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Golden Hour
As everybody says every summer, It’s been a busy summer. I moved house in May, and have had plenty to do at the weekends which has meant focusing on my ‘adult responsibilities’ somewhat. This has left less time to fit in big days or weekends out on the bike, and less time to finish writing
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Bikepacking The Peak District
Hurtling towards the Easter bank holiday I felt at a loss. A few weeks prior I had grand plans in mind. Riding the length of Wales, to Dunkery beacon and back, or having (yet another) shot at the Lakeland 200… All of these things were on the cards. Fast forward to the Thursday night and
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Another Round Of Golf – The Gift That Keeps On Giving
I don’t often mention ‘enduro style’ mountainbiking in this blog. Mostly because I am too busy doing it to take pictures, but every two or three weeks I’l spend a day in the Welsh Valleys or the Forest Of Dean seeking out steep, technical tracks to chase my mates down. It’s easily the most fun
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A Swiss Alpine Adventure Part 4 – The Finale
Despite being up a mountain and next to a glacier, the morning sun felt warm on my skin when sheltered from the wind beside the Kesch hut. Astonishingly I was packed and ready before the others, and took a few moments to soak up the surroundings, scanning my eyes along the horizon, and taking in
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A Swiss Alpine Adventure – Part Three
Unfortunately I’m quite a bad sleeper when I’m in unfamiliar settings, even when I’m exhausted. I once hiked for three days straight on no sleep because I couldnt turn my mind off. It’s not like I’m some kind of tortured soul pondering the meaning of life or anything as deep as that, rather more similar
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A Swiss Alpine Adventure. – Part One
This story begins as many of mine do, with an alarm going off at an uncomfortably early time. It’s Sunday morning and we’re driving to Switzerland. Miraculously Sam has managed to wake before my alarm, creep into the kitchen, and prepare me a cup of tea without waking me from my sleep. Despite it being
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Boats Belong By The Sea
Sitting outside a Wetherspoons in Minehead I’m feeling uneasy, slightly nauseous, and a little dizzy. I feel as if I’m swaying, like I’m on a boat, and am struck by the realisation that boats belong by the sea, and not, it would seem, outside a Wetherspoons. Now hold that thought, and we’ll rewind a few
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The Gravel Rally
It’s 3:30pm, I’ve been working like a four armed ninja to get the days tasks finished off and get away from work early in order to make it to North Wales before my campsites arrival cut off at 9:00pm. I put the address into Google Maps. 4 hours and 20 minutes. ETA 20:50. Cutting it
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Is The Monument Worth Seeing?
I went to Scotland again a couple of weeks ago. Long story short I had the opportunity to deliver a rather posh bicycle to Aberdeen and have my fuel covered by work whilst doing so. I didn’t have much else on that weekend so jumped at the chance, and figured I might as well drive
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‘Only 11km To Go’
I’ve been meaning to ride the Dales Divide long distance off-road race for three years now. Each year I’ve entered and then been thwarted by injury and the resulting lack of bolidly confidence. This year is only slightly different in that I’ve decided not to enter at all, and am doing a 15-mile trail run
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Guns Don’t Kill People, Wrappers Do.
Last weekend Gabe and I decided to ride a fun new local event called Trash Cat, organised by Hari who seems to be in her element organising things that put smiles on people’s faces. Bristol is fortunate to have a few of these people and I am in awe of their efforts. She went all
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Not LeJog
When considering planning a bike tour for the summer the obvious choice was to ride from Lands End to John’O’Groats. The usual dream team of riding buddies came together in the shape of Andrew, Ayoob, and Sam , and we let the idea marinate for a while before committing to firmer plans. After some discussion,
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Back to the Borders
I spent a lot of 2021 riding big bouncy trail mountain bikes, riding in South Wales most weeks and taking a couple of trips up to Innerleithen, it ended up being a pretty big part of my free time and something i’ve missed doing. For a multitude of reasons that faded away a bit and
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Wellingtons, Running, and Track Bikes
Last weekend I took a hike out into the western side of the Brecon Beacons and stumbled upon the wreckage of a 1944 Vickers Wellington bomber which crashed there due to an engine freezing up on a training exercise, killing all six of the crew. This was a pretty chilling place to be, and I
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Elan Valley Weekender
I’ve been trying to cram as much beautiful scenery into my weekends as possible lately. Most recently this meant a two-day bike trip around the Elan Valley with Sam and Ayoob, following an old Cyclist mag route. We’d considered a stay at Claerddu Bothy but decided against it for a few reasons. Firstly it’s very
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Autumnal Devon Weekender
I had been itching to get away for a weekend of fresh air, autumnal scenes, and chill pedalling for a couple of weeks. Ayoob was keen for the same and so we decided to book up a bed for the night in Minehead, and planned to pedal down there on Saturday, stay over, and then
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Throwback 2013 Portraits
Browsing through my picture archives I stumbled upon these portaits shot by Gabe outside the old Bristol Dropouts shop. I took some sort of pleasure in being a ninja style bike courier by day and a skinsuit wearing time triallist by night. Kinky. In hindsight the skinsuit didnt fit very well, but it felt pretty
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Bikes and Hikes Gallery – Cairngorms National Park
A selection of images from hikes and rides in the Aviemore area. Including Burma Road, Ben Macdui, and the square sausage I had for breakfast every day. The riding in this area really is incredible, though I’m sure if you’ve stumbled upon this post you already know that. In our few days in Aviemore it
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Do Birds Enjoy Things?
Sam and I had a few days free at the back end of July and decided to string together a last minute mini tour around a reasonable chunk of Wales. I’ve not been getting many miles in lately so figured I had might as well do them all at once. Also, I had just built
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Majorca ’22
Somehow I’ve managed to avoid visiting Majorca until now, but it was totally worth the wait. We had a great little group of riders making for a chill vibe, this was a holiday not a ‘training camp’. I was over the moon to get a few solid long rides in and to feel reasonably good
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DRK Dirty Sunday #7
Last weekends Dirty Sunday event was a pretty special day out. It marked the longest and hardest ride I’ve managed since injuring myself, and was a great chance to ride with friends old and new. Some days everything just comes together, and this was one of those days. I’ve known DRK since its beginning what
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Dales Divide 2022 – AKA What the heck am I doing?
So I have decided to enter the 600km Dales Divide off road endurance event in mid April. I’m pretty apprehensive about it, but enjoying having a goal to focus on. I spent 4 years working as a courier doing high mileage in shit weather, had a decent stint racing road bikes, don’t mind sleeping in
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The Lakeland 200
10/11/2021 – 18:02 Sam: ‘are you still interested in doing a long weekend somewhere? 4-5th Dec is my preference. I just want to be out in the daylight, and ideally sitting in a pub by a fire for the rest of the time’ 10/11/2021 – 20:33 – Rob: ‘Have you heard of the Lakeland 200?‘
Rob Borek
borekthepencil.com 