gravel cycling routes uk

On any given day you’ll see commuters navigating the city streets, club riders heading out to the country lanes and mountain bikers taking the short route to Ashton Court and its trails. While they may not match Colorado or Utah for their jaw-dropping views, they are varied enough. The Ridgeway is more popular with walkers than cyclists, and you’re still more likely to see mountain bikers than gravel bike converts. It’s England’s oldest road and travels some 90 miles from Avebury to Ivanhoe Beacon in the Chiltern Hills. When it comes to cycle travel, all you need to enjoy your chosen cycling routes is to be appropriately prepared—and to ensure you’re riding the correct type of bike. On Easter weekend, when we last did the flat route, we had the most glorious weather, and the surface was bone dry. Filmed on the ‘ Drovers Trail ’, a new 331-km-long gravel bikepacking route spanning almost the entirety of Highland Perthshire, ‘Drovers’ tells the story of the ancient drove roads, an important part of Scottish history, which inspired Scotland’s greatest writers like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. Hope that helps! London to Brighton Off-Road series - choose from cycling this classic route by day or through the night - now with gravel and mountain bike options. And plenty of dog walkers! The final half of the route, the Downs Link, is well documented, but the challenging bit was connecting that with our start at Hampton Court and it took some trial and error to hook it up. Kielder is hard to reach and amenities are scarce, but there’s a campsite and plenty of welcoming guest houses within a half-hour drive of the start. Be prepared to sign up early though, 2020 registration is already sold out. It’s amazing gravel country, with fun, fast descents and grind-it-out hills. Start point: Peebles. The Pirate Cycling League announced a new event to Gravel Worlds 2021. Unless you’re one of those oddities who embraces wet weather, it’s best to ride the Ridgeway on a dry, bright day because the chunks of actual gravel are sparing and, on soggy days, it’s infamous for turning into a hellish quagmire of Glastonbury-on-a-wet-year proportions. Blessed with endless miles of forest and estate tracks threading their way through hills and glens, the Trossachs are a gravel paradise. In the Elan Valley and the Cambrian mountains you’ll take in quiet country lanes, gravel tracks and drovers roads. Once the domain of hikers and mountain bikers, the gravel boom has seen drop bar riders take to the route, enjoying the panoramic views while breathing in a bit of history. Dirty Reiver. Established in 1992, every issue is packed with expert reviews of the latest road bikes and gear, inspirational routes and rides, evocative features that take you inside every aspect of cycling and unmatched nutrition, fitness and training advice. View The Map. Land access in Yorkshire generally isn’t that good and we work really hard to convince landowners that we’re not going to cause any damage or that there’ll be issues with grousing birds. New York City is proof that even in one of the world’s busiest cities, gravel riding is possible. Don't miss out on MBUK – get your next 3 issues for just £5, Get the next 3 issues of the UK's number one cycling magazine for just £5. I’ve been mountain biking in north Yorkshire for over 20 years and the arrival of gravel bikes has taken me back to those early days. Once there, you’re not quite done, as you turn off up a cobbled climb towards Kinder Reservoir. It’s a different way of riding, and as well as the pain you get in your arms and neck, the concentration that riding on these trails demands takes it out of you. In other words, if you were painting a picture of gravel nirvana it probably would end up looking a lot like Colorado. 4. But you don’t always have to leave the city to get a dose of gravel. You’ll need to plan ahead. Pedal across its chalk ridge to the phenomenal Old Harry Rocks, bright white sea stacks that mark the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site. Elevation gain: … End point: Peebles. Back then I was still wet behind the ears when it came to the unique demands of gravel riding. >>> Should your next bike be a gravel bike? Where do you ride your gravel bike? The Cheshire Cycleway is a 283km (176 miles) way-marked circular route around the county of Cheshire covering a wide variety of terrain ranging from steep climbs in the Peak District, through a network of quiet country lanes across to the Wirral Peninsula. I don’t think it’s that challenging, but, hey, I have been riding it for 30 years. Just let that sink in. Gravel riding is the hottest thing in the drop-bar world. Take note of the facilities because this figure-of-eight ride passes back through the town at the halfway mark, allowing you to stock up on supplies before you embark on round two. Ancient byways traverse the countryside; gravel roads forged by farmers criss-cross through farmland; forest trails carve open new riding routes; and national parks are home to tracks rarely seen and even rarely ridden. Steamboat Springs, located a little over 150 miles from Denver, is home to the famous SBT GRVL race that draws participants from around the world. Get £10 off the fantastic 1000W Cooks Professional Stand Mixer, Whip up some of your best bakes yet with this powerful and easy-to-use stand mixer. Tuesday 26 September 2017. Start point: Brockley. I’ve ridden it in decidedly damper conditions and the weather makes such a difference. In this section. In a little under 10 years gravel riding has gone from something of a niche to full-blown phenomenon. Sure, it’s not new – riders have been venturing off-road on drop bar bikes for decades. So it’s little surprise that gravel riding has also taken hold. From touring the countryside to descending a mountainside, whatever type of cyclist you are, Cycling UK has some inspiration cycling routes for you. I saw one moving vehicle all day, but just note that it might not be that way at other times of the year. Starting in Wiveliscombe and taking in Wimbleball Lake and the Grand Western Canal. View The Classics One minute you’re in forests, the next onto the moors and back again – you can be looking at a panorama stretching 96km, or at the tree in front of your face. The path can be heavy going in places, with plenty of large rocks and rutted sections. With cafes, shops, a great pub (Forth Inn) and plenty of parking, it’s a perfect starting point to kick-start your adventure. Then again, this is the Peak District – there aren’t that many of them here! One day I’ll ride home. It’s a point-to-point route, so unless your legs are feeling good and you fancy a ride back to London from Brighton, you’ll need to get the train. I’ve often considered riding home but once you sit down on the sea front and enjoy a few beers the urge to ride back subsides exponentially! Following a network of bridleways, forestry tracks and quiet country lanes, our routes traverse rugged moorlands, follow rivers and skirt upland … The village of Rhayader serves as an accessible gateway to the Elan Valley. Rooted’s blend of paved, dirt and mud is quintessential Vermont riding. There are a couple of sections early on that you shouldn’t cycle on and my advice, generally, is that if you’re in doubt, get off and walk. The route is suitable for gravel, mountain and e-mountain bikes, and can be ridden in all seasons. These distinctive red-dust roads zig-zag their way across several of Utah’s state parks. Dirty Reiver - 17-18 April 2020. You can unsubscribe at any time. Recognised for for its sublime fat-tyre trails, Moab combines the scenic beauty with an array of famed routes, including the Slickrock Bike Trail.Â. The route I’ve shared below has elements of the Yorkshire True Grit course, but we can’t share the whole route because it’s pieced together with bits of private road that aren’t open at any other time of year.  407-mile route that takes in the Ardgartan Peninsula, the coastal roads of East Kintyre and the Glen Want National Nature Reserve. Cycling in Kent is one of the most enjoyable ways to explore more of this part of England. You can race, hit the local trails and tracks for a few hours, or head off into the wilderness for a multi-day bikepacking trip armed with a fly rod, a bivvy sack and an insatiable desire to get lost. The Dirty Reiver’s roads are open all year round, but on the day of the event, the organisation makes a point of taking you away from harvesting and industry going on at the time. You've been subscribed to our newsletter. There’s a section around Guildford through farmlands that gets very squishy in the wet and you need the most grippy tyres you can find. By entering your details, you are agreeing to BikeRadar terms and conditions and privacy policy. We tell you some of our favourites, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. There’s no single tough section, its difficulty is with the cumulative effect of all the climbing. But now the equipment has finally caught up and is keeping pace with our demands and our imagination. Oh, and there’s the altitude to consider. County and area cycling guides . Cick the link to see them plotted or select from the links to the right to filter.  Zion, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks all provide plenty of unforgettable gravel routes suited to the more experienced adventurer. With gravel bikes filling the void between road riding and mountain biking, so must gravel bike clothing. Are you a gravel convert? Legs were heavy, but the stoke levels were high as we rattled the last 30km off in a fraction of the time it had taken us to drag it out in the morning. Britain's Best Selling Road Cycling Magazine. It’s home to desert, mountains and a rather big lake. I think it’s the sheer variety as to why it’s so special. Avebury has a National Trust car park, costing £7 all day. The Cambrain Mountains are dubbed the Desert of Wales. End point: Brockley. After a quick (or not so quick depending on your legs) feed in Aberfoyle, you take to the open tracks again heading south for the second half. It’s so good that the locals here built a gravel extravaganza around it, the Duke’s Weekender. Located just outside the southern boundaries of the city, these wooded trails are easily accessible by bike. April 17-18 2020. We take a look at how US gravel riding compares to UK terrain, and where best to seek out such terrain. Yorkshire True Grit. The Centennial State is front and centre of the gravel boom and with good reason. Subscribe today and get the next 3 issues of your favourite cycling magazine for just £5! The first half makes use of National Cycle Route 7 north as it winds up through magnificent, towering mature woodland on forest tracks, topping out after a stiff 250m climb at the summit of Duke’s Pass. The Routes Map. Shirley Chisholm Park in Brooklyn is home to 10 miles of fresh gravel paths built on a former landfill site. It’s just over 100km from Hampton Court, which I think equates to 160km on the road. When a cycling event itemises a survival blanket and a whistle on its list of essential gear, it means business. We’ve moved our event this year to Hutton-le-Hole so that we can show off the eastern side of the Moors, but our original plan A route got a big fat, ‘No!’ from landowners. I love the route, it’s one I constantly come back to and it’s a great showcase for what we have in the British countryside. In fact it possesses more miles of unpaved roads than it does paved.Â. “Route80” There’s singletrack here, too. A 46 mile gravel ride incorporating country lanes, bridle paths, gravel tracks and a canal. Gravel riding has become so diverse that it’s almost genre-defying in its sheer breadth of terrain and experience. Made accessible via its vast network of traffic-free dirt roads is what makes it a dream for cyclists. Cycle routes in Dorset whisk you across swathes of colourful heathland, rolling chalk hills, old forests and even past an ancient carved hill figure in his birthday suit. Yet the oversubscribed 200km Dirty Reiver, four years old and more popular than ever, demonstrates that the UK’s growing legion of gravel enthusiasts want a challenge. Ride into the Isle of Purbeck, one of the most biodiverse regions of the UK. Other nearby gravel getaways include Harriman State Park, near Sloatsburg, and Minnewaska State Preserve, near New Paltz. These are the roads that helped elevate gravel riding from a bourgeoning discipline enjoyed by a few die-hards to where we are today. Journey Planner . In addition to the trails, it offers panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline and Jamaica Bay, and you can even spot migratory birds. Let us know in the comments below. Short and sweet, and most possibly the best introduction to gravel riding in Scotland, the Dunkeld Hermitage Loop is the shortest and easiest route of the Perthshire Gravel Trails. In addition to the 150 mile, 75mile, and 50km events, to be held August 21st, 2021, it is adding the 300-mile Long Voyage sponsored by Komoot. Ride is based in our local stomping ground Add route more enjoyable at couple... Spectacular routes but if you come to Steamboat Springs, don ’ t that many of them here an and... Together on an bikepacking adventure its sheer breadth of terrain and experience a vast playground to enjoy gravel... Long day ride pretty remote areas Parks all provide plenty of large rocks and rutted sections I ’... 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