Forum menu
I'm staying at Gatwick Airport for a few days, and I'd love a 40-60km road route for an evening. Anyone got a tracklog or some ideas?
Look at the map, just head west ! Capel, Ewhurst, Peaslake, Ranmore, Box Hill, Gatwick - might be a bit long. It's nice and rural down towards Haywards Heath too
You can use the Eastern part of this with link through Peaslake plus a ride in/out
[url= http://bikeroutetoaster.com/BRTWebUI/Course/2606 ]Box Hill Loop[/url]
Any ride which gets in Peaslake (and so Holbury Hill), Ranmore and Box Hill should be a fun little spin
Like jambalaya says, head west/north west if you want scenic hilly stretches (plus an insight into the best MTB trails in the south 😆 ). Else head deeper into Sussex where you'll find it's flatter unless you go as far as the South Downs.
Nice loop over Ashdown Forest or up to Surrey Hills
Any unpleasant busy roads to avoid, besides the obvious?
Here's another one - similar sort of idea
[url= http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/rusper-leith-box-loop ]Bikely Route[/url]
Busy - A24 very busy and is main one to avoid, A25 not so bad if you're only on it for short period, A29 is quite narrow and people can drive quite fast on the straight bits. The routes above criss cross via country roads. It's quite busy around the bottom of Box Hill but if you want to ride it it cannot be avoided really.
You just want to head west from Gatwick to Charlswood then aim towards Rusper and you can do a nice loop to Newdigate, Leigh and back to Charlwood. All nice quiet roads.
If you want to go further, across the a24 head at Capel, towards Ockley and then towards Leigh Hill and then back across the a24 to Capel.
Lots of quiet roads.
Why is Box Hill such a big deal, incidentally?
No idea. It's probably the closest to an alpine climb in the south - switchbacks and that. In reality it's a fairly shallow 6 minute climb, nice view, but it's not the longest/steepest/hardest by a long shout!
It's a hill. In Surrey. Fairly big deal in itself.
Little more than a mound compared to Wales/Scotland and the Alps of course.
Personally I think roadies should give the off road route a go. Stuff the zig zag, it's straight up vertical with roots and mud 😉
(and again with my rant... STW... *singletrack*. So many roadie posts! ❓ 😛 ).
As @njee says, plus it was used on the Olympic route so I thought you might want to ride up it. Most SW London roadies I know will do a loop out of London to criss-cross the Surrey Hills with Box Hill being the last climb/turning point of the ride before heading home.
Gatwick - Charlwood - Newdigate - Rusper - Lambs Green - Ifield is a pretty good loop, most of it is my 'scenic' route home when I fancy a longer ride. You could do it Gatwick - Ifield - Lambs Green - Faygate - Colgate - Horsham - Rusper - Newdigate - Charlwood to extend it a bit (probably up to 40kmish) and get the climb up to Rusper from Horsham.
Pretty simple but can do you a route later if you want?
Actually Boxhill hill on the road is fairly boring and busy except that it's nicely surfaced. MTB'ing round Boxhill hill is ace (china pig my personal favourite) and the trails over towards Mickleham are ace for a relatively small area.
Go round Box Hill the back way up Pebble Hill Rd if you want a proper climb 😉 Has a bit of a sting in the tail...
antennae +1 - Pebble Hill is a different league to Box Hill!
Why is Box Hill such a big deal, incidentally?
Because:
- it has a cafe at the top (2 in fact) so is a natural stop, thus encourages all-out climbing effort
- you can see a long way ahead so you can chase people down
- it is prominent and scenic
- it is consistent and shallow enough that hardly anyone would find it a problem if they have low gears and take it slowly
The other reason Boxhill is popular is because it is arguably the best route back into "town" from the Surrey Hills/lanes for a lot of people. The other options are very busy. Even Pebble Hills isn't great - narrow and very steep with a lot of traffic.
Good point. I'd say Pebble Hill is for going down!
Good point. I'd say Pebble Hill is for going down!
avit!
Cool, thanks folks.
It'll probably be tomorrow now as I'm at work a little bit late and I want to watch Brazil v Mexico at 8 🙂
Perhaps some intervals or something instead.
Molgrips I'm just down the road in Horsham if you fancy a shared road ride. I was planning a spin tomorrow (Wednesday) some time.
Box Hill doesn't have pot holes. It is like riding on silk compared to the rest of Surrey!
Gt that would be good 🙂 Probably be around 7 ish?
Drop me a message email in My profile but that should work out ok.
(and again with my rant... STW... *singletrack*. So many roadie posts! ).
Not heard of singletrack roads? Last I checked it was a cycling website. You didn't have to click, the clues were there 🙄
Just digging ;), but seriously, STW is the forum of Singletrack magazine, and you'd have to be blind not to realise it's all about mountain biking. But yeah, at least this thread had 'road' in the title 😉
The world and his dog seem to think Box Hill is some sort of challenge / mecca. Just look at how many sodding Strava segments there are on it...... 🙄
I'm a bit further south ([url= http://www.strava.com/athletes/765647 ]Strava log[/url]) but know the area well. As with geetee1972, drop me a note if you want to have a spin.
Google legs of steel
Alternative to the popular stuff mentioned above, how about guildford - petworth - (goodwood for some nice hills and views) - midhurst (directly from P'worth or via g'wood), fern hurst! Haslemere, Goldaming, Guildford.
Cracking ride with a short bitch of a hill coming out of fernhurst to sap the legs!
@TMH is that 40-60km from Gatwick ?
Ooops, read the bloody question as I tell my kids!!!!
Ignore the suggestion above, unless you want a mega!!
....it's all about mountain biking
and cyclocross, and bivvying and vans 😕
Box Hill has a nice view, I'm only a few km from it and ride it a few times/month. Like doing the loop so back down Headley Lane to Juniper Hall. Don't really like Pebble Coombe as too busy with traffic but have climbed it quite a bit in the past.
Mostly like to keep away from the Box Hill area as can be too busy - usually do this loop if I have a couple of hours to do some climbing:
http://app.strava.com/segments/5533373
[url= http://goo.gl/maps/kNlQA ]33 mile loop around Crawley?[/url]
Couple of lumps in it and only one local club hill climb course
Aye, Pebble Coombe is a horrible little climb, made worse by the heavy and fast traffic. Used to do it when I rode up to London, but go via Juniper Hall now instead, much nicer.
Top ride geetee1972, very much appreciated. Surrey, despite being bisected by the M25, really is beautiful. And the roads were deserted!
Looked like a nice route - you did most of the climbs backwards though!
LOL Nick yes true but that was largely because we started from Charlwood (I rode over there from Horsham) and only had just over two hours. I actually had us finish in Horsham and then I ran Molgrips back in the car as otherwise we would have had to do a bit of a convoluted route and missed out some of the climbs.
Great to ride with you also Molgrips. I always say that the best part about cycling for me at least is the opportunity to meet new people. Let me know when you're down this way again.
geetee, care to share the route?
Molgrips
If you're still down here [url= http://crawleywheelers.co.uk/time-trial/ ]Crawley Wheelers[/url] have a club 10 TT tonight.
Should be a quick evening and on a pretty fast course.
[url= http://www.strava.com/activities/155243094 ]Strava link[/url]
m1kea I see someone on my way into work from Crawley Wheelers from time to time. He rides from Crawley into London twice a week. I usually bump into him around Epsom. Not you is it?
Cheers Greg, some nice little drags there. I rarely get out over that way so must make more of an effort. I've also sent you a stalking request.
I know a couple of the Wheelers who ride up from round here but they tend to follow the A23 corridor.
I'm going home tonight, as it happens. I woud have been up for a 10 though - after complaining about tired legs yesterday, they feel great today despite having done the ride!
'Tis the power of the Surrey Hills 😀