Cycling Cardiff, Interview with Pol van Steelan, Founder of Cardiff Cycle Tours

Pol van Steelan founded and operates Cardiff Cycle Tours, a company which offers bicycle rental and guided bike tours of Cardiff:

AmeriCymru:  Hi, Pol, and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Why a cycle tour? What are the advantages of exploring Cardiff by pedal power?

Pol:  I looked at cycle tours and their popularity in other cities, like London, Paris and Amsterdam, but also smaller cities like Bruges and Antwerp in Belgium. It gave me a strong indication that there was interest for this type of sightseeing of a city, and then I started looking at Cardiff and the possibilities here. I have been involved in cycling for a long time, and on a personal level really enjoy cycling in and around Cardiff. It was obvious to me that Cardiff was ideal for this kind of activity; it is reasonably flat, traffic is not very heavy, and both Sustrans (a charity for the promotion of cycling) and Cardiff County Council are doing great stuff to make this city very bike-friendly. We also have a green “wedge” which goes all the way into the heart of the city (Bute Park), and great cycle paths along the Taff and the Bay. These factors combined make it an ideal place to view the city by bike.

AmeriCymru:   You currently offer two custom tours. Care to describe them for our readers?

Pol:  Cardiff is in many ways a reflection of the history of Wales itself. Before 1800, this was a small place, where not much was happening. But then came the discovery of coal and the industrial revolution, which made Cardiff grow enormously in a short period of time. The closing of the heavy industry and the move towards a more service led economy reflects itself in the development of the Bay area.  The first tour – the longest one – covers the history of Cardiff, with only a small  touching on the recent developments in the Bay. It is called the Bute tour, as the Marquesses of Bute (2nd and 3rd Marquess) really defined the way that Cardiff was shaped in the nineteenth century. The influence of the arquesses can be seen in many of the landmarks of Cardiff, and were it not for them, one could actually question whether Cardiff would have become the capital of Wales. We see the role the Taff played, the docks which were constructed by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, the renovation of the castle by the 3rd Marquess of Bute, Bute Park, Cathays Park, riding along the Taff, and picking up some older historic places in the centre of the city. The second tour, the Bay tour, gives a great impression of the very recent evelopments that have made Cardiff a truly exciting young and vibrant place to live. We start at the coal history (you can not escape this anyway), but gradually move towards the Bay and the modern international sports village, the marinas, the barrage and the important buildings around the Bay. This is very much a tour of the Bay, and a combination of some history with a great leisurely ride.

AmeriCymru:  What kind of bicycles do you use?

Pol:  I had a couple of criteria to find the right bikes for these trips. Quality, comfortable, good for cycling around a city, low in maintenance and looking great. I finally decided on the Pashley contemporary range, which are made entirely in Britain, and components are British as well – Brooks saddle, Sturmey Archer gears. They have proven to be an absolute top success. Even people who haven’t been on a bike for a while feel really comfortable on it.

AmeriCymru:  Are the tours mostly off road in the city? How bicycle friendly is Cardiff and has it

improved in recent years?

Pol:  As mentioned before, a great effort is going into making Cardiff cycle friendly, and for quite big parts of the city we are making serious progress. We are lucky to have the Taff trail which goes all the way through the city along the river Taff, and there are many plans on the table to connect different areas of Cardiff with that backbone in a cycle friendly way. My tours are mostly off road, and when they are on the road, it is usually on quiet roads. Cardiff is still a small city and apart from some major busy

roads, it is safe and quiet to cycle around. 

AmeriCymru:  Where have the majority of your customers been from so far? Overseas?

Pol:  Interestingly enough, most of my customers are from overseas, and from all parts of the world – Vietnam, Australia, Brazil, Venezuela, US and Canada, Europe – somehow surprisingly I have not tapped into the local market yet, but we are working on that.

AmeriCymru:  Do you operate all year round?

Pol:  We close during the winter period (Dec – Feb) but there might be one or two special tours on the calendar.

AmeriCymru:  Do you have any plans for longer distance bicycle tours outside Cardiff?

Pol:  Not at the moment, I would need to look at the type of bike needed for that, and people who do these kind of activities tend to have their own bikes. However, there are possibilities which will be explored to go just outside Cardiff, eg Caerphilly and it’s famous medieval castle can be reached by bike traffic free and without much climbing.

AmeriCymru:  Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Pol:  When you come and want to discover this fascinating city, do it by bike, it’s  environmentally friendly, it makes sense, and it’s a great way to explore a city like Cardiff. Come on a guided bike tour with Cardiff Cycle Tours !

Coast2Coast USA - Raising Money for the Noah's Ark Appeal and the Childrens Hospital for Wales

Santa Monica - Wikimedia Commons START

St. Augustine - Wikimedia Commons FINISH

(Follow the team's progress on their blog HERE.)

Americymru member Gareth Evans and three friends are setting out to cross the continental US by bicycle, to help raise money for the first children's hospital in Wales.

The Children's Hospital for Wales, constructed next to the Universityof Wales Hospital in Cardiff and part of the British National Health Service, is intended to treat more than 8,000 inpatients and 20,000 outpatients per year and is the first hospital in Wales dedicated solely to the treatment of children. It opened and received its first patients in March, 2005 and now includes a dedicated main entrance and child-friendly reception area for children's services, two children's medical wards with bedside parent accomodation and a pediatric oncology unit which includes its own ward, day care unit, outpatient care and parent accomodation area.

The Noah's Ark Appeal is a charity campaign to raise funds to improve and expand the children's hospital and the care it offers. Noah's Ark raised the funds to build the existing hospital facilities and to provide new equipmentand fund an art program for patients, to make the children's stay thereless frightening. People from all over Wales and celebrities including Charlotte Church and Katherine Zeta-Jones have lent their time and effort to raising money to contribute to Noah's Ark.

Gareth Evans, originally from Newcastle Emlyn and now a resident of Cardiff, is himself father of an eighteen-month old girl, Gwenno-Mai, with his wife, Eleri. Gareth and friend, Andy Edwards, came up with the idea of a challenge ride, in part to help Gareth recover from an injury that sidelined him from rugby. From there it seemed like a good idea tothem to use it to raise money for a charity and the Noah's Ark Appeal was :- "the obvious one for us." Ratcheting it up to a ride across the southern United States, from California to Florida, "was a concept of making the impossible-possible'!"

Signing on for this adventure with Gareth are: Andy Edwards, who operates an outdoor activity centre in Pendine called Morfa Bay Adventure; Richard Belcher, a cyclist originally from Kent and now living in Cardiff who has prior experience as a charity fund-raising cyclist; and Phil Jenkins, of Carmarthen, Andy Edwards' brother in law. Their support crew so far consists of: Tim Wilson, Gareth's brother in law and an army medic from Llandysul; Llandysul hotelier Andrew James, Tim's father and Gareth's father in law; Carmarthen accountant, Ian Stone; Martin Jones, also from Carmarthen; Henry Jones and one additional member still to be confirmed.

Their route will begin in Santa Monica, California, on the Pacific coast west of Los Angeles proper. They'll ride through Joshua Tree and the Mojave to Las Vegas, then on to the Grand Canoyon, Monument Valley and into Taos, New Mexico. From there on to Austin, Texas, where they've found a American-Welsh welcome stopover, then down to New Orleans, across the gulf coast and intend to finish in either Saint Augustine, Jacksonville or Daytona Beach, Florida.

The entire route covers between 3500-4000 miles and their goal is to complete it in fourteen days. Riders will ride in shifts, two at a time, and the team will have to cover about 200 miles a day. They'll have two support vehicles and are hoping for a small recreational vehicle to rest riders in between their legs of the trip and for medical and maintenance services.

The Proposed Route

Gareth hopes to make contact with as many Welsh-Americans as he can to find people willing to host them along their route, help organize fundraising activities in their hometowns and "have a bit of a bash at night time." The team may have a documentary film crew following them and they'd love to be able to show them Welsh communities in the US, as well as having a more enjoyable trip making friends than staying in a hotel room can provide.

On his team's experience and preparation for the trip, Gareth says, "We've never done anything like this before. Richard and myself met on a charity cycle from London to Paris, which was 350 miles over three days. Andy has completed the 'etape,' which is a stage of the Tour de France, a couple of times. Phil is a relative novice! We are all novices. Andy and myself used to play rugby, but had to finish due to injury. We have all been training for this over the last eighteen months, as well as maintain family life and work full time. There is no way we can predict how it will go, which adds to the excitement and apprehension. We have done what we can within the time constraints as far as phsyical preperation is concerned, but as with all endurance events - it's all in the head!"

Gareth writes that all members of the team have worked hard toward this trip, given up a lot and he looks foward to making the trip a reality and completing it successfully. "Personally, my family have made a hell of a lot of sacrifices, with regards to giving up their spare time, especially as we have a young daughter, so I want to get the challenge 'ot of the way,' to spend time with them. We have worked towards this for two years by the time we start. We must finish it. Anything else would be a failure. The fact that we aim to do it within two weeks just adds to the challenge. I have no doubt that we will complete it, unless the worst happens. I also know that the rest of the guys have given up a lot, as have their families, so the hope I have is that all four of
us start together at Santa Monica and all four of us finish (hopefully greeted by our families) in Florida."

Their target is to raise £50,000 for the appeal, or $88,500.00. They are a bit over halfway to their goal but at this point the team needs to focus on physical preparations for their trip. They need assistance in raising more donations, creating attention for the campaign, and help and welcome along the way. In Toas, New Mexico, a photographer has volunteered to photograph them, a fundraiser is being organized and the community is putting the team members up for the night. If anyone can help, Gareth asks, "Please support us. If you're along the route, why not organise an event for us, or even try and host us for the evening - village halls, camper beds, anything! Please highlight the challenge and charty amongst your friends and family stateside, and relatives back here in wales. Any ideas you have would be massively appreciated."

You can contact Gareth Evans here on his member page or through the team's website. Let's all help them make their trip an incredible success.