themanfromicon
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North London Dirt III
The woodland, bridleways and quiet lanes beyond the confines of the M25 are not the reason I set an alarm and drag myself from bed on a dark wet morning to get an early train to London. Not meaning to be churlish as it’s always nice to discover new places and I’m glad the lovely…
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Heading West
I started by boarding a ferry but not the ferry I was meant to be on yesterday afternoon. In this year of kiboshed plans I was supposed to be riding down France to visit my parents now, but quarantine rules and COVID numbers ramping up again in France put paid to that. The original original…
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Spy Deer
“Don’t you need it for Super Randonneur?” “Yeah but if we don’t finish it means I don’t have to ruin a perfectly nice holiday to Cornwall by trying to ride all the way home in 24 hours. Or do a 600 in October when the weather is cack. Maccy D in Newbury and a train…
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It’s Been a While
My elbows nudge into the hoods and my head hangs over my front wheel. I haven’t ridden in this kind of heat since southern Europe on last year’s Transcontinental. I’m empty and cramping, absolutely ruined. This is the second time Simon and I have had to ride straight to ferry check-in after what should have…
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The Straightest Line
…within a few minutes Cal and I had formed a plan. Route plotting was pretty simple. Stane Street, a Roman road is traced in its entirety on Ordnance Survey maps. It’s pretty much entirely straight so any missing bits can be guessed at. Utilising considerable engineering skills the romans built this road almost 2000 years…
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Beach Bivi Beach
8pm Thursday to 8am Friday
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Island Hopping
I make coffee in the almost-light that waits for sunrise. Shouldering the bike down the front steps into a silent city, the main road empty other than a gang of gulls ransacking the bins outside the local chippy. Urban foxes, an air of insolence and disobedience skulk suburban streets. Without the white noise drizzle of…
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Grey
No one bats an eyelid, raises an eyebrow, or tuts when a suggestion is made to drop down from the Downs to find coffee and some tarmac, maybe even the coastal suburbs to home. A quiet consensus. The weather hasn’t entirely matched the forecast, overcast has rather been cold driving drizzle. We’ve slipped and sludged…
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Between the Storms
As the day tilts into action a thin gauze of cloud stretches across the sky. A meek light casts weak ghost shadows, there out of the edge of vision but disappear when I turn to look. An upside down world existing in a flooded farm track. The sun rises through a bitterly eye-wateringly sharp wind.…
the man from icon 