FREE DOWNLOADABLE GPX ROUTE FILESGreat British Bike Rides is a celebration of British road cycling.Author Dave Barter brings together forty of the best road rides in England, Scotland and Wales, searching out the country's most celebrated routes, toughest climbs and most scenic roads.The rides are challenging, they are adventurous, and they are quintessentially British – tackle the gradient...

In 1939 British cyclist Tommy Godwin cycled 75,065 miles in a single year. Think about that for a second: that's an average of over 200 miles each day. And it's a mark that still stands after almost eighty years. In The Year, Dave Barter resurrects the legend of the year record - a challenge nearly as old as bicycles themselves - and the cyclists who pushed themselves to establish and break it. Barter uncovers the stories behind these riders who would routinely cycle over a hundred miles a...

Great Scottish Bike Rides is a guide for cyclists who seek out the hard, the remote and the rewarding.Dave Barter – author of bestselling guidebook Great British Bike Rides – presents 25 of Scotland's most compelling road cycling routes, linking legendary climbs, long, empty glens and stretches of deserted moorland. These rides demand effort and judgement, where distance, weather and elevation all have a part to play.Tackle the terrifying ...

Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder is an anthology of thirty articles written by an amateur cyclist over a period of ten years. The collection exhibits the madness that engulfs those who descend into cycling obsession, celebrating the average cyclist living in a world defined by the pros. The writings range from fanciful musings concerning the Tao of singlespeeding to lengthy descriptions of end-to-end rides in Britain and Ireland. Mountain biking, road cycling and all sorts of other cy...

In 1939 British cyclist Tommy Godwin cycled 75,065 miles in a single year.Think about that for a second: it’s an average of over 200 miles each day. And it’s a mark that still stands after almost eighty years. In The Year, Dave Barter resurrects the legend of the year record – a challenge nearly as old as bicycles themselves – and the cyclists who pushed themselves to establish and break it.Barter uncovers the stories behind these riders who would ...

Why is the Victoria Line so hot? What is an Electrical Multiple Unit? Is it really possible to ride from Kings Cross to Kings Cross on the Circle line? The London Underground is the oldest, most sprawling and illogical metropolitan transport system in the world, the result of a series of botch-jobs and improvisations.Yet it transports over one billion passengers every year - and this figure is rising. It is iconic, recognised the world over, and loved and despised by Londoners in equal mea...

Did you know?In 1884 the Circle Line opened and was described in The Times as 'a form of mild torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently help it.'According to one psychologist, Tube commuters can experience greater levels of stress than a police officer facing a rioting mob or even a fighter pilot going into a dogfight.Underground trains have only twice been used to transport deceased people in coffins: William Gladston...

‘Seeing Red’ is an exclusive extract from the best-selling ‘Mad For It’, published in association with FourFourTwo magazine. It examines one of the greatest sporting rivalries from the viewpoint of the people that matter; the fans.‘Mad For It’ proves that some football matches are far more than just a game.These short extracts, from the original book published in association with FourFourTwo magazine, provide a fresh and revealing insight into the people that make these mat...

On 27 May 1989, the Guardian described one extraordinary moment at Anfield the night before. In the 92nd minute Lukic threw the ball to Dixon to set in train a series of events during which time almost stood still. Dixon's pass found Smith, who deftly controlled the ball before slipping it through to Thomas... Seldom has such collective disbelief been written on 41,000 faces.That night, forever famous, is just one part of Arsenal's extraordinary history a team of South London factory worke...

'BR rebel chairman resigns' The Guardian.'Rebel rail chief in row' Daily Mail.'I don't take it back says sacked rail chief' Daily Express.This is the notorious book that got Gerard Fiennes sacked from British Railways while he was Chairman and General Manager of the Eastern Region in 1968.Fiennes became a railwayman by accident, joining the L.N.E.R as a Traffic Apprentice in 1928. Over the next four decades he worked himself up to ...

Derby County's Baseball Ground was a football stadium known all over the world for its unique atmosphere, proximity of the crowd, odd shaped stands and the setting of the Leys factory on one side and terraced houses everywhere else. This is its story. Although known as a football setting, it was originally designed as a baseball stadium for the Derby Baseball Club. The baseball and football clubs co-habited the ground for a number of years, until the football club became permanent resident...

Running a railway is a complex business. However organised it is, there will always be surprises: often hilarious, frequently unexpected, but sometimes serious.Along Different Lines includes such bizarre 'everyday' events as coping with hurricanes, rogue locomotives and runaway wagons; PR successes and otherwise; the Brighton Belle, Flying Scotsman and Mallard; training-course capers; a wino invasion; trackside antics; the Eurost...