The Cycling Europe Podcast

In episode 104 of The Cycling Europe Podcast, in an interview from episode 024 of the podcast recorded in 2020, the long-distance cyclist Dr. Stephen Fabes talks about meeting the world-recording-breaking cyclist Heinz Stücke who died in July 2026, Robert Dudley argues that it should really be ‘touring on a bicycle’ (as opposed to ‘cycle touring’), Andrew Simons updates us on the future of the Saillink channel crossing boats that featured in episode 091 (and we hear the words of satisfied customer John Metcalfe) and last, but by no means least, Chris and Nicky Clark reflect on their experiences as tandem cycle tourers (or should that be tourers on a bicycle?).

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!

In episode 103 of The Cycling Europe Podcast, Rob McIvor discusses his new cycling novel, What Goes on Tour; “In July 1977, Harry Chatham is on the brink of becoming the first British winner of the Tour de France when a crash on a twisting mountain descent ends his life and consigns him to a footnote in sporting history, but decades later…”

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!

In episode 102 of The Cycling Europe Podcast we meet Chris Molland. Chris hasn’t written a book, isn’t a YouTuber and doesn’t produce podcasts. He’s a touring cyclist from the south of England with a story to tell and excellent advice to share. This is a longer episode of the podcast so you may want to listen in instalments and it’s a fascinating delve into the mind of an ‘ordinary’ cyclist. Perhaps Chris should write a book after all…

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!

In episode 101 of The Cycling Europe Podcast, Helen Watson discusses her 2009/10 journey along the Silk Road from Edinburgh to China in the company of her husband Ed that took the couple across Europe, through the Balkans, Turkey, Syria, Iran and the Stans in the years leading up to the Arab Spring.

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!

It’s episode 100 of The Cycling Europe Podcast! Whether you’ve been listening since episode 001 was published in September 2017 or whether this is the first episode that you have discovered, you are all very welcome! Thanks for taking the time to spend an hour or so in the company of me, Andrew Sykes, and my guests. In this episode, the podcast chats to Richard Fairhurst, the man behind the excellent navigation website and app, Cycle.Travel. We also hear from long-term listener and podcast enthusiast Mark Skidmore; what other cycling podcasts should you be listening to? There is also exciting publishing news regarding the four cycling travelogues that I have written over the past 15 years.

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!

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.

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!

Helen and Ben Rivers are a married couple from the south of England, retired professional musicians, but certainly not retired cycle tourists. They’ve been travelling Europe on their bikes for many decades and they have no plans to stop just yet. Sit back and enjoy their recollections of two-wheeled exploits that have stretched to all corners of the European continent. 

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!

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…

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!

In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast, Tom Cartledge talks about his 6,000-mile, 18-country journey from England to India in 2012 and the book that he has written about his once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

“From Yorkshire drizzle to the deserts of Iran, freezing snowstorms in the lowlands, bullet casings in Serbia, firing ranges in Turkey, robbery in the Caucasus, and monkey ambushes in India—this isn’t a travel guide. It’s a ride through the bizarre, the beautiful, and the completely unhinged. It’s a story of breakdowns and breakthroughs, swearing and sweating, of strangers who saved us and hostels that nearly broke us. Of laughing through gritted teeth and cycling another hundred kilometres anyway—because turning back never felt like an option.”

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!

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.”

If you’d like to contribute to The Cycling Europe Podcast, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. If you’d like to support the podcast, please visit CyclingEurope.org/Support. Thanks if you can!