoric Skara Brae and the bucolic Brough of Birsay before a return to Kirkwall and his ferry home via Aberdeen.

Joanna Chmara is a cycle tourist from Poland. She runs the popular cycling website WobblyRide.com and has wide experience of travelling with her bike in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, usually as a solo cyclist. In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast, she explains what first motivated her to set off on two wheels and why the hardest part of many cycling journeys is not the mountains nor the seemingly endless hours in the saddle, but the simple act of pushing your bike over the threshold of your front door. She also offers invaluable advice to those who are feeling apprehensive about their first long ride as well as revealing her top three European destinations (as well as one that you need to avoid, at least on a bicycle…)

Writer Rob Ainsley has cycled from Barmouth to Yarmouth because they rhyme. He’s cycled from Britain’s smallest church in Rhos to its largest church in Liverpool. He’s cycled the London Monopoly board. And he continues to amass a long list of ‘end-to-end’ country cycles. So for Rob, cycling from Morecambe to Bridlington along the Way of the Roses cycle route may at first glance appear to be a little, err… pedestrian. But think again. He decided to cycle the route 1970s style. In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast we chat to Rob Ainsley in York where he reveals all. Was the naffest decade of the 20th century as good a time as any to be on two wheels? Or better forgotten…

In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast, guest presenter Andrew Edwards chats to Andrew P. Sykes about his 2022 cycle around Europe and his new book - Le Grand Tour on a Bike Called Wanda - that is published on May 1st 2024.

Tim Sanders holds the accolade of being one of only two people to have attended every single Cycle Touring Festival since the event first appeared on the calendar in 2015. During this year’s event in Clitheroe he spoke to The Cycling Europe Podcast not only about the joys of the festival but also about a recent cycling journey that took him from the Istrian Peninsula on the Adriatic coast along the Parenzana Trail to Trieste and onwards over the Alps to Munich in southern Germany.