I have a spare hour or 3 tomorrow in the Cotswolds with my gravel bike. Not from ‘round these parts, so any route advice/directions or maybe even a GPX file?
Bit of a long shot I know, but thought I’d put it out there.
I’m near Badminton in the south part of Cotswolds.
Get yourself directions to the Fosseway and make a route based on that.
I'll see if I can rustle up a GPX for you later tonight. Do you need to start & finish in Badminton? or willing to drive a little?
Ok, here you go, route as Pete suggested....
There's gonna be a lot of over night rain, looking like none tomorrow though, under tyre will be mucky, ride clockwise, keeps you off the main roads, most of that's back lanes, some gravel gnarrrr bits, i'd chuck a mudguard on the back & use day lights personally, if you fancy a coffee try Veloton in Tetbury, if you want to shorten it you can cut off some of the northern bits - but they're the most fun! I must confess to not knowing all of those lanes, but i'd definitely ride it (even on chunky slicks :/ ).
👍
You can ride the old Roman road from Kemble airfield down to the M4 that's good and not too muddy around Cirencester back towards Cheltenham is pretty muddy did a few white roads today on a MTbike over Winstone and Dunisborne way and they were very puddley going to be sunny tomorrow and wind may drop don't think it will get any muddier as it did rain hard in the morning today.
Thanks for all the suggestions-
Forgot to post back after riding.
I did a version of ‘Querty’ route. Was fun, and much better than I would have found on my own.
Thanks all.
Any recommendations for bike-friendly accomodation that won't break the bank in the area? Seems a bit of an AirBnb wasteland..
I'm inspired to do an overnighter during the summer - riding up from north Hampshire, Cotswold loop then ride back.
lardman - glad you had fun 👍
frogstomp - avoid the London Hotel, Stroud, unless you've a penchant for heroin & alcohol. A quick browse shows a fair few on AirBnB, this seems the cheapest & most rustic.
Cheap accommodation wise, there's a YHA in Cirencester with bike lockers outside, or you might be able to bagsy a deal at the Travelodge or Premier Inn