This tour was originally intended to be Oxford to Cambridge and back but lack of long-term car parking in Oxford meant this was less practicable and the Bicester start in fact made planning a four day tour with convenient overnight stops easier. The ROUTE followed the NCN51 to Cambridge and returned via the National Byway, promoted as Britain's secret cycle-touring network of a meandering signposted route following the quietest lanes through the sleepiest villages.

This cycling holiday was chosen as the main summer tour at the planning meeting in January. David planned and organised the holiday that was based at Hotel Spa du Beryl in Bagnoles de l'Orne that combined day rides with sightseeing in some of the historic and interesting towns in this area of Normandy. The elegant spa town of Bagnoles-de-l’Orne became particularly popular in the late 19th century, a period in French history known as the Belle Epoque. Some grand period buildings still occupy prime positions.

The hotel had a swimming pool and spa to relax after each day's ride and secure storage for the bikes. There were rides each day, some direct from the hotel and some started further away by driving with the bikes to the start. To make transport arrangements simple there were two choices of route each day, one longer and one shorter, with all routes starting and finishing in the same place and meeting up at the town for lunch and sightseeing.

There were 14 participants for this trip,travelling in five cars -David with Sue and Vanessa, Rod with Carol and SueP, Michael with Ray, John with Helena and Graham and Mark with Brian and Gary.

The final tour plan for the Dreilandergiro, German for three countries tour, was based around the Munich Venice Cycle Route, with us starting from Holzkirchen in Bavaria, riding across the Alps via the Brenner Pass, then through the Dolomites via Passo Cimabanche to Belluno before diverting onto the SxPiave cycle route to Feltre. From there the route ran down the valley of the Torrente Cismon to its junction with the Brenta and then the Valsugana Ciclovia to Trento.  The four participants, Mick, Vanessa, David and Alistair were reduced to three when Mick suffered a slipped disk a couple of weeks before the off.

It was our annual day trip to France last week for David, SueC, Lin, JohnR, Helena, GrahamB, Mark, Brian, PeterH, Gary, Mick, Ray, Vanessa and me with nine taking the ferry in three cars whilst five just took their bikes. It was light rain on and off on the Monday as we headed to Portsmouth to meet up at the ferry terminal – a bit wetter for Gary as he rode all the way. The bikes were first on the ferry and as a result first to relax with a glass of wine in the restaurant. It was the usual lottery for the loading procedure for the cars, so it was about 40 minutes later before the last of the car contingent joined us for our evening meal. After eating we headed for the bar for the evening’s entertainment – this time an underwhelming singing duo and a magic show.

On Friday 6th October, to take advantage of the good weather that week, we visited the Isle of Wight again. David, SueC, Rod, Mick, Gary and I travelled down to Southampton by car with our bikes on the back, arriving in plenty of time for the 10:00 ferry. We took the Round the Island route out of East Cowes to Wooton and branched off at Havenstreet heading due south on the back roads to Newchurch before picking up the Round the Island route again. We passed through Wroxall on the way to Ventnor where we zoomed downhill on the Zig Zag Road to the seafront.

Strangely, there were only three takers for this ride. On 6th September, David drove to the start of the ride in Abergavenny with Vanessa and Alistair for a loop of the Brecon Beacons. After a coffee in the cafe in the park adjacent to the car park, we headed to Llanfoist to pick up the NCN46. This was a rail trail that climbed steadily at about 3% up the side of the valley to Brynmawr, though there was a steeper bit at 15% linking two sections of the former railway.  The early part of trail was picturesque, particularly where it was cut into the cliffs giving views across the valley to the Black Mountains. At the end of the rail trail, the cycle path wandered through the suburbs of Brynmawr and Rassau, crisscrossing the Heads of the Valleys Road on bridges.

Mick organised and led this late summer tour that started in Tunbridge Wells and looped clockwise, to the coast at Pevensey Bay, following the coastal NCN2 to Folkestone then returning inland via Ashford and Tenterden. Originally there were 12 riders but last minute problems with knees, pelvis and covid meant four regretfully had to pull out leaving Carol, Graham, Mark, Mick, Peter, Ray, Rod, Sue P for the tour.

The Alpe Adria Radweg was originally intended to be the main summer tour but the difficulties with bike hire and logistics for a large group ruled it out and we chose the Tour of the Ardennes instead. For the late summer tour, there was not enough interest in the hilly Walney to Whitby tour, so the consensus was for the alternative Kent/Sussex tour that at least on paper, looked easier, and simpler to organise.

During the Ardennes tour in June, I mentioned about riding the Alpe Adria on my own in preference to the UK tour.  David and Vanessa asked to join me and we thought that this tour, in hopefully warmer climes, was feasible in a small group.  So we set about researching and then booking the flights and hotels - all done in a few days. Salzburg is an expensive city, but David got us a very good hotel deal there with his BA Avios points.  It was also difficult to find a hotel for the leg in the sparsely populated area between Villach and Carnia, and were fortunate to get the last three rooms available within about 20 miles of our planned overnight stop area. As David and Vanessa were wary of flying with their bikes, they arranged to hire bikes from Avelo in Salzburg. Despite the photos of modern disk braked touring bikes offered in the subsequent emails back and forth, the actuality when they collected the bikes was old but functional Vee braked touring bikes [I guess that David’s bike was about 20 years old!]

There were only four of us for the ride along the Purbeck cycleway, an extended version of the one we did early last year that now included a loop from Corfe Castle to Swanage and back. So after an early start, David, Mick, Vanessa and Alistair met up in Wareham at the Community café near the quay before setting off towards Corfe. At the junction of the road and the NCN2 at Stoborough, there was a bike traffic jam with four separate groups of cyclists trying to turn off the main road.  The cycle route through Ridge passed through the pretty Dorset heath on the southern edge of Pole Harbour before joining the main road beside the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum where there was nose to tail traffic queuing all the way to Corfe Castle where we turned off onto Sandy Hill Lane towards Swanage. Fortunately the traffic was sticking to the main road or trying to find somewhere to park to visit Corfe Castle, so the narrow lane was largely traffic free.

This tour was planned back in January with 13 participants travelling in four cars with bikes to Belgium for the start of the tour. Unfortunately, Len, Brian and Ray had to pull out close to the tour start. So now with SueP, SueC, Carol, Lin, Vanessa, Peter, Rod, David, Mick and Alistair we were able to fit into three cars for the trip. At the last minute, the hotel we were due to stay in at La Roche en Ardenne cancelled our booking due to the hotel refurbishment being incomplete, but fortunately we were able to secure other hotel rooms for that night at short notice.

So, with the problems behind us, we left Basingstoke early on Tuesday 13th June on a hot and sunny day and after a good run arrived at Dover just in the nick of time to get on an earlier ferry. The other two cars had left about 30 minutes later and had to wait for the next ferry. It was an easy run through France and Belgium to our hotel, Les Jardins De La Molignée, in Anhee where we were able to relax in the pool and hot tub before the others were able to join us. The cars were parked up for the duration and the bikes securely stored overnight. After a beer or two on the terrace in the shade, we had dinner at the restaurant next door.