Andrew Bowie

Andrew’s Blog:

  • Does the saying ‘You are what you eat’ also apply when you travel?

    Does the saying ‘You are what you eat’ also apply when you travel? If this is true, then it’s a worrying thought. Because, when you travel, you sometimes have to eat whatever is available, even if you wouldn’t normally touch it at home. Not that the food is necessarily bad, it’s just not what you’re…

  • What type of cycle tourist is Catherine Pringle?

    Two weeks into her tandem journey around France, Catherine Pringle has survived the initial shock of travelling long-distances by bicycle. She is already physically stronger, and had begun to change mentally too. Catherine has, in her own words, ‘stopped being a tourist on a bicycle and begun my transformation into a cycle tourist’. The next…

  • The art of the perfect tandem start

    In this extract from her blog, Catherine Pringle explains the steps required for a perfect tandem start. She describes the role that trust plays in the process, and how things can sometimes go badly wrong. Of course, it’s all a ruse to distract attention from the fact that the tandem tour has come to a…

  • The five requirements for champagne cycle touring

    Catherine Pringle, the protagonist in Peloton of Two, has been commissioned to write a series of confessional journalism articles and blog posts about her journey around France. In the blog extract below, she lists her essential elements for a perfect cycle journey by bicycle. As she is writing the entry in Epernay, and drinking some…

  • New cover for Peloton of Two

    I now have available a new cover for Peloton of Two. There is still some work to go on this but, until the final cover image is ready, I’ll be using this one.

  • Paul de Vivie and his seven commandments for the wise cyclist

    Paul de Vivie and his seven commandments for the wise cyclist

    Catherine Pringle is hardly the first cyclist to develop a set of rules for cycle touring. She is simply following in a long tradition that stretches back to Paul de Vivie, the Frenchman who first coined the term cyclotouriste. De Vivie (1853-1930), the founder in 1889 of the magazine Le Cycliste, was an early advocate…