I live right on the southern edge of Birmingham and work fulltime in IT, but cycling takes up a lot of my spare time and holidays. Although I have toured all of my life, I only joined Bikexplore in 2022 and to date, pretty small scale: I did my first week-long holiday in 2024 and plan on doing my first outside the UK in 2025.

As well as cycling I also run a bit (mainly Parkruns) and am a member of a local hiking group, like camping and skiing. I work on the ‘use it or lose it’ principle and generally love being outside, particularly when the sun shines.

I would say reasonably laid back and relaxed. I am happy for a group to (within reason) do what it wants – if some want to go faster then by all means shoot off if you know where you are going or don’t mind waiting up the road. But you will usually find me nearer the back as I don’t want to leave anyone behind.

Quiet country roads wherever possible. Cycle lanes and quieter roads through towns and cities. I do love an old railway line if there is one that’s not too far out of the way. I typically aim for 40-50 miles a day with at least one coffee stop as well as lunch and time to have a look around anywhere interesting on the way.

So far it’s been guest houses, hotels and self-catering holiday homes. I would typically go for those for the more budget-conscious, but it is nice to treat yourself every now and then, and if there is somewhere with a swimming pool..

A lot of my tours are fixed based as this seems to be the preference of many, but I also do ‘moving-on’ as I enjoy the accomplishment of getting somewhere and am well practiced at travelling light.

I do mainly road cycling and this is what I have so far focused my tours on. However, I also really enjoy offroad, what I suppose would be called ‘gravel’ these days, and am hoping to organise such a tour to Lanzarote in late 2025.

You will find at least one tour in the Midlands each year (as it’s convenient). In 2024 I also did one in Yorkshire/ The Lakes.