On Friday evening, I got my Scott bike out for its usual pre-ride check. I cleaned the drivetrain, checked the brakes, and noticed a bit of play in the headset. I loosened the stem bolts, got the cap bolt finger tight, tightened the stem bolts again, no improvement. I did the same again but with the cap bolt a little tighter again: still rocking. The third time – still without putting any real torque into it – to my astonishment, the cap bolt snapped. With a big ride on the Sunday, this was an absolute disaster. After a couple of hours early on Saturday morning tinkering and calling round cycle shops, I quickly realised that it wasn’t going to be a straightforward fix, and I wouldn’t have it repaired in time.
I hadn’t ridden my Peugeot Étoile since the end of Paris-Nice. It took a battering in France; overloaded with camping gear and gamely carried me up Alpine passes, but by the end it needed a new drivetrain and was creaking in various places. I had decided that the work needed to bring it back to optimum condition would be too much time and work, and so it sat on the wall in proud retirement, awaiting the opening of the family museum when it would surely take pride of place.
Well, retirement would have to wait. I didn’t have time to even think about the issues it had. A quick polish and test of gears and brakes, and it would have to do.
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I rode tentatively over to Newton Abbot and joined about 30 other riders at the start for the 2026 edition of the Shore to Moor Audax, a 200km ride crossing mid-Devon to Tavistock and back across Dartmoor. We were underway at 8am in great cycling conditions, patches of sunshine and cloud and a relief from the hot recent weather. The route took us down the river Teign to Teignmouth and on to Dawlish, before heading back up the Exe through Exeter to our first stop at Stoke Canon. This planned feed stop was an early one, coming after only about 50-odd kilometres, and most of the riders were either stopped, just leaving or just arriving while I was there. We were treated to some excellent flans and cakes and some morning tea, and I got myself well fed for the next section of the route.
The wind had got up as we passed Exeter and now there was a strong headwind as the route swept along the lumps and bumps of mid-Devon. First we followed the A396 through Bickleigh (‘the geographical centre of Devon!’) and Tiverton before swinging west through Witheridge, Chawleigh and Winkleigh. I was starting to have some problems with the bike now. On steeper hills, it kept slipping out of gear, never quite sticking in the big ring and, even with the downtube shifters tightened as far I could, it didn’t seem to help. I usually had to stop and physically move the chain over to the megarange, then try to get going again on flatter sections of the slope. It was incredibly frustrating. I stopped at Winkleigh and tested it, to find that it was just randomly slipping gears, sometimes dropping three or four gears without the rear derailleur even moving. The drivetrain was just completely shot.
On the flats and shallower gradients though I was still making good progress, and I enjoyed riding through the countryside. This part of Devon is usually a bit quieter, with fewer tourists and more extensive woodlands. The villages were filled with cheerful gardens of sunflowers, pumpkins and wildflower patches, and even the drivers seemed unusually considerate when overtaking me. I rode happily through the countryside, my zen-like state only disturbed when I got to a steep hill, slipped my gears and turned the air blue around myself once again. After Hatherleigh, there was one big climb before we got onto the Granite Way for a short time, on our way to the big climb up to Princetown. As I came in to Tavistock, I decided to stock up on drinks and sweets, and took a few minutes out to find a shop.
Little did I know that somehow I was already off-route, and that I shouldn’t have even gone in to Tavistock. Worse still, my Garmin did know I was off-route, and had rerouted to take me back to Newton Abbot a different way. I didn’t realise until after I’d stopped at Horrabridge for drinks – Tavistock having been entirely closed – and noticed that the Garmin was taking me to Burrator Reservoir and Ivybridge! Somehow I got back onto the right route and rode the big climb up to Princetown, having completed an extra 10km and a couple of hundred extra metres of unnecessary climbing.
From being ahead I was now behind schedule, but after 170km I certainly wasn’t leaving the checkpoint at the Prince of Wales without my pint of Dartmoor IPA. I was only 45 minutes ahead of the cut-off time by the time I left, but with a small group of other riders on the horizon I was motivated and really went for it across the moors. It was a beautiful evening, still cool but with some glorious golden light as the sun approached the horizon, and even the regular chain drops couldn’t ruin my ride. I caught the other riders at Moretonhampstead and then raced down the Wray Valley in record time, then did the same down the Templar Way. The Étoile had been awful on the climbs, but on these shallow descents the big 52 ring on the front really came into its own. I got back to Newton Abbot at 1955, five minutes short of 12 hours on the bike and with plenty of time to get back to the station for the train and a Chinese. It was a fantastic day out and the cream tea at the end – bonus points for the cream going on first – was a happy and well-earned bonus.
And do you know what? I love that old Peugeot. Yes, it needs an overhaul, but I knew that before I took it out for its unexpected day out. I’ve taken that bike apart, stripped everything, even the paint, and rebuilt it myself. I learned so much that I’d have never got if I’d just bought one off the shelf. It’s got personality. It needs you to understand how it rides and make adjustments to your riding style and gear changes to get the best out of it. Every ride is an adventure. That’s why I love it.
Maybe it’s not time to retire it after all.
Thanks very much to Graham Brodie and the team for a fantastic day out, see you next year!
