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

A Journey Across Southern Spain

By: Chris Atkin

Narrated by: Chris Atkin

Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Interesting journey

If you like travelogues then this is a great book .
It's not a polished book but is a raw tale of life on a touring bicycle.
Funny and entertaining.

Loved it! 10/10

I’m a big fan of travel books narrated by the authors themselves and this is one of the best! I loved joining Chris on his hilarious adventure across Spain. He painted a vivid picture of the surrounding terrain and I was surprised to learn interesting insights about an area I thought I knew well. I would definitely recommend this audiobook to anyone - whether they are a cyclist or not!

What an adventure!

I loved listening to this audiobook, very highly recommended! It felt like I was alongside Chris for every step of his journey and his British humor kept me chuckling on the way. Never have I learned more about the psychology of Airbnb hosts or the curious history of the south of Spain. I'm now very keen to make a trip out there!

"Bananas for lunch."

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.

Definitely a very enjoyable and educational read.

Your host Chris Atkin takes you on an adventure where he cycles from Valencia to Gibraltar, covering 1,300km. This is quite an adventure as Atkin fights the heat, or the strong winds as he goes on his journey through lemon trees, orange trees and olive groves.

Atkin is clearly a history fan as the book is saturated in fascinating history of all the places that he visits like Cartagena and Almeria. This wouldn't be a proper cycling expedition without his share of trouble, needing to repair his bike, his fitness being tested to the limit with all the uphill rides and the breathtaking, literally, landscape of the Sierra Nevada and the difficulty in finding a shop open on Sundays. He also meets some amazing people, as you should on a voyage, including friendly Troglodytes living in caves.

This book has certainly given me food for thought in my next trip but I don't think I would make it that far by the time I had to return to work and although I speak a little Spanish, I would have to improve as Atkin's knowledge of Spanish got him out of a pickle or two. I also love how Atkin narrates it himself, it makes it more personal.

Being honest here

The story was very well told, where I felt I could see much of the action. However... author narration a definite drawback for me - he should've either hired a professional, or skipped the audio format. Much of the time it was obvious he was reading from a text more than sharing the details as though to a friend.

(Review copy provided by author)