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A friend and I have recently got back into riding our road bikes and after a few weekends of doing tedious laps of Richmond Park, we'd both like to go a little further afield to find some hills and decent scenery. We ventured down to Leatherhead on Sunday, but it was a bit of a faff (the quieter back roads were poorly signposted and meandering and the main roads not particularly enjoyable with the traffic).
Does anyone have any GPS routes or suggestions for rides between 50-100 miles roughly starting from Hammersmith?
I suspect some answers might be a) buy a map b) join a club...
I might have to bite the bullet and drive/catch the train out to the Chilterns or South Downs, but if possible I'd prefer to ride from my front door. If anyone does have any good routes in those areas though, I'd be grateful if they would be willing to share them.
You can find some of our club run routes here:
[url= http://www.kingstonwheelers.co.uk/clubrun.shtml ]http://www.kingstonwheelers.co.uk/clubrun.shtml[/url]
There are some pretty nice routes out from west London to the south towards the north downs or to the west towards Windsor. There's really no need to jump on a train.
Was back a good few years, but most Sundays we left North London and cycled west loosely following the A40.
The route went though some stunning scenery and villages.
We used the Hell Fire Club near Wycombe as a turning point. Then we traced a route through Amersham, taking in some of the old Pernod Grand Prix route before passing through the Chalfonts and back into London.
Bloomin flip that's brought back some memories.
Went out on a good route to windsor from Richmond park following the river, quite suburban roads but at the same time a nice route as its quiet and the buildings are old. A loop of the great park and back. I'll have a look around for the route but if you follow the river as near as you can you can't go far wrong.
Edit: its route 4 on RickyRahs site plus a lap of RP
If you're in Hammersmith then you're ideally placed to get out into countryside within 40 minutes or so.
We ride out to both the Surrey Hills and the Chilterns.
We're in Twickenham CC and they have Tuesday night runs and a Saturday morning club run out to Woking and back with a Sunday run too.
If it's off road rides then check [URL= http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12669705 ]HERE[/URL] for sociable group rides. Swinley forest 40miles away or Surrey Hills 60. Also, canal towpath rides starting somewhere at Kensal Green going all the way to Ruislip and further beyond. When was riding with my wife, stopped at Southall for Mango lassi then all the way to Ruislip for Pub lunch and back. Those canal based Pubs are awesome.
Thanks all, some great suggestions here. We'll be trying the Windsor Great Park route on Sunday.
Any other suggestions are welcome. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to sampling some of those above. Despite my initial reluctance, I might also look into joining a club 🙂
Hi
if you made it as far as Leatherhead then you'd already made it as far as one of the branches [url= http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Surrey+Cycleway?opendocument ]Surrey Cycleway[/url] which is basically a 100-mile circular route with shortcuts and branches out to eg Epsom. It's worth getting a leaflet or one of the [url= http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Cycle%2Bguides?opendocument ]Cycle Guides[/url] (though it looks as if a few are out of stock), the guides are good street maps in their own right.
I've cycled most of, but wouldn't depend on the signs alone. It doesn't shy away from the hills either!
aP have you some more info on Twickenham CC's mid-week rides, I'm in Turnahm Green / Chiswick.
I'm contemplating bringing my road bike down when the weather gets a little better to get some mid week miles in on top of the daily commute.
Joining a club is a great way to improve your road riding and fitness. They are not as scary and elitist as they used to be. Can only speak for Kingston Wheelers but we get a fair old crowd turning up for our Sunday runs (probably 40 upwards most weekends) and run beginners runs as well as training rides. There is also a significant number of mountain bikers lurking in the club.if you're interested most of the club activity gets done via the forum accessable from the web site. Twickenham CC are also a very good club
You can't go wrong with OS Maps 145 146 these cover the North Downs and Surrey Hills, and then for further afield 133 and 134 to take you into West Sussex for longer rides.
Hills to include on your rides are:
Ranmore Common - probably 3 or 4 ways of tackling this one
Box hill - up the ZigZag
Leith Hill - you can tackle this probably from about 6 different points north to south, south to north etc.
Winterfold - generally I think most people do it North to South (can also go up east and west side) - one route South to North is probably the toughest in the Surrey hills
Coombe bottom - classic climb is South to North but you can include it both way in a ride
Whitedown - classic route is South to North (I refer to this as B*****D hill)
Chapel Lane between Boxhill stn and Great Bookham south to north very steep but not very long
Beyond the Surrey Hills, Sussex is mainly flat IIRC only hill I remember is Blackdown near Haslemere.
Sadly a couple of years since i have been out on my road bikes.
My mail is in my profile if you want to email me and I could give you some pointers.
Gary
steve_b77
tuesday evenings - 7pm from the clubroom - tend to go out to Ottershaw/Egham/Weybridge/Windsor way.
saturday am - 9am from the club room - ride out via Egham/Windlesham/Chobham to Fairoaks for tea+cake and back.
sunday - 9.30 twickenham green - longer runs out to the north downs.
There are a couple of mtbers in TCC - tend to ride out to the north downs from cobham - about 50km round route taking in leith, holmbury, pitch etc.
clubroom = All Hallows Church Hall, Erncroft Way, Twickenham
in addition in April the thursday night training sessions should start at Hillingdon cycle circuit alond with the tuesday night racing there.
Just as a follow up I wanted to say thanks for the Windsor route. We've done it twice now in opposite directions and it was exactly what we've been missing.
Looking forward to giving the other options a go. We're going to have to up the training as we've decided to do London to Paris in 24hrs in June. Yikes.
Loads of good riding in the lanes around the North downs but it takes effort and you will take some time learning them and map reading. Your OP suggest you have access to gps in which case you should easily be able to put together a low traffic route winding through Surrey and Kent. Should take about 20 min clicking per route.
A good low navigation route from where you are is to head out and get on the pilgrim's and head east for 30 miles then either turn round and come back or loop bag down via the south. Some good climbs too.
Check out Whites lane (Titsey Hills back road), Start lane and several others around Brasted e.t.c while you are over that way.