Our 2026 road cycling tours are filling up!
Hello Marmoteers! How are you? Hanging in there?! It’s a crazy time of year, and somehow seems to get more frantic as the years go by. We know that any email received this week is about as welcome as finding only the strawberry creams in the Quality Street tin, or being given yet another pair of novelty socks on Christmas Day. However, given we only send you a newsletter every five weeks or so, we hope we’re not one of those to annoy you!
We’ve been exceptionally busy over the past few months, so we’ve already filled 80% of our places for next year’s trips! This is a hint that if you’re thinking about a 2026 cycling holiday over the festive period, don’t delay getting in touch! We hate turning away keen cyclists due to being fully booked!
Please do contact our team if you’ve got a query about any of our tours. The best way of doing this is by clicking the ENQUIRE NOW button from the webpage of the holiday you’re keen on. You can also mention any other trips you’d like info about – there’s no need to submit multiple separate enquiries. Our team can give you the latest availability, plus advice on whether the tour would meet your requirements or match your cycling goals.
TOP TIP: we’ve listed our Christmas office hours later in this newsletter, so you know when we’re likely to get back to you over the festive period 🙂
Who wants a discount on their cycling trip?!
Just a reminder that you’ll qualify for our 5% Early Bookers’ Discount for tours departing after June 2026 if you book soon! Also, if you get 10 or more riders together as a group, you’ll qualify for a 7.5% group discount. As the group organiser, you’ll also receive a £150 voucher for your next holiday!
In most cases, flight prices are still relatively low. If you make a booking on one of our cycling tours soon, you’ll have the best chance of securing the most cost-effective travel, as flight prices typically start to increase in the spring.
Our team is waiting to hear from you!
Celebrating our donations to our 1% For The Planet partners this year
As a certified B Corp and 1% For The Planet member, we’ve continued our commitment to donate 1% of our total revenue to our chosen causes in 2025. We’re delighted to confirm that we donated just over £24,200 to our 1% FTP partners this year!
We donated £15,411 of this to Gold Standard to support verified carbon avoidance projects. We calculate and balance the greenhouse gas footprint of all your air travel (if you came on holiday with us this year) through our partnership with Gold Standard. From the moment you step on the plane, to the moment you land back on home tarmac, we calculate and balance your holiday carbon.
We measure all of the greenhouse gases produced in our operations; those generated by our staff, our offices, travel, hotel bookings, van mileage and more. We then reduce as much of these as possible each year, whilst continuing to provide our awesome cycling holidays. Residual emissions are 100% balanced through verified world-class schemes, by supporting verified carbon avoidance projects via our partner Ecologi.
What’s more, we divided the remaining £8,799 between our charity partners. In 2025 these were Alpkit Foundation, Avon Needs Trees, Surfers Against Sewage , Cycling UK, Soil Association, Somerset Wildlands, and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. If you have time, do check them out as they each do incredible work.
Guide photography competition
In May this year, we launched a photography competition for our guides, to incentivise them to take even better photos of you having fun on (and off) the bike on our holidays. There were three categories: ‘Emotions’, ‘Landscape/nature/weather’, and ‘Guides at work’. All the guides embraced the challenge, taking some fantastic pictures and capturing really special moments. There were Ts & Cs, like any competition, one being that photos had to be unedited, to establish a level playing field.
After creating longlists which became shortlists and then even more unbelievably tough decision making, James, Helen and I eventually arrived at three winners we all agreed on. We’re now delighted to be able to share these with you!
The winner in the ‘Emotions’ category was Xavi-Pol with this fabulous pic of a client at the summit of Alto Gamoniteiro on our Picos & Angliru holiday. We felt it perfectly captured the emotions of the cyclist and we loved the unbridled joy – and relief – that was expressed on her face. What a moment!
In the ‘Landscape/nature/weather/category, we chose a stunning image, taken by Tim on our Andalusia tour. It’s a great shot, and we loved the way the trees perfectly framed the cyclists and view beyond. We could imagine what the rider was thinking as they paused for a breather.
Finally, in the ‘Guides at work’ category, Jacci was the winner with this brilliant pic of Xavi-Pol and some clients, enjoying refuelling at the van in the Swiss Alps. We loved the composition and framing of this image. Also, if we were to ask a guide to pose and demonstrate one of the ways they support you, this would be it!
Each winning guide takes home £200 and we’ll be running the competition for all our 2026 holidays too. There were hundreds of images that made it to our initial longlists, and these will all be used on our website, in newsletters, or on our social feed, so keep your eyes peeled to see if you’re in any of them!
Christmas office hours
Like most people, we’ll be taking a break from the office to spend time with our nearest and dearest this Christmas. However, we’ll be picking up emails and answering the phone during the following times:
24th December 8am – 2pm
25th December CLOSED
26th December CLOSED
27th December CLOSED
28th December CLOSED
29th December 8am – 11am
30th December 8am – 11am
31st December 8am – 11am
We’ll reopen with normal office hours on 2nd January 2026. We appreciate that people like to get plans ironed out over the holiday period, so within these times, we’re here to help you with any questions you may have. Just drop us an email with your query or give us a call at +44 (0)1373 830409 if you’d prefer to chat.
