Speakers for this event

• Adam Hokin

  Adam Hokin

  Adam Hokin and David Harper are cycling gadget enthusiasts, and the inventors of PedalCell (one of the fastest growing companies in the touring space). You can hear Adam speak in their talk Stay Charged while Touring - Dynamos, Batteries, and Solar on Sunday 19 February at 12pm.

  URL https://pedalcell.com/

• Andy Bartlett

  Andy Bartlett

  Andy is the only person to have stand up paddle-boarded the length of the Danube river from source to sea and was part of the first team to take a tandem paddle-board the length the non-tidal Thames. He’s crossed the UK and Europe self supported by bicycle (including thee first known two wheeled navigation of thee Bryson Line,) completed marathons, run 170 miles home for Christmas because it sounded more fun than just taking a train and built his own adventure camper-van in just 3 weeks which became his home for 2 years. When not adventuring, Andy works as a Live Event Production Manager, most recently on events such as the Qatar F1, COP26 and the FIFA Arab Cup. You can hear Andy interview Mel Nicholls in their Q&A - Hand Cycle Britain: the Long Road Home on Sunday 13 February at 8pm.

  URL https://www.followandy.com/

• Anna Hughes

  Anna Hughes

  Anna is an environmental campaigner, author and cyclist. She is the Director of Flight Free UK and has written a number of books about cycling.

  URL https://www.annacycles.co.uk/

• Barry Godin

  Barry Godin

  Barry started mountain biking, racing downhill and doing adventure tours of Mont Blanc and the High Atlas mountains of Morocco. Barry discovered bikepacking over seven years ago. Since then, he has explored the UK extensively and travelled abroad, crossing the interior of Iceland and the Italian Alps. At the heart of all this, Barry is a filmmaker. He loves to share his passion through film and inspire others to get out and create their own experiences. You can hear Barry speak in his conversation with Geoff Broadway - What calls us to adventure? on Saturday 12 February at 8pm.

  URL https://barrygodin.wordpress.com/about/

• Bernard & Sarah Wragge-Morley

  Bernard & Sarah Wragge-Morley

  Bernie and Sarah have been cycle touring together in various parts of the world for the past 20 years. Now both on the higher side of 66, they travel slowly but love the mountains. They actually started as mountain bikers, or at least Bernie was a mountain biker and Sarah cycled up mountains but was not skilled enough to cycle down them the right way up, some things never change! They started touring around Europe for 2 or 3 weeks at a time during work holidays then as they retired the trips got longer. They love off-road touring which they have done in more than 21 countries including in Europe, India, Australia, South America, North America, New Zealand and their latest trip, Cornwall to Scotland off-road. They have ridden several off-road routes designed as races such as the Great Divide in the USA, Tour Aotearoa End to End in New Zealand and the Hunt 1000 in the Snowy Mountains Australia, but at their own snails space, as well as many routes of their own devising. Bernie, being an engineer, has built their last two fat bikes, including the wheels. They have a blog www.wraggemorleycycles.com on which Sarah writes touring blogs and about plants and flowers found on trips and Bernie writes technical articles on bike building, mapping, cooking on tour and touring equipment.

  URL www.wraggemorleycycles.com

• Blanca Fernández

  Blanca Fernández

  Blanca was born in the Basque Country in 1958, the daughter of migrant workers escaping the poverty prevalent in the rest of Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. In 1980 she came to London to learn English and never left. Over the next thirty five years her life was focused on bringing up her two daughters and working for causes she believed in. Although during those years she had had a chance to explore the world a little - she lived in India for a while in the 80's; climbed mountains in Nepal, Ecuador, Spain, France and Africa; completed ultra marathons in the Atacama and Gobi Deserts and went on some short cycle tours - it wasn't until 2015 that she embarked on long distance cycle trip. Over the next few years she cycled from London to Cambodia and circumnavigated Africa, a journey of 44,000 Km in 44 countries. She returned to the UK in December 2019 just before the world was hit by the COVID pandemic.She decided that she still had a contribution to make and is working for Cruse Bereavement Support whilst she waits for the world to open up again. You can hear Blanca speak in her talk entitled Cycle - navigating Africa on Sunday 13 February at 5pm.

• Caroline Burrows

  Caroline Burrows

  #CyclePoet

  Caroline Burrows of VerseCycle writes and performs short stories and poetry, which are often about cycling, but sometimes about love and heartbreak, or depression and anxiety. Her work can be found on YouTube/Facebook/IG/Twitter: VerseCycle. You can hear Caroline speak in her talk entitled Bristol Bike Bard on Saturday 12 February at 3pm.

  URL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNfagvsYi3w_p-Un63KgS_A

  #CyclePoet

• David Harper

  David Harper

  Adam Hokin and David Harper are cycling gadget enthusiasts, and the inventors of PedalCell (one of the fastest growing companies in the touring space). You can hear David speak in their talk Stay Charged while Touring - Dynamos, Batteries, and Solar on Sunday 19 February at 12pm.

  URL https://pedalcell.com/

• Declan Lyons

  Declan Lyons

  Declan Lyons has written guides to cycling the Canal de la Garonne and the Canal du Midi (Cicerone published both). Declan trained in zoology and was a researcher in freshwater ecology before moving to work in national science and technology policy. Years as a journalist eventually led to work as a management consultant. He has lived and worked in the Balkans helping develop public services there. Declan enjoys cycling in his native Ireland as well as in France and other places where he has worked and lived. His once regular cycles, between his home near Dublin to his other home in the south of France, inspired the writing of these two guides. He is also the author of books and articles on diverse topics reflecting his different professional and personal interests. You can hear Declan speak in his talk entitled Atlantic to the Mediterranean - Entre deux mers on Friday 18 February at 8pm.

• Emma Kingston

  Emma Kingston

  Emma Kingston is an outdoor adventurer, teacher, map geek and author of Bikepacking England. Specialising in mountain biking, she has ridden in the South West for over 20 years, as well as travelling further afield around the rest of UK, Europe and further afield in search of ever more flowing singletrack. Despite an inauspicious start, Emma took up bikepacking when she realised it meant that she could stay out and ride her bike for longer, take the time to explore interesting places off route, and eat an outrageous amount of ice cream. Her new book contains 20 multiday off-road routes in England, from the Isle of Wight’s chalky ridges to the craggy mountains of the Lake District, and is part of her mission to prove that you don’t have to go far (or fast for that matter) to have a memorable adventure on your bike. You can hear Emma speak in her talk Bikepacking England on Sunday 20 February at 10am.

  URL https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/books-new-and-coming-soon/bikepacking-england/

• Geoff Broadway

  Geoff Broadway

  Geoff is a filmmaker and photographer and looks after the film programme at the Cycle Touring Festival together with Barry Godin. He re-discovered the joys of touring 10 years ago and now heads off each year to explore. His travels have included cycling across Spain, following the length of the Danube river and exploring the wilds of Romania. You can hear Geoff speak in his conversation with Barry Godin - What calls us to adventure? on Saturday 12 February at 8pm.

• Hannah Reynolds

  Hannah Reynolds

  Hannah Reynolds is the co-author of Fitter, Further, Faster; Get on Your Bike and France en Velo. As a journalist she has covered a variety of topics from cycling adventures and human interest stories to tech and fitness pieces. Her work has appeared in The Times, Men’s Health, Adventure Travel Magazine and she has been featured on Radio 4. You can hear Hannah speak in her talk 1001 Cycling Tips on Monday 14 February at 8pm.

  URL http://www.hannahmreynolds.com/

• Julia Goodfellow-Smith

  Julia Goodfellow-Smith

  Julia Goodfellow-Smith is an adventurer, author and public speaker. She is an ordinary woman in her 50’s doing something extraordinary – living her bucket list. In recent years, this has included hiking the South West Coast Path, writing a best-selling book, Live Your Bucket List, and cycling King Alfred’s Way. Find out more at www.juliags.com. You can hear Julia speak in his/her talk entitled Cycling King Alfred’s Way on Saturday 19 February at 3pm.

  URL www.juliags.com

• Laura Moss

  Laura Moss

  Cycle Touring Festival organiser

  Laura is the festival organiser. During 2013-4, she completed a 16 month, 13,000 mile cycle around the world through 27 different countries. Elsewhere she has crossed the Wahiba Sands desert on foot, walked across Patagonia and run the length of every London Underground Tube line. Laura was previously a director of The Adventure Syndicate, a collective of female cyclists who aim inspire, encourage and enable more women and girls to get into cycling. Laura will open the festival in Welcome to the festival: intro and virtual social on Saturday 12 February at 10am.

  URL https://cycletouringfestival.co.uk/

  Cycle Touring Festival organiser

• Markus Stitz

  Markus Stitz

  Bikepacking Scotland

  Markus Stitz is an German-born route designer, filmmaker, photographer and writer, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He caught the adventure bug while living in New Zealand for two years and has explored Britain extensively since he moved here in 2009. After cycling 34,000km around the world on a singlespeed mountain bike he founded Bikepacking Scotland and has worked across Scotland, designing gravel and bikepacking routes for Wild About Argyll, Perthshire Gravel, Go East Lothian and the Cateran Ecomuseum. He is an ultra-endurance racer, with three successful finishes of the Highland Trail 550, Silk Road Mountain Race and Atlas Mountain Race. Markus writes for a wide variety of magazines and online publications including Singletrack, Cycling UK, Cranked, Cyclingtips and Yellow Jersey. Great Gravel Rides Britain is his first book. markusstitz.com bikepackingscotland.com You can hear Markus speak in his talk entitled Big Rides: Gravel & Mountain Biking routes in Britain on Thursday 17 February at 8pm.

  URL http://www.bikepackingscotland.com/

  Bikepacking Scotland

• Mel Nicholls

  Mel Nicholls

  Mel is an ultra endurance athlete and adventurer. An outdoor leader, motivational speaker and aspiring writer. Following a series of life changing strokes, in 2008 she was left unable to walk and use much of the left side of her body. Determined to find the positive in any situation, Mel followed her own motto to Dream Big and, just 4 years later raced in front of an 80,000 home crowd and the rest of the world, in wheelchair racing at the London 2012 Paralympics. World championships followed and after competing at the Rio 2016 Paralympics as part of Team GB, Mel moved from the track to endurance and road racing where she has completed multiple international wheelchair marathons. Most recently Mel has turned her hand to long distance, multi day handcyle adventures by breaking the LEJOG hand cycle world record and now by hand cycling the coast line of the United Kingdom. You can hear Mel speak in her talk Hand Cycle Britain: the Long Road Home on Sunday 13 February at 8pm.

  URL https://melnicholls.co.uk/Home

• Neil Wheadon

  Neil Wheadon

  In 1981, Neil set out for a 4 week tour of Europe armed with a tent, touring bike and a map of Europe and hasn’t stopped since. Having tandemmed to Australia with his wife in 1997, Neil has since organised over 100 cycling holidays for both the Tandem Club and Cycling UK. Over the past 15 years, Neil has specialised in family holidays but this has combined with taking groups on bespoke trips all over the world from Sri Lanka to China, Cambodia to numerous locations in North America. Organising many of these from scratch has given Neil enormous pleasure and a deep insight into the joys and problems of taking groups around the world. If you would like to hear Neil speak then check out his talk entitled West Country Cycleways on Sunday 13 February at 3pm.

  URL https://www.bikexplore.co.uk/Articles-of-Interest

• Peter Gostelow

  Peter Gostelow

  Peter is an English language teacher whose bicycle adventures have taken him through over 70 countries – including cycling from Japan-UK and UK-South Africa. Between 2015-2016 he rode from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. You can hear Peter speak in the talk Stay Charged while Touring - Dynamos, Batteries, and Solar on Sunday 19 February at 12pm.

  URL https://petergostelow.com/

• Rachel and Adrian Killick

  Rachel and Adrian Killick

  The Killick family are a fairly ordinary, if busy and active, family. Rachel is a secondary school music teacher and Adrian is an airline pilot. Rachel toured in her youth and had wonderful, lasting memories of travelling by bike with her friends in Europe on her faithful Claude Butler. Adrian had a battered mountain bike used for getting around locally and the odd day out mountain biking. Hannah (8yrs) and twins Emily and Tom (5yrs) had been on bikes since they could walk. What to do for a summer holiday?... Something different from the usual camping in Cornwall in the rain... Why would you not take 5 bikes and a trailer to France? Adrian thought Rachel was mad (as did everyone else who asked about their summer holiday plans... "that's not a holiday!"), but he decided to humour her and that is where it all started. You can hear Rachel and Adrian speak in their talk entitled Family touring: France and LEJOG on Sunday 20 February at 8pm.

• Rebecca Lowe

  Rebecca Lowe

  Rebecca Lowe is a freelance journalist who specialises in human rights and the Middle East. Publications she has written for include the Guardian, BBC, Evening Standard, Independent, Huffington Post, Economist, Sunday Times Magazine, Daily Mail, and IranWire. Her book about her journey through the Middle East, The Slow Road to Tehran, will be published on March 24th, 2022, by September Books in the UK and (at a later date) by MVG in Germany. She was previously the lead reporter at the International Bar Association, where she focused on human rights, and in 2018 she contributed to the adventure travel anthology The Kindness of Strangers: Travel Stories That Make Your Heart Grow. Rebecca is a Fellow at the Royal Geographical Society, and holds a BA in English from Cambridge University and an MA in Journalism from Stanford University. Read more about her journey at www.thebicyclediaries.co.uk. You can hear Rebecca speak in her talk The Slow Road to Tehran on Sunday 20 February at 3pm.

  URL www.thebicyclediaries.co.uk

• Richard Fairhurst

  Richard Fairhurst

  Richard Fairhurst, the creator of cycle.travel, lives in a little Cotswold town with "Cyclists Welcome" signs on the roads in. His favourite place to tour is mid-Wales and his idea of a personal best involves a ride to a pub for Gwynt y Ddraig scrumpy and Perl Las cheese. He volunteers for Sustrans as an NCN ranger, and draws maps and builds websites to pay the bills. You can hear Richard speak in his talk Cycle.Travel on Wednesday 16 February at 8pm.

• Rob Ainsley

  Rob Ainsley

  Rob Ainsley is a cycling writer, but does more cycling than writing. He’s collecting international End to Ends, has ridden all Britain’s rhyming coast to coasts, and once biked to all the places in the world called ‘Bath’. He lives in York but is usually somewhere else.

  URL http://e2e.bike/

• Simon Parker

  Simon Parker

  Simon is an Oxfordshire-based travel writer, newspaper columnist and broadcaster who has reported from over 100 countries. He’s sailed and cycled from China to London for the BBC, cycled the length of Scandinavia for Amazon Prime, and hiked every known route to Machu Picchu for The Telegraph. You can hear Simon speak in his talk entitled Cycling 3,427 miles around pandemic Britain on Saturday 19 February at 5pm.

  URL https://www.simonwparker.co.uk/

• Sophie Gordon

  Sophie Gordon

  Sophie Gordon works on off-road access at charity Cycling UK, from traffic-free railway trails to epic long-distance adventures and everything in between.

  URL https://www.cyclinguk.org/

• Tim Moss

  Tim Moss

  The Next Challenge

  Tim has supported over 100 expeditions across all seven continents, including cycling 13,000 miles around the world with his wife (festival organiser Laura Moss) and setting a Guinness World Record for the longest distance cycled on a rickshaw. His annual expedition bursary, 'The Next Challenge Grant', has helped fund over 50 first-time adventurers.

  URL https://thenextchallenge.org/

  The Next Challenge