A few of us are riding the Downs Link from St. Martha on the Hill down south and back again in late Sepetember.

Having viewed the modest looking profile elevations for the route, it really would appear to be a nice gentle ride each way with only one climb of sorts at each end.

Is that the case or do I need to step up my training a bit more?..

Certainly looks a nice route to follow for a few hours, any suggestions for pit stops along the way?

It’s easy.
Can be fun with mates. But easy.

HTH

DrP

The Bax castle just outside Christs Hospital is a popular stop.

There is also the Partridge in Partridge Green which is the Darkstar brewery tap.

It isn’t the most taxing of routes but if the weathers good it’s a nice offroad cycle.

The Bax is right next to the Link, but don’t rely on it being open!

its super easy. Your gran could do it. Worth stopping at the darkstar brewery – they do cheap beer in milk cartons. The american pale ale is lovely. I swapped out my butchers for DMR motos, glad I did.

Bax Castle is under new ownership, looks good.

It’s very easy, you’ll be fine.

Lovely!

And The Darkstar will have a few thristy visitors!

Cheers

Yes. Think I nodded off a few times on my ride. There are some nice stops though.

The joy of following old railway lines – the gradients are never taxing.

easy peasy, I have ridden all over it on my mountain unicycle and on my SS MTB once a week. Flat all over other than the hill over the tunnel that has bats in and you can no longer go through.

Did it on one of my endless-summer-of-youth days when I was 17… er.. that would be 1994.

I road it in a bunch with a Road CC group who’d all got pimp MTBs. I just remember big-ringing it the whole way at about 25 mph, hanging on for grim death, with roost flying up into my red iridium M-Frames and one of the guys’ Tioga Disc Drives rumbling like an army… Then stopping for doughnuts and tea at some cafe…. and pushing on for home. Probably road back to London suburbs afterwards too… Thems were the days, eh.. 8)

The descent off St Martha’s can catch you out as someone seems to be patching it up with random rubble plus it’s quite popular with walkers and horse riders who can be upon you before you realise. The sandy track up to Blackheath can be a proper slog in the dry as traction can be difficult to find. Once you have descended from Blackheath it’s fine from what I remember, although watch out for what appears to be a stream of silage run off before the farm after Chinthurst Hill.

All the above assumes I’ve remembered the route correctly!!

I’ve stopped at southwater country park (just after Southwater town) a few times. They’re good and the cake I had last time was genuine aircraft chock replacement dimensions.