Exploring Wales and the West Country by bike

Spring is the time to explore Wales and the West Country - regions that are especially beautiful when explored by bike, says cyclist and author Jack Thurston

"There was a time when I would cycle to Cornwall every summer from my home in London, to join friends in a holiday cottage on the beach. Each year I took a slightly different route, staying overnight with people I knew along the way, or just sleeping out in the open. It usually took me four full days. By train it’s just a few hours. My average speed on those summer rides was about 12 miles an hour, which sounds slow but by historical standards, the bicycle is actually pretty quick. It’s four times walking pace and double the speed of a horse-drawn carriage.

"The bicycle, and only the bicycle, combines speed, efficiency and freedom with a total immersion in the world around us. Riding through the sun, the wind and the rain, every sight, sound and smell is as vivid and immediate as it can be. Cyclists experience the landscape with a detail and definition that is just a blur when travelling by car or train. As Ernest Hemingway puts it, “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.”

Jack Thurston is author of Lost Lanes West and Lost Lanes Wales (Wild Things Publishing)

Turn to page 79 of May's The Simple Things for more of Jack's springtime cycling advice.

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Wool Week: Join The Wool Ride

Join fellow yarn-fans this weekend for the capital's Wool Ride in celebration of Wool Week.

The Simple Things team is a woolly bunch - we love natural materials. This Sunday, get on your bike and join fellow wool-clad cyclists for The Wool Ride.

Help launch Wool Week in a frenzy of fibre as over 300 wool loving cyclists from across the country gather in London for a one of a kind experience. Starting and finishing at Potters Fields on Sunday 5th October, the bicycle ride will journey through some of the streets made famous by London’s most prominent wool supporters, including the archetypal Jermyn Street.

Take in some of London’s key sights and hotspots, passing through iconic scenery such as London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Knightsbridge, Park Lane and Regent Street. The ride starts at 9am (running until 2pm - the 13.4 mile ride should take around 1 hour 38 minutes), taking riders along a meandering route with time to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the sights of the capital at a leisurely pace. On arrival at Potters Fields, give your bike a temporary makeover with the ‘Woolen Cycle Workshop.’ Here, teams of cycle creatives will be on hand to give bikes the ultimate makeover for a chance to win the award for best bicycle. And don't forget to wear your best woollen knits as there is an award for best dressed up for grabs.

Find out more about The Wool Ride.

Want more wool? Celebrate cosy and cool Fair Isle knits with us - turn to page 22 of October's The Simple Things. And join the queen of sheepskin, Kath Whitworth, as she shares her day in cups of tea (page 56).

Buy or download your copy now.

Cycle lost lanes

Wind your way through the very best of the countryside, on quiet roads, off-road paths and tracks, always striving to follow the ways least travelled. It’s an endlessly rich network with unlimited opportunities for improvisation, variation and detours. Changing weather and changing seasons (Britain sometimes boasts all four in a single day) means no two bike rides are the same, even if they follow the same route.

The journey to become a cycling connoisseur of lost lanes is a simple one and comprises three steps. First, discover the lost lanes nearest where you live. Get out the Ordnance Survey maps (the Landranger 1:50,000 are best for cycling) and look for the thinnest yellow lines. For a bird’s eye view, go to www.twomaps.com and explore the twinning of detailed map and aerial photography. Next, get to know them in the flesh. Identify the wildflowers and come back a couple of months later to see what’s changed. Listen to the birdsong, spot the trees. Take a tramp about in neighbouring woodlands.

Third, and above all, just ride. At any speed, in all seasons, for the thrill of the new or the comfort of the familiar. Alone or with friends, pack a picnic or stop at a pub for lunch, have a snooze under a tree, take some photographs – even write a sonnet if the mood takes you. Savour the beauty and wildness of these perfect threads of common ground and celebrate the very best way to see them – by bike.

In issue 14 of The Simple Things, Jack Thurston shares hand-picked routes from his latest book.

LOST LANES by Jack Thurston is priced £14.99 from Wild Things Publishing. Buy a copy for just £12.99 (£9.99 – 33% off – plus £3.00 P&P) by entering the code ST13 at www.wildswimming.co.uk/lostlanes. Offer ends 30th September 2013.