Two for the price of one - the other Tour visiting Yorkshire this weekend!

If you think cycling Coast to Coast is a big deal, you might be interested to know what two friends of mine Gill and Tony have been doing since the end of April.

It's a good thing the Tour de France was on - I didn't have to go far to meet you!

They've actually been cycling right around the coastline of Britain.  They started on the West Coast of England and so far they've been right around the edge of Scotland and back down the East Coast of England.  Here's a map showing their progress.  The black line round the top half of Britain is where they've cycled already.

Going to Harrogate - the long way round!

Thankfully because they had pre-arranged to come to Harrogate to see the Tour de France this weekend, they were passing quite near to Leeds, so I managed to catch up with them today and ride as far as York with them.  I last saw them in September in the Western Isles of Scotland, and since then Tony in particular has taken on rather a beardy and weather beaten look.  He says he's on his third nose since they left in April.

Last time I saw them on the ferry to Islay my head looked a lot fatter than it does now....

Gill and Tony also write a blog, and if you're at all interested in cycle touring, then it's definitely worth a look.  Here's a link to it.  It doesn't just tell the story of their journey so far and their reasons for doing it, it also has a lot of practical information in there about things such as deciding what to take on a cycle tour, what sort of bikes are required, and how to pack etc.

I find that my own ride reports about trips I go on have very little useful information in them, as they mostly seem to concentrate on who I met that day, and why they annoyed me.  In fact, I could probably rename my entire blog 'People I met on the road, and why they were annoying'.

I did interview Gill and Tony at length during our time together today, and I gave them every opportunity to have a moan about the downsides of cycle touring, but the only teeny tiny quibble I could get out of either of them was that it's sometimes difficult to keep thinking up new and original meals to cook when you've only got a one ring stove.  But that was it.

I think it shows how positive they are, that they don't seem to have found anything at all to moan about, and they seem to be genuinely having the time of their lives.  If it had been me, I'd have been whining before I even got out of Lancashire.

Anyway, it was great to see them and I wish them well for the rest of their journey....