There are few pleasures to rival pedalling off in the general direction of nowhere in particular, without a care in the world.
Especially if your route is dotted with sites of great beauty and punctuated with places to stop off. And you don’t need to be a 10st strip of Lycra-clad muscle and lungs to do this.
The ever-growing number of organised cycling holidays worldwide are designed to appeal to all levels. And advances in electric bike technology are such that even the most ardent couch potatoes can go for a spin. As with most people, my first bike was used to play and explore; to extend my territory beyond the street corner. Later, it became a serious hobby and then my career.
An ever-growing number of organised cycling holidays worldwide are designed to appeal to all levels of fitness
But I’ve long given up trying to go faster and faster. Instead, I’ve taken up exploring our ever-expanding tracks and trails.
Luckily for me the Wirral Way, a reclaimed railway line running up the centre of the Wirral Peninsula, is just a few hundred yards from my door.
I can join this traffic-free route and head towards the bottom of the peninsula, where I then have a choice between turning right into the hills of North Wales or left on to the Cheshire plain. There are nearly 15,000 miles of routes in Britain thanks to the National Cycle Network, whose blue signs open up a parallel world of old railway routes, drovers’ roads and ancient byways.
Top gear: Olympic cycling champion Chris Boardman says there are few pleasures to rival pedalling off in the general direction of nowhere in particular
More and more people are taking up cycling thanks, in part, to the arrival of electric bikes. These don’t just appeal to the older generation — youngsters are using ‘e-bikes’, too, because they are great fun.
These days, I keep two bikes at home: a sensible hybrid with lights and mudguards for trips to the shop and the pub; the other is an ADV adventure bike, a sort of a road bike with drop handlebars and big fat tyres. This is fine on the road and the tyres make light work of canal towpaths and those gnarled Highland forestry trails where I love to spend many weeks a year exploring.
While I am no longer involved with the Olympic squad, bicycles are keeping me busier than ever thanks to Andy Burnham, the mayor of Manchester, who asked me to help with plans to wean people off their addiction to cars. We devised a ten-year, £1.5 billion scheme that involves a 1,250-mile fully integrated orbital network across the region for cyclists and pedestrians.
Every year, Mancunians make around 250,000,000 journeys of less than half a mile — that’s 30 per cent of all car journeys. The aim is to stop this and turn the city into one of the greenest regions in Europe. To do this, we need to persuade the young commuters of tomorrow to get on their bikes today. And what better way to introduce them to a lifetime of cycling than a family cycling holiday?
My mother was a keen cyclist who enthused me from a young age. Tragically, she was on her bike when she was killed in 2016 by a motorist who had just been using his mobile phone. That terrible experience made me ever more determined to make cycling safer and more attractive.
The bicycle is one of the most remarkable and flexible devices ever invented and has an important role to play in addressing three of the biggest problems facing our planet: pollution, health and congestion. For me it isn’t simply a bicycle, it’s a way of life.
If you see me out and about on a route somewhere, be sure to wave and say hello.
From Croatian coves to Mongolian mountains: 10 wheely great cycling holidays
By Mark Porter
Leisure cycling is all about soaking up the sights, pedalling by hedgerows, through woodlands and across remote valleys, spotting wildlife and stopping to sample local cuisine.
Travelling by bike — rather than by car — opens up a parallel, slower existence. Or, as the poet Robert Frost put it, you enter the world of the road ‘less traveled’.
Here is our selection of great routes in Britain, Europe and further afield, marked with a fitness level of 1 to 5, whereby 1 is easy and 5 tough. Some trips are guided, others are not. But all offer unforgettable two-wheeled adventures.
Coasts and castles
Cyclists can admire the wide sea views, rivers, hills and castles on a biking holiday between Newcastle and Edinburgh
Coastlines, rivers, hills and castles are to be enjoyed between Newcastle and Edinburgh. The wide sea views of Northumberland are spectacular and the empty roads across the Scottish Borders are blissful on the way to Edinburgh Castle.
High point: Eating at the Craster Seafood Restaurant in Northumberland (crasterseafood.co.uk).
Fitness level: 2.5
Distance: 200 miles.
Details: From £575pp for five days with hotels; self-guided (pedal-power.co.uk).
Cross-Channel adventure
This route starts with 46 miles of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast between Weymouth and Poole before taking a ferry to Cherbourg where the route winds peacefully down the Cotentin Peninsula. Take in D-Day beaches, the island commune of Mont St-Michel and Northern Brittany, before catching the Saint-Malo ferry to Poole, ending in Weymouth.
High point: Oyster shacks.
Fitness level: 2
Distance: 280 miles.
Details: From £450pp for six days with B&Bs and ferry crossing; self-guided (en.tourdemanche.com).
Hadrian’s cycleway
A cyclist on the Hadrian’s Cycleway Route near Scargavel Point, Cumbria. The route starts in the west coast of Cumbria and runs to the edge of the North Sea in Tyneside
From the west coast of Cumbria, along the Solway Firth and onwards, take in Roman Britain (including Hadrian’s Wall) as you cross the wild, windswept landscape. You pass through the genteel towns of Corbridge and Hexham before joining the edge of the Tyne to the North Sea.
High point: The Solway coastline.
Fitness level: 2.5
Distance: 174 miles.
Details: From £510pp for four days with hotels; self-guided (openroadopenskies.co.uk).
Sicily in the saddle
The stunning port town of Selinunte, pictured is one of the stops on a biking tour of Sicily. It also takes in the port of Marsala
Moorish towns, Doric temples and Norman cathedrals feature on this tour that also includes the ports of Marsala and Selinunte. Enjoy 3,000 years of Roman, Carthaginian and Syracusan culture — as well as Corleone, the home town (and later adopted surname) of the fictional Mafia boss in The Godfather.
High point: Sicilian food.
Fitness level: 2
Distance: 150 miles.
Details: From £833pp for seven nights with hotels and hire of an e-bike; self-guided (hookedoncycling.co.uk/ebike-holidays).
Pedal in Portugal
If it’s a long weekend of unchallenging scenic seaside miles you fancy, liberally punctuated with cafes and restaurants, then this is for you. The Eastern Algarve has quiet lanes, charming villages and flat terrain.
High point: The fishing village of Cabanas.
Fitness level: 1
Distance: 95 miles.
Details: From £340pp for four night with hotels; self-guided (algarvebikeholidays.com).
Provencal vineyards
France is the perfect place for a cycling holiday. Leisure cycling is all about soaking up the sights, pedalling by hedgerows, through woodlands and across remote valleys, spotting wildlife and stopping to sample local cuisine
There are a few gentle climbs on this cycling holiday, but nothing an e-bike and a glass or two of Côtes du Rhone won’t iron out en route. Set off from Avignon before moving into the foothills of Mont Ventoux. The tour winds through a roll‑call of great wine regions, including Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas and Beaumes de Venise.
High point: A night out in Avignon.
Fitness level: 2
Distance: 102 miles.
Details: From £976pp for five nights with hotels (hookedoncycling.co.uk).
Transylvanian trail
This is a cycling tour with some walking included, plus a guide who knows Saxony and its complex Austro-Hungarian history. The remote UNESCO-listed Southern Transylvanian villages you visit, cradled in the Carpathian foothills of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, seem untouched by time.
High point: Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, ruler of Wallachia, on whom Stoker is said to have based his creation.
Fitness level: 2.5
Distance: 150 miles.
Details: From £1,550pp for five nights with hotels; guided (theslowcyclist.co.uk).
Bikes and boats
Cyclists can explore the Istrian coast on a week-long tour while staying on a boat on a cycling holiday in Croatia, pictured
Explore the Istrian coast on a week-long tour while staying on a boat that begins and ends in Pula, calling at beautiful spots including Vrsar, Porec, Umag and Rovinj. Distances covered by bike vary from 12 to 22 miles a day.
High point: Cobbled alleys and medieval stone villages.
Fitness level: 1.5
Distance: 155 miles.
Details: From £781pp for seven nights half-board with accommodation on board; guided (freedomtreks.co.uk)
Road trip USA
Beaches lobster shacks, lighthouses and bobbing fishing boats characterise the dramatic Maine coastline, which stretches 400 miles to Canada. This trip takes you from inn to well- chosen inn.
High point: Hidden coves and haute cuisine.
Fitness level: 4
Distance: 400 miles.
Details: From £1,920pp for seven nights at smart inns; self-guided (summerfeet.net).
Flight prices not included for overseas holidays.
Mongolian nomads
On a 16-night cycling holiday in Mongolia, holidaymakers start in Ulaanbaatar, pictured, the capital, before heading to the southern edge of the Khangai Mountains
Sleep under the stars in Mongolia during this 16-day trip that explores Ulaanbaatar, the capital, before heading to the southern edge of the Khangai Mountains. Climb the 2,540m Shar Hutul pass and meet nomadic families.
High point: The wilderness
Fitness level: 4
Distance: 280 miles.
Details: From £2,295pp for 16 days with hotels and yurts; guided. Bike hire £200 extra (skedaddle.com).
- Boardman bikes are sold in Halfords and Cycle Republic shops and online at boardmanbikes.com. The new Boardman electric bike is due out this month.