Category: Book related extras

  • Cycling with a donkey in the Cévennes

    In this extract from her blog, Catherine Pringle describes her tandem ride through the Cévennes. This blog post doesn’t appear in the final version of Peloton of Two, but it hints at an important decision that lies ahead for her in the story. The post title borrows from Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Travels with a…

  • 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…

  • Be careful where you take a toilet break on a cycle tour

    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 extract below, she explores the pressing problem of finding the right place for a toilet break when you’re on a tandem tour, and why she is…

  • Catherine, Nick and the tandem arrive in Brittany

    In this scene, which is not included in the final version of Peloton of Two, Catherine Pringle is standing on the deck of an overnight ferry as it approaches Roscoff harbour. She has just spent a sleepless night below deck after her first exhausting day on a tandem. (The hours awake in her bunk did…