The Directory of Accommodation and Cycle Shops will only work if riders submit establishments ... if you have stayed at places that you think would be suitable for other riders, or used a cycle shop please tell us (there are quick to complete forms) - we'll contact the establishment and do the rest.

Cycle End-to-End is creating a resource for cyclists .... please help!

A bicycle ride from Calais to Montpellier The tale of a two-week journey, from Calais on the Channel coast of France to the Mediterranean coast, at Montpellier. Foreword by Edward Enfield

Rob & Jon's cycle ride through France in 2008

Inspired by Edward Enfield's book Downhill All The Way, Rob (the site's webmaster) and Jon cycled from Calais to Montpellier via the Champagne, Burgundy, Rhone, Provence and Launguedoc regions of France.

The book has been professionally edited and printed, and comes complete with a free CD containing a detailed route map and colour photographs.  CLICK HERE  for more details and to order your copy.

Format : A5, 178pp, softbound : 5 800043 205524

Earlier in September the site developed a problem and ran very, very slowly - in some instances taking a couple of minutes to display the Home page.  The hosting company checked its servers and found no problem - after some debugging work we found that it was a "component" in the core software that had been updated to the current version causing the problem.

That has now been fixed and the site should run as normal.  Apologies if you missed us!

Ian McLean has arrived at John O'Groats . . . en route he has been sending updates to the Rider Blogs area of this website to road test the facility that Jon & Rob the webmaster also trialled in June 2010.

The good news is that it works . . . the only issue has been some of the text formatting that Ian's support man's PC or phone sent.  Line breaks and paragraphs broke the text in the wrong places for some reason ... I'll investigate.  [Rob used a Palm Treo Pro running Windows Mobile and Jon used an iPhone for their From the handlebars submissions - looks like it's a transmitting device issue]

A little more work and it's expected to make the Rider Blog feature available for riders from early 2011.

Jenni, one of the Stratford-upon-Avon Laydeez, called from Land's End at about 1415 today to say that she and Rachel had arrived . . . there was much background noise and what sounded like a champagne cork popping.

From the brief conversation it seemed that after a wet start it all got better and that they managed to follow Rob & Jon's LEJOG route in reverse (although Rachel did get confused with Nick's Lift*)

Perhaps some pictures may arrive with the webmaster when they get back from the hairdresser their celebration lunch.

* Jenni being from New Zealand has a bit of an accent ... it took the cycling club ages to work out that "Nick's Lift" was actually "next left"

See the Laydeez item earlier .... heard from Jenni today on the phone - all going to plan but wet, wet, wet has precluded the planned camping and forced them to B&Bs.  Currently at Tebay in Cumbria, pretty much on their planned schedule.

My suggestion that they were just off to the beauty salon for a pedicure and leg-wax was met with what I can only describe as coarse language

There have been suggestions that the site provides listings and/or recommendations for accommodation, cycle shops and perhaps other services   . . from experience this is difficult for several reasons : places come and go, one person's view of quality and value will vary widely from another's - and most importantly, the resource to be of any value has to be current and accurate, if it isn't then the site loses credibility.

However, I've bitten the bullet and The Directory has been created, ready for submissions from riders (see the submission forms) - it's now live but depends on riders and establishment proprietors to supply the recommenations for entries and the detailed content.

Rob the webmaster was riding LEJOG with Jon .... we're back (that was on 21 June 2010, this article has just been moved from the Home page) but you can still read about our progress with the "From the handlebars" feature with  the link on the menu.

Riding along lost in my own thoughts a few ideas for enhancements to the site came to mind ... keep an eye on development.  Here's the first new thing : To create a Directory of accommodation and cycle shops needs YOUR input - see the Submission Forms under The Directory

The picture is a Macmillan Cancer Support poster at Loch Lomond - we had enjoyed a VERY GOOD DAY - wearing our MacRide jerseys