I liked the idea of being able to ride where my road bike couldn’t go. I liked too the idea of going for a few days of bike touring, and the Diverge has all the fitting points you’d need to load baggage, either bikepacking style or conventional touring style with front and rear panniers. Some proving rides mixing on- and off-road over the autumn and winter confirmed it was a comfortable ride and coped well with loose surfaces, though the tyres that came with the bike weren’t so good in soft mud. It also confirmed my bike handling has plenty of room for improvement.

So I spent hours reading reviews of bikepacking bags and finally bought a small frame bag and a seatpack. With the help of Komoot I devised a ride from Oxford to Cirencester, outwards on a northerly arc and back taking a southerly route. I waited to find a couple of days with no other commitments and a decent weather forecast and booked a B&B for an overnight stay. And so on a chilly Saturday morning in early April I set off.

I’m glad to say everything went well. The hills in the Cotswolds in the second half of the outward ride were (mostly) short and (always) steep; I found that with the luggage on the bike I could just about struggle up an 11 or 12 percent gradient in bottom gear on tarmac if it wasn’t too long, but I did have to walk the bike up a few hills both on tarmac and gravel. OK, so I’m not as young as I was!

By contrast the return route was mostly flat, but for once Komoot let me down. It was taking me on a bridleway across grassy fields until it came to a river bank – the River Thames, no less! Reverting to the Ordnance Survey map I found I had arrived at Duxford Ford. It’s a genuine ford passable when the river level is low, but this day the river was in full flow and the winter storms had done their damage.

Reluctant to backtrack to the nearest crossing upstream, and with the nearest downstream crossing too far away to make my planned route recoverable, I took the easy option and stayed on the north side of the Thames for the rest of my ride.

Over the two days I covered just over 100 miles and was quite pleased with the whole experience. I think I’ll probably need one more piece of luggage for any longer trips – either that or I could use a small rucksack. I don’t think I’ll be camping; B&B is more my style these days.

A note about Komoot. I’m quite new to this app, but I was impressed by the routes it found for me. I’d specified ‘gravel riding’, and sure enough the route included bridleways as well as quiet back roads that I wouldn’t have bothered navigating using a paper map – too much stopping and checking. Combined with my handlebar mounted Hammerhead Karoo 2 the route was easy to follow and was certainly better than one I might have devised myself from maps alone.

Earlier this year I decided to plan to put my bike in the back of the car and drive to Provence with the aim of riding up Mont Ventoux. I was going to go in May, but the coronavirus pandemic put paid to that idea as France and England went into lockdown.

As restrictions eased in June my family, forced to abandon their own holiday plans, decided to go back to Samoëns in the French Alps where they had holidayed before. They asked if I’d like to join them, and of course I said ‘yes’.

Samoëns is the start point for one of the classic French cycling climbs, the Col de Joux Plane. One of the ski- and bike-hire shops in the village, Antonioz Ski, has road bikes for hire. It was too good an opportunity to miss! So early on Friday evening I collected the Scott bike I’d reserved with its red carbon frame and compact chainset, rode it the few hundred metres back to the apartment and carried it up the stairs.

On Saturday morning I was up at 6.15 for breakfast, and by 7.40 I was ready to set off. I rode a few kilometres along the valley road and back to warm up, then swung round the turn which leads immediately into the climb. There are two or three options for the start from Samoëns. The first kilometre of the one I had chosen – simply because it was nearest our apartment – is the steepest kilometre of the whole climb, with an average gradient of 10.4% and incorporating the steepest 200m of the entire climb at a 12.6% gradient. Right from the start I was in my bottom gear (34 x 32), and after 500m I was seriously doubting if I would be able to keep going. But somehow I made it to the point where the gradient eases a bit and I could carry on a bit more comfortably.

About half way there’s a short section where the road is virtually flat and I took my first break there, refuelling with the best part of a Snickers bar. The it was upwards again: hairpins, steady climbing, steeper heart-pounding lung-gasping sections. A few other cyclists overtook me; I overtook no-one. My family passed me in the car on their way to the top.

At last the helpful countdown signs at the side of the road showed just 2km to go. I ground on until the cars parked at the side of the road told me that the top was just round the next bend. I passed the summit sign to the family’s cheers and rode the last few metres to the actual top before slowing to a careful stop, doubtful if I could get off the bike without falling over (I managed it).

I didn’t want just to go back the way I’d come so after a short rest and a refuelling pain au chocolat I carried on towards Morzine. There’s a short uphill section about 2km further along where tired legs were reluctant to start working again, then the twisty descent which I took rather cautiously on the unfamiliar bike.

The road from Morzine to Les Gets was busy with traffic; an uphill grind at an easy gradient. From Les Gets it’s downhill all the way to Taninges – sweeping bends taken fast where the surface was good, slow and jolting over the broken and potholed sections. And finally the last few level kilometres along the valley back to Samoëns.

And all being well I’ll be doing my Mont Ventoux trip at the end of September!

[Early September update: Mont Ventoux trip Covid-cancelled ]

After the bad winter and cold wet spring I finally abandoned my early season plan to ride the BikeOxford 80-mile sportive in May when I got a bad back about 10 days before. It was the second time this year. My GP thought two vertebrae were rubbing together causing inflammation and pain. Although the problem had nearly cleared up by the time of the sportive I was leaving for my ‘Pedalbania’ holiday five days later and didn’t want to take the risk. All of which is a long-winded way of saying I hadn’t done a longish ride this year.

With autumn approaching I decided to grab what will almost certainly be the last chance I’ll have for a 100km+ ride before the winter. The route I devised is 64 miles, or 103 km, from Oxford to Charlbury, Chipping Norton, and a succession of Cotswold villages before turning south near Somerton to get back to Oxford on familiar roads.

It turned out to be a good ride on a fine day, though I was slower than I’d expected. I blame this on 1) a headwind over the first, generally uphill, half; 2) stopping too often to check the route (it was the first time I’d ridden it), and 3) spending too long buying and eating lunch at the Londis at the petrol station in Bloxham. Oh the glamour! Road surfaces varied from excellent to downright dangerous.

I’ve shared the route on Viewranger. The distance doesn’t quite tally because I’ve cut out the first and last bits from and to my home.

On the plus side I did do a 50 mile ride yesterday morning (Sunday). Admittedly it was fairly flat apart from Aston Hill on the A40 near Stokenchurch, but it’s further than any of the scheduled days in Albania and I keep telling myself we’ll have all day to do the distances. The BikeOxford route is hillier but I know most of the roads and I’m confident it won’t be a problem. I’ll have to save the longer rides for later in the year.

Here’s the route of yesterday’s ride.

So I’ve been out a few times on my No. 2 bike, fitted with mudguards and lights. Two flat rides, then yesterday a 20-miler out to Brill and back. It’s a route I’ve done plenty of times before; it has five small but quite sharp hills including Brill Hill which was ‘featured’ on a stage of the Tour of Britain last year.  It was cold – about 5°C – dark and rainy at times and the roads were very wet!

The ride took me 20 minutes longer than it does when I was doing it last summer on my No. 1 bike and according to my heart-rate monitor I burned 33% more calories. This could be due to

• being in the “Too Fat To Climb” club. I need to lose at least 7 pounds to get back to my optimum weight;
• my No. 2 bike being heavier than my No. 1 bike and not having such a range of gears;
• burning more calories to keep warm;

or most likely a combination of all the above. I need to get more winter miles in. Once the days are a bit longer and the weather’s better I’ll be back on the No. 1 bike. I’m keen to try out the new 25mm Continental GP4000 tyres I’ve just fitted on it as a New Year gift.

Here are the details of the trip on the Exodus website. Training will have to start after Christmas!

The plan is to do a similar ride in about 10 days’ time with a few shorter rides between, and then see what I think will be the best way to lead up to the day itself.

The ride went well. A strong westerly wind pushed me along the A40 and didn’t seriously hinder northerly progress to Princes Risborough. I reached my planned coffee stop at Askett Garden Centre (about 30 miles) with my cycle computer showing an average speed of 15.5mph.

The second half of the ride was more of a struggle. I was riding into the wind which if anything had become stronger, and there was a series of sharp hills where I needed bottom gear. The steep hills were followed by two long drags which sapped my remaining energy and reduced me to a slow trundle. In the circumstances I was quite pleased to record an overall average of 14.1mph (on the road average), completing the circuit in my target time of 5 hours including stops.

Apart from the wind, the main downside to the ride was the poor surface on most of the roads. Although there were a few fast smooth sections, potholes, crumbling road edges, bumpy and failing repairs-over-repairs and loose gravel made for cautious descents. On quiet roads a line near the centre of the road was usually better, but any traffic meant moving over into the rough. The later part of my route yesterday is on the early part of the BikeOxford 80 so I’m hoping for better roads over the rest of the route next month.

Next training target: 65 miles or thereabouts.

A small start, but a start nonetheless.