Category: Route research

I’ve been to both Britain’s shortest place name (Ae) and longest (North Leverton with Habblesthorpe). What Ae lacks in consonants, it makes up with umpteen bike trails in the forest – and wind turbines. I’m going to spell it ‘Æ’, making it a single-letter place name, like Y in France and Å in Norway. (Scotland…

The Solway Firth is hard to tear yourself away from, though that’s because of the quicksand rather than any scenic splendour. Today’s afternoon spin south of Dumfries down by the River Nith was a bit samey, in fact. I spent most of it trying to shake off the one hill that dominated the view, and…

It was tempting, having finished most of my research, to take the easy option today: one that would involve simply dawdling round Kidderminster, maybe having a leisurely breakfast and lunchtime pint, and getting an early train home. Then I asked myself: would this be the behaviour of a cycle-route research professional? I decided it would…

A longish ride today, out west to the little-visited Clee Hills and back. Pretty good countryside: no great climbs or heart-stopping views, which given the lack of defibrillators round here is not a bad thing, but plenty enough to make it worthwhile. It was a misty start to the day, and I could see little…

Workaday Kidderminster, with its busy roads, isn’t near the top of many bucket lists for cycling. Nor its beauty: the Museum of Carpet is the main attraction, and the colour ain’t red, but it does have a handy canal towpath that takes you out of the centre north or south, and the many bike trails…

Yesterday was east; today was west, through Poole to the Isle of Purbeck via chain ferry, then back to Bournemouth via that endless seafront path. After the cycle path which runs north through parkland alongside the Bourne I took roads to neighbouring Poole. I came here in 2010 as the first of my Rhyming Coast…

Bournemouth’s epic promenade cycle path isn’t quite England’s longest car-free example – that’s Blackpool’s twelve-miler – but at 10 miles, the Dorset resort’s is long enough. The town boomed as a seaside resort in the 19th century, and as one source informed me, has a Victorian gentility still. So long as they use their Victorian…

Dunsop Bridge is the centre of Britain: the point at which a cardboard cutout of the country would balance. Not, obviously, a full-size one. Thanks to everybody ordering everything off Amazon these days, there isn’t enough cardboard as it is. And my route today – a forty-odd-mile loop northwest from Clitheroe up the splendid Trough…

Today’s plan was a ride in diabolical territory – up through the Nick of Pendle to witch country – and the morning was certainly diabolical weather, with black clouds and furious rain. I sat most of it out by doing cafe and bike shop research (talking of which, the Green Jersey local bike shop–club–cafe is…

Clitheroe is gateway town to Pendle’s Witch Country, but today was magic of a different kind: a wonderful day ride up to Bentham and back over Forest of Bowland moors. It’s all hilly stuff: no wonder most of the many cyclists I saw today were on e-bikes. Who needs flying brooms when you have electric…