(Just As Well) It's Not About The Bike cover art

(Just As Well) It's Not About The Bike

A Journey Across Southern Spain

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About this listen

Discover the untold stories of one of the world’s most popular coastlines.

Part sporting travelogue, part political history, (Just as Well) It's Not About the Bike follows journalist Chris Atkin's 1,300 km cycle from Valencia to Gibraltar. En route, he travels through Spain’s most picturesque towns. And Benidorm.

Along the way, he learns about the region’s history, from the time four hydrogen bombs fell over Spain to the politician who shot General Franco’s daughter in the bottom yet rose to become one of the country’s most powerful men. While riding across Spain, Chris also meets an array of eccentric characters, such as the man who lives in a cave and the Airbnb host who admitted to strangling her previous guest.

People told him he was crazy to leave his job and his girlfriend behind to jump on the cheapest bike he could find. After a series of mishaps including one that almost sparked a mountain rescue mission, it would appear they were right.

©2021 Chris Atkin (P)2022 Chris Atkin Adventure Travel Cycling Europe Western Europe Adventure
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I enjoyed all the research that had gone into the book. Read very much like a school teacher reading to the class, kept me intrigued. I know many of the southern Spanish towns that were ridden through.

Interesting, done his research.

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Chris Atkin decided to ride across Spain on a bicycle : one reliant on pedal power, not an engine. One made for regular street trips, not overland, uphill journeys. And, he says, he wasn't even much of a cyclist. He must have been mad.
But he went, filling two paniers with essentials for the journey, and biked his way along tarmac roads, through farm land and wilderness, and up and down mountains, for about a thousand miles. He'd booked his airb&b accommodation in advance so had to make his destinations on time and took very little money too pay for those extra frivolities like food. Plus, he barely spoke Spanish. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, one thing was choosing to read his own book. His voice is clear, quite well modulated but he is just reading, not involving himself, and consequently the reader, in what he has written. A professional narrator could have done a much better job, carrying the listener with him through the (literal) ups and downs of the journey. There are some interesting snippets of history mixed in with the personal incidents of the journey, the aching thighs, the exhaustion of her another uphill stretch and, my personal favourite, completely losing the road on a mountainside and getting trapped there, with almost no food or water and definitely no one likely to come by to pull him out of the frightening situation. He gets lost a lot. And, although some places are described, they don't quite excite as much as the joy of finding a supermarket.
There are some interesting, quirky people encountered and Chris is rightly proud of the improvement in his mastery of Spanish - but why did he have to inflict so much of his stumbling conversations in that language, repeated after in English, on the reader?

This is a book which is I interesting but could have been so much better. To me, it seemed that Chris Atkin was as glad to reach the end of his journey as was I to come to the epilogue in his book. I'd enjoyed the journey but the struggle had been rather exhausting. Perhaps it would be better to travel on the printed version, rather than the Audible, just as a gentler vehicle than a bicycle might have allowed for a less bruising heads down, journey.

My thanks to the rights holder of, It's Not About the Bike, who, at my.request, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy, via Audible Unleashed.

"Bananas for lunch."

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Accompany Chris on his bike journey from Valencia to Gibraltar meeting characters, getting lost (a lot) and getting in and out of scrapes. What kind of a guy sets of to Spain on a normal bike without speaking much Spanish and decides to travel hundred's of miles randomly? Well Chris did and as most of us never will this was a great opportunity to piggy-back along for the ride. It's great fun and well narrated as Chris immerses us in one funny story after another.

Hilarious, excruciating and interesting.

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I do not read many travelogues but if this is the usual standard I must start. an excellent, fun and informative account of the writer and narrators journey through Southern Spain on a bike. From choosing the less of two evils bike at the outset, through the mountains and faded tourist spots on the coast to the Rock of Gibraltar, this is an entertaining ride, one I would never consider doing myself but this almost had be buying a bike. Lots of sweat, lots of oranges, getting lost, with wonderful scenery that is vividly described, and a few interesting nuggets of its history with every stop on the journey. The narration by the author is perfect, you live the journey with him. Highly recommended. I received a complimentary copy from the author and am leaving a honest voluntary review.

Entertaining and informative

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Chris Atkin's sense of humour is enhanced by his dry and witty reading of his adventures in southern Spain. The characters come alive as well as the places and make you want to visit too. The sheer idiocy of much of his ride leaves you gobsmacked and at times you too are fearful as to how things will turn out. He must be mad!

A fun listen with lovely dry tone

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