Chris G’s cycling blogs. They’re for me, not you!

 Well here we are again! I’m hoping there will be less police and less people calling me the C word on Twitter than last March’s escapades on the Isle of Man! With the usual few days holiday left to take in March, the excellent book “Bikepacking Scotland” by Markus Stitz provided the inspiration for this shortish trip, following the John Muir way coast to coast along the central belt of Scotland from Helensburgh in the West to Dunbar in the East. Mainly on gravel tracks, single tracks and quiet roads with apparently no real technical stuff (we’ll come to that!!!) and with the weather looking cold but dry, the route was planned, hostels and cheap hotels were booked, Jean had a service and all too soon I was scraping the thick ice of Jean’s windows, loading her up and settling in for the 270 miles up to Helensburgh. Obviously I was meant to be away for 6am, but some epic cocking about which entailed waking the whole house up as I dropped things, slammed doors then revved the nuts of ...

 No sunshine waking me up this morning, just the steady dribble of water from the shower in my room like water torture light, and the dribble of rain landing on the windowsill. Pulling back the curtains it looked very wet and I had left my coat in Jean back in Utrecht. With the unavailability of anything in Amsterdam, there was no choice really, I’d have a quick breakfast in the hotel and head out earlyish back to Utrecht.  The wind hadn’t completely changed direction which was a blessing, but instead turned into a crosswind. I didn’t fancy it along the wide canal route I’d come up on yesterday, so a quick look at the map found an alternative route (the beauty of the Netherlands is that there are lots and lots of options!) Just as I was coming out of Amsterdam I came across an immaculate 2CV with a funny badge on the back. It said Club E, but they never made a Club E. then the penny dropped, it was an electric conversion! Taking a few photos the guy came out of the building an...

 I Slept like a log last night and once again as I drew back the curtains it was bright blue sky and sunshine. I think I used all the bad weather up last month on the IOM! Umming and arring on what to do, I packed the Brompton bag as lightly as I could as I’d be leaving Jean in the underground car park come what may and cycling to Amsterdam at some point today, put everything I didn’t need in the car and set back off into town for some breakfast.  Just to see what the other routes into town where like, I ventured to the East of the city and with the sun on my back meandered into the centre to park the bike at the world famous Utrecht central station. Why is it famous? It’s got the largest underground bike park in the world! Completed in 2019 it’s basically a multi story car park for bikes, holding over 12,500 of them. I took a quick video going in and it’s mind blowing. Free for 24 hours as well. With the bike parked and locked on one of the upper bike racks it was straight up...