Route from Derby to Rugby

MCJnr is now living in Rugby (northern side near Elliotts Field retail park) so I’m thinking of riding down for a night away.

Any tips suggestions – can do road or gravel, so quiet lanes, NCN, canal paths are all options. Was initially thinking of heading down the Cloud Trail as a start. For some reason Google wants to send me via Leicester…

Open to suggestions of good options to use and bad options to avoid.

Out via the canals (Derby Canal -> Trent & Mersey Canal) then onto the Cloud Trail.

Then sort of Coalville > Bilstone > Nuneaton > Bulkington > Brinklow and into Rugby from the NW on the Oxford Canal which you pick up at Newbold-on-Avon. Just top left of Rugby on the map, the canal path goes underneath a trail called the Viaduct Cycleway. Turn right onto it, that takes you straight past the retail park.

My go to: https://cycle.travel/map

I was thinking of somthing like @crazy-legs route – not tried that cycle.travel site before – also seems to want to route me through central Leicester!

Thanks guys, will have a play with this ideas – maybe a loop to try both options

South from Derby to Swarkestone, the road can be busy at times,but not particularly scary, then Ashby/or Moira to Measham,and then theres a few really quiet roads that go toward Hinckley, and past there some more really queit roads toward Rugby.

I think that it offers alternatives. The routes will be cycle friendly, distances on each type of road are shown too

You could also try routing to a point either W or E of Leicester and on to Rugby from there