Gimme Moore
Cycling Plus UK|Summer 2022
Since his debut French Revolutions in 2001, Tim Moore has become one of cycling's biggest selling, most critically acclaimed and captivating travel writers. Here the author opens up about his latest misadventure, a 4,409km Vuelta recreation on a bike from 1975. What could go wrong?
Matt Baird
Gimme Moore

Daddy, are you going to dress up like Tim Moore for World Book Day?" I've spent much of the year reading and re-reading the many tales of one of cycling's most popular writers, so much so that my children (and partner) think it's time I sport a daft period outfit, apply some Savlon and board a battered bike for a European cycling odyssey.

From my sofa, I've been transported to a Pro Plusadd-led Tour de France route in the London writer's cycling debut French Revolutions, looked on with awe and fear as Moore attempts to ride the infamous 1914 Giro d'Italia on a bike with wooden wheels and prosecco cork brake pads in Gironimo!, and erased my fingernails as he tackles a Finnish midwinter, carefree Russian drivers and the 9,000km Iron Curtain on a MIFA East German shopping bike in The Cyclist Who Went Out in the Cold.

I'm now in the more welcoming surroundings of Tim's Chiswick dining room as he finishes penning a feature on the mysterious Havana Syndrome ("pretty implausible!") for a broadsheet newspaper. Once submitted, we hit the 58-year-old's local Thames cycle path (naturally on the aforementioned MIFA communist bike) to discuss his European travails on two wheels and his latest tome, Vuelta Skelter, which is out this July in paperback in the UK.

Happily, Vuelta Skelter rivals his Iron Curtain misadventure as his best cycling book yet. The mixture of the hilarious and the harrowing really shouldn't work but, in the hands of a writer as skilled as Moore, it deftly combines his trademark mischievous wit and a love of cycling as a mode of exploration with brutal tales of Francoist death squads and a shrink-wrapped Spain of Perspex screens and terrified locals during the early days of the Covid pandemic.

Denne historien er fra Summer 2022-utgaven av Cycling Plus UK.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra Summer 2022-utgaven av Cycling Plus UK.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA CYCLING PLUS UKSe alt
Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...
Cycling Plus UK

Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...

The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.

time-read
8 mins  |
October 2024
No limits
Cycling Plus UK

No limits

Not every adventure needs to be that epic, says bikepacking Scotland founder Markus Stitz

time-read
3 mins  |
October 2024
UNBOUND UNLEASHED
Cycling Plus UK

UNBOUND UNLEASHED

Josh Patterson was one of 34 starters for the inaugural edition of Unbound in 2006. Now, with more than 5,000 riders taking part in today's event, he charts the rise of the most important race in gravel

time-read
8 mins  |
October 2024
FOREST COMMISSION
Cycling Plus UK

FOREST COMMISSION

Looking for a goal race in 2025 that'll stimulate the synapses and live long in the memory? You'd struggle to do better than ENID CRV in Finland

time-read
6 mins  |
October 2024
15 OF THE BEST ADVENTURES
Cycling Plus UK

15 OF THE BEST ADVENTURES

Featuring Yorkshire, the USA, Sri Lanka and more, here are our picks of the world's greatest gravel races and routes

time-read
4 mins  |
October 2024
The stuff of dreams
Cycling Plus UK

The stuff of dreams

Ned sings the praises of the Paris Olympics road-race course

time-read
3 mins  |
October 2024
"I rode 3,000 miles around Britain on a bamboo bike to highlight our climate crisis"
Cycling Plus UK

"I rode 3,000 miles around Britain on a bamboo bike to highlight our climate crisis"

Recordbreaking cyclist and triathlete Kate Strong, 45, took to the road to raise awareness of environmental issues

time-read
2 mins  |
October 2024
FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
Cycling Plus UK

FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE

We venture into the hidden gem of the glorious Creuse, one of France's least populated regions

time-read
7 mins  |
October 2024
STAR TREK
Cycling Plus UK

STAR TREK

New tube shapes and carbon lay-up makes the eighth generation of Trek's legendary Madone an aero and climbing bike all rolled into one

time-read
4 mins  |
October 2024
GOLD RUSH
Cycling Plus UK

GOLD RUSH

With conflict around the world, Paris 2024 was a ray of light. Here are our highs of a mighty Olympics

time-read
1 min  |
October 2024