There seems to be a lot of discussion about riding in the Cotswold recently.

But does anyone have any suggestions where the best riding in the cotswolds is.

Singletack has a cotswold section in its trail guide, this appears to be south of Dursely. But is this the best area ? I think alot of posters have suggested this area might be fairly muddy esp after this summer.

What about Cranham/Leckhampton/Cleeve. Would it be possible to link these areas into one long ride or not really ?

There are plenty of routes on the Garmin website but all very different what would be good ?

Cranham Route
Cranham 2
Long Route
Cleve Hill

Would it be possible for someone to put a some good definitive routes on MTBinfo ? Its clearly the best cycle route planner. You can even just knock one up freehand u dont need to upload.

MTB info

PS I’ve done ones for Surrey Hill/Swinley/Hopwas/Quantocks/Chilterns so its not like I dont do my bit to try and get the best or at least good routes out to people !

linking cranham to Cleeve is perfectly possible, starting from my house the route is about 30miles. However!!!! Cranham!!! mud, Leckhampton, bits MUD!, the link between cleeve and Leckhampton MUD!!!!!

get the idea? yes perfectly possible and it is a nice ride, if it isn’t muddy.

The question i guess is what do you want from a ride? i would also draw your attention to the recent Cranham access thread, the current Cleeve access thread and the historic Leckhampton access comments.

I believe that Standish? has issues down by stroud….etc.

It’s a big area, and the areas within it are different.

The Dursley area has more valleys so is more up and down, further North/East it’s more ‘rolling’. Nowhere is necessarily ‘better’

Leckhampton and Cranahm are easily linkable, but you have to be aware of the Cranham access agreements. Cleeve not really linkable from those two.

Can’t see those links from work unfortunately.

Mrmo – how would you link from Lecky to Cleeve?

IHN, depends, sandy lane, pheasants, (you know where i mean?) from there head past needlehole, climb to kilkenny, drop down past the horses towards the frogmill, from there cross the road into andoversford, cross a40, climb up past syreford, decend to the pub in brockhampton, across the ford, up the little hill to the sort of crossroads, straight over across the field and this brings you out near the wooden hut that is on the road that leads to the car park on the back of the Gallops on Cleeve.

I suspect that didn’t make much sense?

Well when I went down to the Quantocks I did this route.

Quantocks from the station
Map of Route

Admittedly getting to the hills and back alot of the route was on the road, but still 40 miles.

Im wanting something similar 30 miles offroad would be good, could even push it to the 40 if there were on road sections to join places up.

There are other routes, such as heading towards the gulley and colebourne, through the woods to Withington, then across to Shipton Oliff golf course then again head to Andoversford.

Or you could use the track that drops from timbercombe to Andoversford, but that would mean the field of doom to get to Coles shooting place.

linking cranham to Cleeve is perfectly possible, starting from my house the route is about 30miles. However!!!! Cranham!!! mud, Leckhampton, bits MUD!, the link between cleeve and Leckhampton MUD!!!!!

This is all well and good but it isnt a route map !

Heres another I did for the Chilterns 30 miles.

Chilterns Sixes

This is the sort of thing Im looking for

Ah, the field of doom, it’s been a while… 😯

linking cranham to Cleeve is perfectly possible, starting from my house the route is about 30miles. However!!!! Cranham!!! mud, Leckhampton, bits MUD!, the link between cleeve and Leckhampton MUD!!!!!

Would u go the same way as suggested on the Garmin maps ?

scu98rkr,

I’ll get back to this later i am meant to be… working….

I will link to a few of my strava/garmin routes should give some ideas. I hate mud so most routes do avoid the worst of it.

To be honest i would just forget Cranham in this year and just think about leckhampton to Cleeve, maybe using the harder tracks out via brimpsfield, colesbourne, elkstone, withington. not huge amounts of singletrack but the cotswolds doesn’t have huge amounts as a rule.

lecky to cleeve, with some cheekiness:
http://app.strava.com/rides/12589901

edit: double post

another lecky to cleeve

That would be amazing mrmo,

alfabus thanks for the map ta

mrmo thanks for the other map

cheers

If you want a challenge ride, and this is ok, but the link across the flat lands does demand dry weather.

Cheltenham to Cheltenham via Cranham, Leckhampton, Cleeve, Nottingham hill, dumbleton, and Bredon hill. Almost get a circuit of Cheltenham and a major chunk is off road. It it a long day though! and the final climb up Bredon is the hardest of the day, if you pick the Ashton climb rather than the Beckford one.

Oh yeah if you have anyother good GPS files put them on ->

MTB trails info

🙂 🙂

Its soo much easier to follow the route when an OS map is shown rather than the google terrain map !

Cheers guys for the help.

PS Just signed up for Strava, how do I download the GPS/GPX ?

Cheltenham to Cheltenham via Cranham, Leckhampton, Cleeve, Nottingham hill, dumbleton, and Bredon hill. Almost get a circuit of Cheltenham and a major chunk is off road. It it a long day though! and the final climb up Bredon is the hardest of the day, if you pick the Ashton climb rather than the Beckford one.

Think going as far as Bredon hill might be a bit too much for a first attempt in the Cotswold but might be interested

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/pa1S195mR6o

http://www.cc-cc.co.uk/content/routes.php

http://app.strava.com/rides/3498889

some more ideas

how to download strava rides

Cheers MrMo more good stuff particularly the Strava download linky