In the 12 years I’ve been making these guides, I’ve never been more excited to release a book and its here just in time for your early season train camp! There are so many amazing roads inside, so many classic ascents that will delight, amaze and, at times, outright terrify you. In previous books, I have usually singled out one climb that stands above all others and rewarded it with a Spinal Tap-esque 11/10, but in this book there are THREE! That’s right, three roads so off the charts that you simply have to see them to believe them. The project began way back in the summer of 2014. The ink ha ..read more

BEST RIDE. 100 mile TT trial run. When I set off to see how fast I could ride 100 miles in the lanes of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire on May 15th I knew right away I had ‘diamonds in the legs’. On my road bike with two bottles and three gels I stopped the clock at four hours 19 minutes and then got all excited that I could actually break four hours in a race so entered the National 100 mile championships. HARDEST RIDE. The National 100 mile championships. This was exponentially harder than the trial run. On the same road bike with no aero kit but under race conditions over four laps of a r ..read more

I was keen to try a new event this year and get back to the high mountains after the lockdowns. I’ve done a load of Marmottes, a couple of Maratonas so took aim at the Alpenbrevet in Switzerland. There were 4 routes to choose from, Bronze 64km+2140m, Silver 108km+3200m, Gold 212km+5080m, and the bonkers Platinum 268km+7090m. Of course I was drawn to the Platinum route but then I woke from my nightmare and sensibly decided Gold would be just far enough. After all I didn’t want to put myself into such a state I couldn’t enjoy a beer in the evening. Travelling with two mates, Nick and Paul, it wa ..read more

OUT NOW and EXCLUSIVE to the 100 Climbs App comes the 100 CLIMBS X-LIST. Another 100 amazing British climbs for your delectation, packed full of stone cold classics just begging to be ridden. I spent last year doing the research and the list is a treasure trove of delights with some roads that are quite simply beyond imagination and others that are waiting to hurt your legs in ways you could never dream possible. These are the roads I’d missed or never had the time to reach before, the climbs that had flown under my radar and the climbs YOU have been begging me to ride over the years. Coverin ..read more

With this years event on Winnats Pass less than two weeks away I thought I’d write a retrospective of my relationship with the event as it’s been thirty years since I rode my first back in 1991. I’d started racing hill climbs in the Autumn of 1989 and by 1991 my results were good enough for me to dare enter what I saw as the biggest race on the domestic calendar. Hill climbing was my thing and I wanted to be on the big stage to see how I stacked up against all the real hitters. There was no chance I was going to affect the result of the title but regular top tens and a few podium places in sma ..read more

I saw someone else post a blog on their bike history so thought I’d do one of my own, and it got a bit out of hand. I have borrowed and ridden a few others but these are the ones that have been mine. Some feel as special as children, some were big mistakes but all have played a part in my life. There are pictures of most and over time I will try and find better pictures for all. Enjoy. 1. 1976. Trike. SOLD My first bike was a trike, it was blue and red and I remember very little else apart from that day my uncle said he might be able to fit an engine to it. He never did. 2. 1978. Green Raleig ..read more

This year the Vuelta visited one of its new favoured battle grounds, Los Machucos, a road so ridiculous it will push the riders to the very edge in order to provide us blood thirsty fans with the entertainment we crave, but is it as hard as it looks? Is it harder than the Angliru? Monte Zoncolan? I’ve been lucky enough to ride all three and each one presents a unique challenge that I’ll never forget but which really is the toughest? Let’s start with The Angliru which I first rode in 2014. That day I arrived at the base fresh, eager, and as excited as a puppy in a toilet roll factory. The firs ..read more

At the start of the year Sports Tours international asked me to write a blog on a new trip they were about to launch, a trip that would be truly ‘monumental’. On paper it looked madness, in reality it would be insane, it was to ride the courses of all five of cycling’s monuments in a single week. Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Lombardy, Liège-Bastonge-Liège, Tour of Flanders and finally Paris-Roubaix. Just taking on one of these famous parcours in a week takes some guts, to do all five with all the traveling in between would need a herculean effort. I wrote the blog, sold the adventure best I could bu ..read more

The Struggle Dales. I don’t want to get out of the car. I really don’t want to get out of the car. Sitting outside the headquarters, warm and dry, with the wind and rain lashing the windows the urge to remain inside was almost overwhelming, but it was an urge that had to be fought. I was here to ride the Struggle Dales, a relatively new event on the calendar but one with an already fearsome reputation which would only be enhanced by today’s conditions. The Struggle Dales does exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a Struggle. 174 kilometres long, climbing 2,874 metres and crossing some of the ..read more

Time on my research trips is always short as I aim to keep the budget tight and days away from the family to a minimum. It’s essential I do all the leg work before I leave so the climbs are researched, routes devised, hotels booked and daily schedules plotted to the minute to squeeze as much out of each day as possible. While researching the Colle del Nivolet, a climb I’d been aching to ride for a number of years, it became apparent that to complete it from base to summit I would have to begin some 56 kilometres down the valley in Cuorgnè. There was simply not the time in the schedule for this ..read more