This Is Not A Tour

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Jack Thurston

Jack takes on his longest ever ride, as part of a weekend of audax events in memory and celebration of the late, great Mike Hall. Mike was the leading light in the current revival of self-supported long distance bike racing, twice winner of the Tour Divide, winner of the TransAm Bike Race and founder and organiser of the pan-European Transcontinental Race. In March 2017 Mike was killed by a driver while competing in a bike race across Australia. For more information on This Is Not A Tour go to tinat.cymru

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Cycletouring the Tour de France

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Jack Thurston

This year’s Tour de France starts on the island of Noirmoutier, on the Atlantic coast of western France. Jack rides the route of Stage one, in a touring style, taking in the rich landscape of sand dunes, beaches, tidal lagoons and salt marsh and sampling the gastronomic delights of the region.

Thanks to Vendée Tourism for logistical support for this journey.

Read Jack’s write up of the journey for the Guardian newspaper.

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Preston by Bike with Gavin Renshaw

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Jack Thurston

Jack goes to Preston, Lancashire to ride with artist Gavin Renshaw. They ride out on some of the City of Preston’s bicycle infrastructure before heading for the wild uplands of the Forest of Bowland. Along the way they talk about cycling in Preston and Gavin’s work with In Certain Places, a long-term project that is bringing artists and creative thinkers into the process of city planning and urban development.

Image above is View of Preston from Brindle by Gavin Renshaw, 2016.

Gavin Renshaw

The Expanded City – Gavin Renshaw

To watch the Routes In Routes Out discussion event on YouTube, go here:

Routes In, Routes Out: Gavin Renshaw in conversation with Jack Thurston

Gavin Renshaw is on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mrteaone/

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When Podcasts Collide

Posted on April 23, 2018 by Jack Thurston

Find out what happens when The Bike Show collides with its hipper and funnier younger sister the Wheelsuckers podcast, presented by Alex Davis from Look Mum No Hands! and Jenni Gwiazdowski from London Bike Kitchen. And hear frame-builder and cycle tech expert Richard Hallett weigh the pros and cons of various new technologies that are flooding the bike market. Are disc brakes always a good idea? Should we all be riding on fatter tyres? And are press fit bottom brackets a long overdue development or the work of the Satan himself? Plus the lowdown on Jack’s new book Lost Lanes West: 36 Glorious Rides in the West Country.

Buy Lost Lanes West

Check out Hallett Handbuilt Cycles

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Higher, Faster, Rougher, Wilder with Max Leonard

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Jack Thurston

The return of The Bike Show sees Jack chewing the fat with Max Leonard, author of Higher Calling: Road Cycling’s Obsession with the Mountains. They talk a lot about climbing, bikepacking, the evolution of cycling towards exploring new places, about cycling in France, and about Max’s Kickstarter project to republish a long-lost cycling guide to the off-road paths and gravel tracks of the Alps.

Max is also the author of Lanterne Rouge: The Last Man in the Tour de France, The Men of Paris-Roubaix and City Cycling Europe.

You can back his Kickstarter for Rough Stuff Cycling in the Alps

You’ll find Max on Instagram and Twitter @m_xl

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Can Cycling Save the World? with The Guardian’s Peter Walker

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Jack Thurston

Peter Walker (pictured, above) is a political reporter at the Guardian newspaper. He set up the Guardian’s bike blog and his new book puts the case for a healthier, safer and more people-friendly nation. In short, a Bike Nation. In conversation with Jack Thurston, Peter talks about his past life as bike messenger, how his views on cycling have evolved and why he believes now is a critical tipping point in Britain’s long and chequered history of cycling.

Bike Nation: How Cycling Can Save the World is published by Yellow Jersey Press.

Photo credit: Graham Turner

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200 Years of Cycling

Posted on April 6, 2017 by Jack Thurston

This year marks 200 years since Karl Drais invented a two wheeled ‘running machine’. Since then all sorts of people have ridden all sorts of bicycles for all sorts of reasons. Looking back at two centuries of cycling and cyclists is Dr Michael Hutchinson, former professional bike racer and author of several books about cycling. His latest is “Re:Cyclists – 200 years on two wheels” is an engaging and affectionate look back at the cyclists of the past two hundred years and has just been published by Bloomsbury.

The Just Giving page for donations in memory of Mike Hall is here.

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