Dennis Menchov Wins The Giro, Can Lance Still Win Le Tour? I’ve been following Lance Armstrong’s comeback in recent months and looking for clues about his chances in the big one, the Tour de France. We’ve mentioned before that it’s difficult to compare the contenders in the few months before Le Tour. They don’t race… Read more
Each issue of our Newsletter I try to pick out bits of our tours that don’t make it into our brochure or onto our website. Personal observations rather than ‘tourist’-style details. This month, I’d like to tell you about one of my favourite parts of our Tuscany tour that took me by surprise. Once you’ve… Read more
Our French season starts at the end of this month, with tours of Bordeaux and Provence starting on the 27th. What’s June like in the vineyards? The main work is in the vineyards themselves. The vines have flowered back in May, which gives you roughly 100 days advance warning of the harvest. So in July… Read more
Here’s a light-hearted story to finish up with, a real-life Chain Gang. 194 French prisoners will shortly set off on a special version of the Tour de France. They’ll be accompanied by 124 gaurds and fitness instructors. An article on the BBC website makes it clear that there will be no breakaways (!) and the… Read more
So, Chain Gang’s 2009 season is now underway – just. We have 4 guides working for us this summer, Pete McGee and Toby King in France, and Guido Dollert and Orlando Gensmantel in Italy. This year we also have the luxury of me and my brother, Mike Dugdale, on standby, able to fill in where… Read more
Last week, for the first time ever (I think), Exeter hosted a professional bike race. As part of a race programme called the ‘Tour Series’ Exeter held one of 10 city centre races to be held in the UK this summer. There are 10 professional teams, each of 5 riders, and although these aren’t the… Read more
Yesterday, Sunday May 24th, Dr Bike and I rode ‘The Tour of Wessex’. This is a 112-mile ride around Wessex. We were slightly worried before the event because 112 miles is a little outside our comfort zone – by about 70 miles! Come the day we joined up with 3 other mates, Richard Mould, Jerry… Read more
Last weekend I had the great pleasure of watching two of my neices complete the Ten Tors. Ten Tors is an annual event run by the Army on Dartmoor. Four hundred teams of six youngsters aged 14 to 20 have to complete a 2-day walk across Dartmoor. There are about 25 different routes, divided into… Read more
Spring time is an exciting time for cycling fans. It’s not all about the Tour de France, there are other bike races! Some of them last for a few days, some for as long as a week, but some of the most famous of all are one-day races. These include some of cycling’s most famous,… Read more
Last year on one of our Burgundy trips there was a heated debate around the dinner table in Châteauneuf on the subject of bike helmets. Châteauneuf, by the way, is amazing. Davide, an Israeli cyclist, said ‘It’s amazing, just amazing. I thought Loubressac was the most beautiful village I had ever seen, but it is… Read more
The Chain Gang Cycle tours