With his partner, Maudi, Dutch cyclist Eric has cycled the World. He was initially inspired to set off on two wheels by Peter Gostelow and his ‘Big Africa Cycle’. Via their popular Wheels to Wander YouTube Channel, Eric and Maudi now inspire others with their engaging filmed travelogues and practical advice videos. Eric joined the podcast to reflect on his years in the saddle...

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.

The Cycling Europe Podcast travels to the most northerly islands of Britain for a week of camping, hostelling and cycling. Renowned for its wild beauty, but also its capricious weather, Andrew Sykes sets off on a ride that will stretch the entire length of the archipelago from Unst in the north to Sumburgh in the south taking time to explore the attractions, meet the locals and compare notes with fellow travellers as he cycles.

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…)

Shetland is the northernmost part of the United Kingdom, 170 km from mainland Scotland and only 220 km from the Norwegian coast. Of its 100 islands, only 15 are inhabited (by a population of just over 20,000) but according to the local tourist board, the remote archipelago “…has everything a cyclist could hope for”. Tim Sanders, Anne Lawther and Jayne Moore have all visited Shetland in recent months and the writer Martyn Howe has been a regular visitor over the years both on foot and by bike. The Cycling Europe Podcast asked all four travellers to recount their cycling experiences. Does Shetland really live up to the tourist hype? Anne, Jayne and Martyn also reflect upon their visits to nearby Orkney. How does it compare to its near-Nordic northern neighbour?

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…

Most episodes of The Cycling Europe Podcast know where they are going from the outset. This episode is slightly different. We start in the English Lake District to take in the sounds of the recent Cycle Touring Festival in its new home of Coniston. We then head to India to hear from long-distance cyclist James Thomas. He lives in a coastal town in Goa on the shore of the Arabian Sea but often ventures into the mountains on foot and on his bike. He reflects upon his current experiences in India as well as past experiences cycling through Europe, especially Albania. We stay in Albania for an extract from Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie, Andrew P. Sykes' travelogue about cycling the EuroVelo 8 from Greece to Portugal in 2013. To explain if things have changed in the past decade, the podcast speaks to Dritan Kolgjini, a tour guide for Explore Travel's Albanian cycling trips. Does the country really live up to its reputation of being the 'new Croatia'?

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.

The Cycling Europe Podcast is back and for this first episode of 2024 we have a triple-whammy of cycling-themed chats and stories. The EuroVelo network is now 26 years old but it’s not resting on its laurels. Agathe Daudibon of the European Cyclists’ Federation is the person responsible for looking after the network and developing it further. She talked to the podcast about her background in cycle touring, her role at the ECF and how she sees the future of the pan-European network. Svetlana and Quentin, from Oxford, talk about their experiences of cycling along the coast in Croatia. And Seth provides something that he feels the podcast is missing; how bike tours can “turn into complete disasters”. His certainly have!

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.