travel – Jordan Matthews

Great North Trail

2022- As published in Cycle Magazine and on the Cycling UK website here https://www.cyclinguk.org/cycle-magazine/great-rides-going-solo-great-north-trail The Great North Trail is one of the UK’s longest off-road routes. Cycling UK’s Cycling Development Officer for Tyneside, Jordan Matthews planned to do it in ten days during the summer of 2020 The pandemic put an abrupt end to my round-the-worldContinueContinue reading “Great North Trail”

GBDuro – Preamble

GBDuro / Off-road Lands End to John O’ Groats via Wales / A long squiggly line from the bottom to the top of the UK Map Credit: Philappa Battye Around 2000km in total 4 stages – Stop at the end of each stage to recover and all start at the same time. Lowest aggregate timeContinueContinue reading “GBDuro – Preamble”

SRMR 4 – Race

Friday 12th August The race wasn’t starting until midnight, so we had the whole day to get sorted. I went over to the sign on, which involved a couple of trips back and forth to take bike, bags and cardboard box. Sign on was quick and gave us a chance to chat to other riders,ContinueContinue reading “SRMR 4 – Race”

SRMR – 3 – Bike touring Kyrgyzstan

Monday 8th August 63.94mi Distance 8:09:24 Moving Time 8,842ft Elevation Gain To acclimatise to the altitude before the race, I planned a 3 day ride, 2 day camp on the 1st pass of the race. I organised with another racer to meet up at the Lenin Statue at 9am. After a bit of faffing my end,ContinueContinue reading “SRMR – 3 – Bike touring Kyrgyzstan”

Italy Divide – Pre Start

Italy Divide is a 780 odd mile bikepacking event from Pompeii, to Lake Garda. The website says it… ‘follows fast rolling gravel roads (Francigena/Eurovelo7) with quite technical mtb trails (Via degli Dei/Lessinia/Monte Baldo) in between to explore the wild and remote parts of Italy with a plenty mix of history along the trail. You willContinueContinue reading “Italy Divide – Pre Start”

Hell of the North West 2021

Up then down, then up then down, then up some more… 520 Miles Too many feet of climbing 60 ish hours The Hell of the North West is a road based long distance bike ‘race’ (it’s not a race). Its 520 miles with over 45,000 ft of climbing. The route was made by Dan JonesContinueContinue reading “Hell of the North West 2021”

Dales Divide Race 2020

55 hours 15 minutes of the whatever the North could throw at me. The Dales Divide is a 600km mixed terrain route with 9000m of climbing. Having heard of the route last year and with it being not far from where I live, it had always been my plan to complete the route in someContinueContinue reading “Dales Divide Race 2020”

TCRN07 Day 6: Kutina, Croatia – Tarvisio, Italy

01/08/2019 210.35 Miles 14:19:08 Moving Time 6,152ft gained 14.7mph average Waking with the thought that at a push I could cycle all the way through Slovenia and be in Italy by the same night excited me. I needed to keep setting daily goals and to keep just looking at each day as it came, otherwise,ContinueContinue reading “TCRN07 Day 6: Kutina, Croatia – Tarvisio, Italy”

Expect the unexpected

I’m back in the UK. On a park bench in Preston waiting for a train to the Lake District, where I plan to keep myself to myself for a couple of weeks. This is the last place I thought I’d be this time last week. How much things can change in a matter of days.ContinueContinue reading “Expect the unexpected”

TCRN07 Day 5: Sabac, Serbia – Kutina, Croatia

187.44 miles 14:16:47 moving time 1,932ft gained 13.1mph average After a very deep sleep and a full belly from the previous nights feast, I zombied out of bed and achingly pulled my bib shorts and jersey on just after 4am. Carrying my packed saddle bag, frame bag, handlebar bag and bottles never got any easierContinueContinue reading “TCRN07 Day 5: Sabac, Serbia – Kutina, Croatia”