New Long Distance Cycling Route: The Cantii Way

Nothing to do with brakes, Cycling UK is launching the Cantii Way: a new long-distance cycling route in Kent taking people cycling through the diverse …

By stwhannah

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New Long Distance Cycling Route: The Cantii Way

Been looking forward to the release of the route details.

Need to get organised and give it a go.

good for Kent but yet another route for the south of England what with KAW and Kernow, would be good to see a focus elsewhere too in other parts of the UK by Cycling UK…

Kent bike touring is great for apple scrumping. Rode down to the ferry at Dover a few times fuelled purely on fruit!

Looks like another gravel route

I’ve done the bit from Wye to Whitstable, although took a slightly different route just north of Wye (pilgrims cycleway), but did the same crab & winkle way between Canterbury & Whitstable. Really nice gravel route, and you can link it up with the pilgrims way all the way to north of Sevenoaks (it gets a bit interrupted & spread out after that) for a proper long distance route.

would be good to see a focus elsewhere too in other parts of the UK by Cycling UK…

Cycling UK is, pretty much, a volunteer-led organisation, so maybe you should get involved

Isn’t the 800 mile great north trail in the north?

Going to be riding the Cantii Way this Saturday / Sunday (after a fnrttc so might be a bit slow) starting from Ashford, with an overnight stop in Dover.

Weather looks good – have already packed sunscreen 🙂

Going to be riding the Cantii Way this Saturday / Sunday (after a fnrttc so might be a bit slow) starting from Ashford, with an overnight stop in Dover.

Weather looks good – have already packed sunscreen

Think I’m going to ride the Wye to Whitstable section (& back) tomorrow 👍 I’m know it’s a nice section with primarily gravel, the rest of the route looks mainly road though.

Ooh, another decent looking one-day challenge for southern Britain. Might give it a try.

the rest of the route looks mainly road though.

Hmmm… worried about tyre choice now 🙂

Think I’ll stick with the gravel tyres and accept a bit of road slowness.

Isn’t the 800 mile great north trail in the north?

I had no idea about this, I knew about the PBW, but didn’t know about the extension, thanks for the info!

Going to be riding the Cantii Way this Saturday / Sunday (after a fnrttc so might be a bit slow) starting from Ashford, with an overnight stop in Dover.

I’d be keen to know how you get on. I’ve suggested it would make a good sponsored ride at work.

good for Kent but yet another route for the south of England

To be fair, there’s naff all else going on down here in Kent. No decent trail centres, although a few good (cheeky) trails up in the North Downs, so it’s nice to have something developed that’s vaguely off road for people to follow.

Ooh, another decent looking one-day challenge for southern Britain. Might give it a try.

That’s one hell of a one dayer, 234km it is.

Although for a proper challenge you could add on the 68km from Otford to Wye along the pilgrims way. And back again if you were really masochistic. 370km total.

so it’s nice to have something developed that’s vaguely off road for people to follow.

AFAIK there’s nothing new here? It looks very similar to a 100-mile loop, mostly off-road, around the coast I’ve done a few times over the years (except I went straight from New Romney to Ashford missing out the south-west portion). So I’m not really sure what this is about, apart from spelling out a route which is pretty obvious (there aren’t that many options if you want to avoid the roads) if you actually sit down with a map!

A mate did it over 2 days recently, said it was ok 😃

I think it’s aimed primarily at leisure cyclists, and yeah you could plan a similar route yourself but it’s a big old route and a good part of it isn’t as obvious as the coastal bits, or pilgrims way so definitely not as easy to plan out.

It should also bring a bit of tourism money to the local places, there’s plenty of watering holes/ice cream stops along the way.

As Paul says ^^^.

I’ve ridden a fair proportion of it too (Viking Trail), in the past, but it’s nice to have something that’s tried and tested rather than plan something myself and find it’s not suitable for gravel bikes, for instance.

Or is a head high nettle nightmare disguised as a “byway”…

I’d be keen to know how you get on. I’ve suggested it would make a good sponsored ride at work.

It’s definitely more road than gravel, and a lot of (tbf pretty decent) Sustrans like infrastructure.

I was glad of the chunky tyres (45 g-one bite) in a few sections but you wouldn’t feel under-tyred on fatter road tyres across most of it. Probably with the exception of the north downs bit just after Wye which is a bit sketchy in spots.

Felt like I rushed round in two days, still stopped to take some pics but would have lingered a bit longer if I wasn’t under time pressure of a weekend (e.g. I skipped the Winchelsea loop)

Or is a head high nettle nightmare disguised as a “byway”…

NCN 2 from Camber Sands to Rye needs somebody to head down with a strimmer in a few spots!

Probably with the exception of the north downs bit just after Wye which is a bit sketchy in spots.

Yeah that section I thought was quite rough for what the route is aimed at, a typical flinty rutted north downs descent!

What was the rest of the route like? The Wye to Whitstable section is decent, is it more of the same?

Yup more of the same, bit of urban cycle path, bit of road, bit of sustrans packed gravel, fair bit of sea wall/esplanade.

Try and do it without 25kmh South westerly headwinds along the coast if you can 😜

All these recent Cycling UK routes have EU funding behind them. I wonder what will replace that?