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Heading to the Cotswolds this weekend, got one ride planned around Snowshill but looking for other inspiration, anybody got any good suggestions for a few hours' ride, with a bit of tech? North Cotswolds, ideally, I think there's some good stuff around Winchcombe but haven't found a decent route yet...
I think you may struggle with "tech" in the North Cotswolds.
Gravel / CX bike and download a GPX of HONC or the Cotswold Cross Sportive might be best.
I would head over towards Cleeve hill for what you’re looking for
Winchcombe area is fantastic for what we used to call just-riding-around-XC, and is now called Gravel 😉
Plenty of enjoyable countryside riding with some decent ups and downs, but not much in the way of gnaartech. How long a route are you after, I can probably come up with something.
Here you go, this covers most of the best bits:
https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/route/3940987/Winchcombe-and-around
Top tip, towards the end, when you enter the woods at West Wood take the track on the left, off the main track. It's a cracking bit of rooty singletrack that pops you back out on the main track a bit further down.
Take a look at the routes on MTB Foodie, he’s got a couple in that area
https://mtbfoodie.com/category/bikes/mountain-biking/routes/
Very useful, thanks for the tips. I was thinking around 40km might be the max, but if it's not too technical then we might be able to stretch that a little...
I recall doing an Evans ride it round those parts. Don't recall it being overly tech, but was fun.
Should be a GPX knocking about on one of the sites.
I was thinking around 40km might be the max, but if it’s not too technical then we might be able to stretch that a little…
That route I posted will take 4/5 hours-ish at a steady pace.
The Cleeve Hill route on the MTB Foodie site has a lot of the good stuff on Cleeve Hill itself, if you link the two together somehow you'll not go far wrong. Definitely worth doing the final descent from my route from the top of Cleeve Hill, down past Postlip Hall, it's a great end to a ride.
Cleeve is a good option, there's options for tech and XC
https://mtbfoodie.com/bikes/mountain-biking/routes/cleeve-hill-winchcombe/
https://mtbfoodie.com/bikes/mountain-biking/routes/cleeve-hill-mountain-bike-route-near-cheltenham/
There's also Guiting power, years since I've ridden it, but more Xc than Tech as I remember
https://mtbfoodie.com/bikes/guiting-power/
Further over south of Cheltenham there's Birdlip and Cranham, giving plenty of options
https://mtbfoodie.com/bikes/mountain-biking/routes/cranham-trials/
https://mtbfoodie.com/bikes/sheepscombe/
https://mtbfoodie.com/bikes/mountain-biking/routes/birdlip-mountain-bike-route/
Cheers
Ian
mtbfoodie.com
Thanks for the pointers Ian & others. Think we'll be trying out IHN's 62km Winchmore route on Sunday which takes in Guiting Power and Cleeve. Now we just need to find somewhere good for lunch!