Not everyone takes inspiration from the Olympics and ends up cycling across Europe. However, that is exactly what prompted Andre P Sykes to get up off the sofa and start cycling further than your average cyclist.
Andrew will be giving an illustrated talk, entitled Cycling Europe on Saturday 12th March, 7.00pm at the Shireoaks Village Hall.
Explaining how it all started, Andre said: “I was watching the Olympics in Beijing on the television. I was watching the cyclists including Nicole Cooke race around the Great Wall of China. Even though the weather was poor, it was such an iconic place to cycle and I thought how interesting and adventurous such a journey would be.”
The thought kept niggling away at Sykes and eventually, after a lot of research, he came up with the idea of cycling the 3,000 miles from Reading to visit a friend who’d moved to southern Italy and his wife. He decided to write a blog about his plans and the adventures he had along the way.
After that start, Andrew gave up his full-time teaching post and returned north to Halifax, where he is based now. Two longer trips across Europe, one east to west the next south to north followed. His three books all chronicle his adventures. He now runs a website and podcast dedicated to cycling. He has made many films of various lengths which can be seen on his website.
The evening with Andrew, which includes pie and peas, is available by booking only. Anyone interested in the event should contact paddyducey@hotmail.com for more details.