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LOST LANES

Glorious Bike Rides

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Reviews

“Lost Lanes West is a joy” – road.ccc

“Beautifully produced… lovingly researched” – Podium Cafe

“The most beautiful guide to cycling in South East England” – London Cyclist

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South Downs Way, between Alfriston and Wilmington.

South Downs Way, between Alfriston and Wilmington. Walked the whole thing in the summer of 2001, then cycled it a few years later. On foot today as am staying nearby for a few days but feeling the itch to come back with wheels.

Mash-duro or potato-packing - call it what you lik

Mash-duro or potato-packing - call it what you like but make no mistake this is the hottest new trend in cycling. Whether you like your Spanish waiters roasted, chipped or gently sautéed with rosemary and garlic, 2022 will see all the leading bike brands release new tater-tastic models carefully designed and adapted to meet the specific demands of potato-based adventures. Keep your eyes on your fries for @Rapha's forthcoming tuber capsule collection including a chip fat infused range of skin care products, as well as some super-starchy new potato-porting luggage from @Apidura. Here modelling the latest look is Sheffield's own @ben_brown__ and I think you'll agree he's taking on this bridleway across a large Lincolnshire potato field like a man who was born to mash. Can you dig it? Yes you can!

Power station pastoral. From a very hot day in the

Power station pastoral. From a very hot day in the Trent valley earlier this month.
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#lostlanes #coolingtowers #grassupthemiddle #trent

While I'm not in @roffsmith's league, I'm getting

While I'm not in @roffsmith's league, I'm getting to grips with my tripod and intervalometer for some of these shots and trying to up my self-portrait game. While researching previous Lost Lanes books I've often had riding companions who are happy to do a spot of modelling. For one reason and another the pandemic has made it more difficult for my circle of friends to escape their jobs and homesteads, so I'm doing a lot more of the work solo.

This shot was on one of the many brilliant unsurfaced byways in the Vale of Belvoir, to the east of Nottingham. It's a pretty flat landscape but one that rewards slow travellers, and those who enjoy heading off road. I'm quite happy with the image, I think it captures something of the feeling of high summer. The verges have gone over from their delicate, fresh spring greens into a wilder, messier surge of growth. You can feel the fierce heat of the early afternoon sun yet the darker greens and the lone puddle remind us that this is England, not Tuscany, and a summer shower is always on the cards.

#lostlanes #selfportrait #cycling #cycletouring #valeofbelvoir #nottinghamshire#midlands #eastmidlands #roughstuff

Another one from the same day exploring the lanes,

Another one from the same day exploring the lanes, tracks and byways of the Peak District - and yes, they both made it to the top without putting a foot down - but only just!

#peakdistrict #derbyshire #gravel #everybikeisagravelbike #cycletouring #lostlanes #gravelbike

One to file under "every bike's a gravel bike". Th

One to file under "every bike's a gravel bike". Though that depends somewhat on the rider. And whether he's wearing a linen shirt and a straw hat along with those 23mm tyres. In this case, on this sunny day in the Peak District, on some very lost lanes, the answer to all those questions is a most emphatic YES. Pictured here is none other than Mr Harry Adès, author of many books, master of much yoga and a good friend and cycling companion since school days. On here he's @breezeblock444 but he likes to keep himself to himself.

#roughstuff #peakdistrict #gravel #everybikeisagravelbike #23mm #condorcycles

It's always a pleasure to work with a creative per

It's always a pleasure to work with a creative person at the top of their game, and I recently spent a brilliant day and a half with filmmaker @benwaltonfilms. We were in the beautiful @wyevalleyaonb and our mission was to capture the pleasure of exploring this remarkable landscape by bike. Ben worked amazingly hard and creatively with video camera and drone, including some daredevil techniques with a camper van that are best not shared as they are are definitely 'don't try this at home, kids'. Ben is part of a new breed of multitalented filmmakers who, thanks to the latest lightweight kit and their own imagination, ingenuity and inventiveness are producing work that would once have required large crews or been plain impossible. Here is Ben communing with some long horn cattle as my lovely #madeinwales bicycle by @richardshallett glows in the morning sun.

I've seen a first edit of the short film and I guarantee it will make you want to get on your bike and ride. It won't be long before the film is released as well as some new routes that I've designed, very much in the #LostLanes tradition. Watch this space and give @wyevalleyaonb a follow.

#wyevalley #film #filmmaker #landscape #cycling #cowsofinstagram #cycling

When I'm out riding, researching and photographing

When I'm out riding, researching and photographing the routes for my Lost Lanes books I don't have the luxury of waiting around for 'the best light' for a landscape shot. I've got too many miles to cover each day and so I am just snapping on the hoof (or do I mean on the wheel?). If you compare my work to the work of real landscape photographers, the difference is clear. My photography is much more about snapshots that capture something of the character and a spirit of a ride, rather than the amazing and technically perfect images that grace the pages of the National Geographic.

Anyway, the other evening in Rutland was a bit different. I'd more or less finished for the day but I had a sense that things were about to get a bit special. There were huge thunderclouds around, I'd just ridden through a hailstorm and the sun was already quite low in the sky. I wasn't far from the Harringworth Viaduct (also known as the Welland Viaduct, it's the longest masonry viaduct in Britain). As I'd ridden all I needed to ride I looked at my map to see if the setting sun emerged from beneath the clouds before dipping over the horizon it might illuminate the west-facing side of the viaduct. Did the viaduct even have a west facing side? And if it does, would there be a decent vantage point? It turns out it does, and there's a lane with the perfect view. I rode up the hill, lay my bike down in a bank of rain-drenched cow parsley and squeezed through a gap in the hedge into a field of wheat. And waited. After half an hour in the early evening gloom the sun did come out and I was rewarded with this stunning sight.

#lostlanes #cycletouring #clouds #rutland #viaduct #welland #harringworthviaduct #wellandviaduct

Spring in the lanes

Spring in the lanes

Am working on the next Lost Lanes book. It's going

Am working on the next Lost Lanes book. It's going to cover Central England - all the way from Lincolnshire to the Welsh Border. And for anyone who thinks this is flyover country, or lacks spectacular landscapes and brilliant places places to ride a bike, then maybe this photo from the top of the Wrekin looking south towards the Shropshire Hills may persuade you to reconsider. This was last week and about half an hour later I was on my way down to Ironbridge and being pummelled by hailstones.

#lostlanes #shropshire #thewrekin #clouds #cycling #roughstuff

With a bit of help from Google Maps satellite view

With a bit of help from Google Maps satellite view and @wahoofitnessofficial I found the Chartist Cave on Mynydd Llangynidr. In a snowstorm.

Here in 1839 was where the Tredegar Chartists made and stashed the pikes and other weapons before they marched to Newport and caused almighty havoc for a few days, in the cause of democracy. They wanted to give working men a say in lawmaking: they would be able to vote, their vote would be protected by a secret ballot, and they would be able to stand for election to the House of Commons. Naturally the authorities came down like a ton of bricks, around twenty protestors were killed in the streets and the leaders tried for treason and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered (though this heinous punishment was never carried out and they were transported to Australia for life instead).

The track from the Trefil quarry road is a bit over a mile and rough and steep in places. More walking than riding. But worth it to get there, my first time.

#roughstuff #cave #chartism #cycling #wales #history

There have been a few false starts to spring this

There have been a few false starts to spring this year but I'm hoping the conjunction of the Vernal Equinox and the first outing of my golden wonder (built here in Wales by @richardshallett) means this one will stick.

#cycling #spring #cymru #blackmountains #650b #madeinwales

For #ThrowbackThursday here's a picture of my fath

For #ThrowbackThursday here's a picture of my father David Thurston, in China in 1981 on a Bickerton. Nuns outfits were all sold out so he settled for this remarkable winter hat and a cosy down jacket, from Maontain Warehouse no doubt.

He was in the first intake of foreign students learning Mandarin at Beijing University. Just a few years since the horror and chaos of the Cultural Revolution, foreigners were exotic curiosities. But it was the folding bike that really blew people's minds.

There can't have been many aluminium folders in the land of the Flying Pigeon. This photo slipped out of a box file I was moving to Abergavenny, as he and my stepmum are moving to our town later this month. Look out!

#china #tt #cycling #foldingbike #history #bickerton

Fool on the hill. Snapped by @sarahpricelandscapes

Fool on the hill. Snapped by @sarahpricelandscapes as I sneaked 40 winks in the sunshine overlooking the Sugarloaf. I'm all action, me.
#snooze #asleep #getoutside #zzzz

Tyre tracks in the snow. Just a few cm here in the

Tyre tracks in the snow. Just a few cm here in the Black Mountains and melting fast. #uksnow

Brightened up.a grey January day clearing and mulc

Brightened up.a grey January day clearing and mulching

As a parent responsible for managing remote learni

As a parent responsible for managing remote learning in Covid times, I don't think twice about seizing days like this to head up into the hills. Here are few shots of a perfect winter walk from our front door last week. The kids seemed highly motivated to reach the frozen dew pond and enjoyed the mist, the frost and running along the bales of bracken. On days like this the phonics and times tables can wait.

#getoutside #winter #blackmountains

Unbelievably, asparagus berries. Shows how far beh

Unbelievably, asparagus berries. Shows how far behind I am in the veg patch this year. In a normal year I'd have cut these long before the berries appeared. With the blue sky it's time to catch up with the clearing, weeding & mulching.
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#asparagusfern #asparagus #vegpatch #growyourown

With Covid on an exponential upward path here in W

With Covid on an exponential upward path here in Wales, it seems inevitable we're headed for some kind of new midwinter lockdown, whether before Christmas or for January. So a #ThrowbackThursday #tbt to the sunny days of Lockdown 1, which saw much cycling on our local roads, lanes and tracks. Amid the horror of the first wave, the quietness of the roads was a silver lining - my children pictured here have never spent more time outdoors and on the bikes. My daughter learned to ride a pedal bike and soon progressed from her singlespeed pictured here to a 7 speed, invariably accessorised by a selection of tutus. ⠀
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I wish we could skip winter just this once and fast forward to spring 2021.
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#familycycling #lostlanes #kids #islabikes

Some freaky flare in this lens. #lensflare #mita

Some freaky flare in this lens.

#lensflare #mitakon17mm

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