Why do cyclists climb mountains?

A strange addiction. Climbing to the skies, slow motion, pain, body revolting, hour after hour of mental questions. Why am I climbing this mountain? We’re a strange bunch us cyclists. Speeding along dressed in tights, bottoms padded, riding great distances much to the bemusement of non-cyclists. To them it’s unfathomable that riding up a mountain, […]

Cycling Bealach na Ba – Climbing to heaven

Every cyclist should ride this climb. Want to climb one of the greatest cycling climbs in the UK? Head north, is usually the answer. Like, really north, all the way to Scottish Highlands, just north of the Isle of Skye. Bealach na Bá is unusual for a climb in Scotland in that it goes over […]

Cycling around the Isle of Skye

Everything you’ve ever heard about the Isle of Skye is true. It is beautiful. For a cyclist, it is paradise. Minus the sun perhaps. It is not called the Island of the Mist or the Isle of Cloud for nothing. Oh no. The romance of ‘cloud riding’ may die by the third hour of riding […]

A five day cycle tour of Scotland

There’s that feeling again. Pitter patter. Stomach giggling. A nervous schoolboy awaiting his first kiss. Scotland awaits. A cycle tour set in stone when two years earlier I drove though the magnificent Highland landscapes, jaw in my lap. I shall return, I proclaimed, avec une velo!