Our day with the BBC… Cycling the Cantii Way

First came the King Alfred’s Way in Wessex as Cycling UK’s flagship route, then the Traws Eryil trail in Wales and more recently the Cantii Way. Cycling UK have been promoting this 234km route extensively and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a hugely diverse circular route using traffic-free cycle paths, bridleways and quiet roads to explore the regions dence forests, rivers, hillside and beaches; and that’s exactly what sets the Cantii Way apart from many other routes in the UK. Officially it starts in Wye and heads north to Canterbury and Whitstable before taking the coastal trail to Birchington-On-Sea. It then cuts inland to Deal and then around the entire south coast of Kent to Rye, East Sussex. The final 50km heads inland and north back to Wye. Essentially the route is ideal for touring, hybrid and gravel cyclists wanting to enjoy three or four days’ riding on a mixture of dirt and paved surfaces with varied terrain. There are also sections suitable for leisure cyclists wanting something a little easier and, well, more leisurely.
Whilst the paths and trails were always there with the existence of the Sustans network (routes 1, 2, 11, 15, 18), the research and upgrading on the route has been extensive. So much so that the BBC decided to do a 3-day news feature on it and they contacted us to come on to give our expert opinion on it. 

We have been running tours on this route since before Cycling UK put their resources together and launched it officially as the Cantii Way, but nothing really prepared my brother, James and I for our day with the BBC. On a late summer’s day in September we received a random email from the BBC asking us to join sport’s reporter James Dunn for a day’s ride from Rye to Wye. James was doing the entire Cantii Way in 3-days, starting and finishing in Wye, so it felt fitting to join him for his last day and bring him home to the finish line.  

We woke up to some seriously grey clouds, heavy rain and a yellow weather warning. It wasn’t looking promising but we were excited to join James for the day and nothing was going to stop us…. or was it? As we made our way to Rye on the train, the weather really started to close in with rain slanting in sideways against the train window. At that point we were expecting someone from the BBC to call us to say ‘sorry boys, no go today’. We were flying out the next day to do our Camino de Santiago tour, so it was today or bust! With no phone call, we continued on to Rye and luckily the weather started to lift. We met up with James who was tucking into a hearty full English breakfast when we arrived. We really didn't know what to expect or how the day would pan out. And what we didn’t know is this man was a seasoned campaigner, tall and strong with a decent bike packing set up. He was riding a gravel bike and had the need for speed to meet deadlines throughout the day. We have to admit that we were expecting someone on a hybrid with two large panniers taking a more leisurely approach, but we weren't complaining. To be honest he probably wasn’t expecting two Australian brothers to be running bike tours in Kent! Our first task was to join him for an interview on camera at Rye Harbour. We felt pretty cool, calm and collected knowing that the questions would be fairly simple and we had done the route so many times. After three takes we were still scratching our heads and tying our tongues in knots, but eventually we got the filming done and we were on the way.

James made it clear that time was against us from the off and casually informed us that  ‘we need to make it to Wye for the live cross on the 6pm news’. Excuse me? Live? 6pm… prime time… no retakes? The next 20 km consequently involve us mentally rehearsing our lines whilst also trying to engage in good conversation to get to know James. His knowledge of football was apparent (I mean he is a sports reporter for the BBC after all) so when we mentioned how good it is that his team, Tottenham, has an Australian manager, our conversation went to a new level. It was becoming clear that he was definitely our type of guy… laid back, partly winging it… partly steering the ship like a seasoned captain. We stopped for a snack…. blackberries from the bush. It’s all we had time for and we certainly didn't have time for the what was to transpire next. About 30 km into the ride my bike got a mechanical problem. The front brake started to grind on the disc. Call me old fashioned but I have never been a fan of disc brakes - they have superior stopping power but in my experience have so much more potential to have problems, just like this one. The riding was really taking it out of me as I was having to work twice as hard, but instead of saying I need to pull over to fix it, I said nothing and continued riding for another 10km. It was like riding a watt bike and my thighs were burning! At the 40km mark I started to really lag behind. I simply couldn't keep up! The BBC reporter was outriding the cycling guide. Luckily my brother kept up with James riding his bike whilst I coached myself through the pain. I’d have done anything for a support car to come and swap my bike out. Eventually we stopped and I ‘fessed up’ about my bike’s problem and tried to fixed it. Under the time pressure we couldn't do anything to significant to resolve the problem so we stopped and it was decided that it was my brothers’ turn to ride the high resistance watt bike for a while. We managed to swap back and forth for the next 20km to share the load but we felt we were holding James up and so I said to him ‘you ride on’ but he said ‘no we are going to finish this together and kindly slowed the pace to the finish. Nevermind about the 6pm news, we needed to finish as one and we rolled into Wye to a hero’s welcome merely 1 hour before going live. James and the cameraman had no time for celebrations as they had to cut and edit all the material from the day in just one hour. It was going to be so tight! Meanwhile my brother and I had other ideas and we headed straight for the convenience store for some carbs. Truly, I have never felt so depleted on energy in my life, I felt like I was going to start hallucinating. After replenishing our glucose levels back to some sort of normality, we headed to the Tickled Trout pub in Wye - its a great place on a more sunny day than what we had. It’s where the live cross was going to be but it was soon becoming apparent that we would not be required for the live cross…. thank goodness! So pints were ordered. Sitting comfortably behind the camera you could tell that the two BBC boys who had put so much effort into the news piece were starting to get a little concerned. Their edit was looking increasingly unlikely to make it on the news. Without their edited piece being in the producer's hands yet, they went live anyway. When they crossed to James, he still had no idea if the day’s work was going to go to air or left on the cutting room floor, and he just kept talking about the day’s ride. Talk about working under pressure! Now, how did it actually all pan out? Well, you’ll just have to see for yourself! 

What came out of our day with the BBC was mainly two things: the Cantii way is beautiful and a great place to ride with so much to see and so many great local businesses set up to serve the route… and, cycling and filming are two unpredictable things with so much potential for things to go wrong, but it’s the best way to showcase this magnificent thing called tour cycling. Would we do it again? Of course we would. So come on BBC, let’s do it again!         

Fancy riding the Cantii way? Check out our camp and ride extended weekend tour.