? Easy 100km rides in the Midlands, England?

[Only 74 years]

Hello everyone

I'm a recovering longer distance cyclist and am looking to celebrate an August birthday with a 100km ride on my road bike in the Midlands

Can anyone advise me on a safe flat route, quiet roads preferred please? A circular 100km route or 50km out and the same back would be useful.

Off now, better start getting the miles/kms in.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[tatanab]

That's a big area, roughly Gloucester to Leicester as one diagonal. I think you need to narrow it down a bit.

[Only 74 years]

I'd be OK - on this occasion - to drive to either of those areas, my part of South Bham/Worcs is not particularly flat nor leads me to feeling safe enough for this born-again ride.

Leicester area looks more promising than the Gloucester area, unless following the Severn.

I am also searching through records of previous rides.

[JakobW]

100 quiet km on-road without hills is a bit tricky, though if you'll accept gently rolling rather than pan-flat then there are more options. I'm north of Brum rather than south, but my local club's rides list is here: http://www.walsall-cycling.co.uk/routes_library.html - some of the loops may give you some ideas. Somewhere I've also got a Philip's book called 'Cycle Tours around Birmingham' (by which they mean 'day rides'), which is pretty good - most of the rides are 40-80km, but you could no doubt link up bits to get you to 100km.

[bikepacker]

As previously stated unless you are going to drive a fair distance you will always encounter hills. And parts of Leicestershire is very lumpy.

Why not ride out from home and head down the Vale of Eversham? Yes you will encounter hills but unless you head up the Cotswolds or Malverns there are too many hard climbs. Also you can use some canal towpaths to avoid traffic if it is a problem to you.

The weekend I did a 77 mile ride to celebrate my 77th birthday cycling through the Vale and Severn Valley without it being too exhausting.

[TrevA]

I’m not sure if the routes would be available, but picking 100km Audax route in a suitable location would be an idea. There’s one local to me. It starts in Waddington near Lincoln and comes SW to Bingham in Notts (my home town), then back up towards Lincoln. You could ride the route in reverse, starting from Bingham, which is in south Notts, in the East Midlands. The Audax is called Witham and Blues, as it follows the course of the River Witham on its outward leg.

https://audax.uk/event-details?eventId=8227&Evno=20-264

You won’t find a flatter one. The only hill is the climb back up to Waddington at the end, but if doing it in reverse, you could miss that out. If interested, I could give you route details.

Another idea would be to follow a river valley, riding down one side and back up the other - perhaps the Severn valley from Gloucester down to Aust, over the Severn bridge and back up the West Bank of the river.

[Jamesh]

As previously stated unless you are going to drive a fair distance you will always encounter hills. And parts of Leicestershire is very lumpy.

Why not ride out from home and head down the Vale of Eversham? Yes you will encounter hills but unless you head up the Cotswolds or Malverns there are too many hard climbs. Also you can use some canal towpaths to avoid traffic if it is a problem to you.

The weekend I did a 77 mile ride to celebrate my 77th birthday cycling through the Vale and Severn Valley without it being too exhausting.

77 miles at 77 years I'll raise a glass to that!

Cheers James

[Only 74 years]

100 quiet km on-road without hills is a bit tricky, though if you'll accept gently rolling rather than pan-flat then there are more options. I'm north of Brum rather than south, but my local club's rides list is here: http://www.walsall-cycling.co.uk/routes_library.html - some of the loops may give you some ideas. Somewhere I've also got a Philip's book called 'Cycle Tours around Birmingham' (by which they mean 'day rides'), which is pretty good - most of the rides are 40-80km, but you could no doubt link up bits to get you to 100km.

Thank you for the link, and yes, I recall some rides from Shenstone to Castleton that started off and ended quite flat, I'll check out your link n and the Staffordshire lanes type rides; i can also check the Hamlyn OS Tours books .

[Only 74 years]

100 quiet km on-road without hills is a bit tricky, though if you'll accept gently rolling rather than pan-flat then there are more options. I'm north of Brum rather than south, but my local club's rides list is here: http://www.walsall-cycling.co.uk/routes_library.html - some of the loops may give you some ideas. Somewhere I've also got a Philip's book called 'Cycle Tours around Birmingham' (by which they mean 'day rides'), which is pretty good - most of the rides are 40-80km, but you could no doubt link up bits to get you to 100km.

Thank you for the link, and yes, I recall some rides from Shenstone to Castleton that started off and ended quite flat, I'll check out your link n and the Staffordshire lanes type rides; i can also check the Hamlyn OS Tours books .

[Only 74 years]

As previously stated unless you are going to drive a fair distance you will always encounter hills. And parts of Leicestershire is very lumpy.

Why not ride out from home and head down the Vale of Eversham? Yes you will encounter hills but unless you head up the Cotswolds or Malverns there are too many hard climbs. Also you can use some canal towpaths to avoid traffic if it is a problem to you.

The weekend I did a 77 mile ride to celebrate my 77th birthday cycling through the Vale and Severn Valley without it being too exhausting.

Congrats on the 77, me?, I'll be 75 In August, so maybe I could up my 100km to 75 miles or - more likely - lower it it to 75km.

I agree, due south from Sth Bham is a good option down to th Broadway area, but staying north and to the west of the town

[foxyrider]

Another idea would be to follow a river valley, riding down one side and back up the other - perhaps the Severn valley from Gloucester down to Aust, over the Severn bridge and back up the West Bank of the river.

Hardly a flat route, particularly on the west of the river but even the ride down to Aust has a few little chirps in it!

How about Tamworth to Derby A38 corridor? or Nottingham - Newark - Retford -Mansfield?

[Only 74 years]

Another idea would be to follow a river valley, riding down one side and back up the other - perhaps the Severn valley from Gloucester down to Aust, over the Severn bridge and back up the West Bank of the river.

Hardly a flat route, particularly on the west of the river but even the ride down to Aust has a few little chirps in it!

How about Tamworth to Derby A38 corridor? or Nottingham - Newark - Retford -Mansfield?

I'll check on here for the areas north east of Birmingham, the level traffic has been a concern on occasions, also I'll check through Audax Permanents which i believe are planned to be available again from 1 August.

[JakobW]

100 quiet km on-road without hills is a bit tricky, though if you'll accept gently rolling rather than pan-flat then there are more options. I'm north of Brum rather than south, but my local club's rides list is here: http://www.walsall-cycling.co.uk/routes_library.html - some of the loops may give you some ideas. Somewhere I've also got a Philip's book called 'Cycle Tours around Birmingham' (by which they mean 'day rides'), which is pretty good - most of the rides are 40-80km, but you could no doubt link up bits to get you to 100km.

Thank you for the link, and yes, I recall some rides from Shenstone to Castleton that started off and ended quite flat, I'll check out your link n and the Staffordshire lanes type rides; i can also check the Hamlyn OS Tours books .

Yes, the Shenstone audaxes are run by North Brum CTC - I think there's 50, 100, and 200km options, for which GPS tracks can be found on the Audax UK event pages.

[AndyK]

There's an strip of the Cotswolds running from Tetbury in the west to Clanfield in the east which is surprisingly easy going.

For instance:

Start in or near Cirencester. (straightforward to drive there from Brum)
Head SW out of Cirencester on NCN route 45 to Kemble.
South through Oaksey to Hankerton.
East through Minety, Ashton Keynes, Cerney Wick, Down Ampney, Kempsford.
NE almost to Southrop, then SE to Lechlade.
E though Kelmscott to Clanfield.
NW through Broadwell to Filkins.
W through Eastleach, Hatherop, Coln St Aldwyns, Ready Token, Barnsley, and across the A429 to join NCN Route 48.
Follow NCN48 south down the road (The White Way) back into Cirencester. (The White Way has a fair amount of traffic, but that's near-unavoidable as you come back into Ciren.)

I reckon that's around 100km, most of it on quiet lanes with a few short busier bits. The roads near the Water Park (Minety-Ashton Keynes-Cerney Wick) will be busier at the weekend. There are a few hills in the first and last quarters of the ride but they've very short and fairly easy. RideWithGPS tells me that the steepest hill in that lot is a very short 4.2% climb out of Coln St Aldwyns, while total height gain on the whole ride is around 460m, which isn't much. And it's all lovely, of course.

[mjr]

Generally, throw a pin into the area between Stamford, Boston, Lynn Ely and Peterborough on cycle.travel/map and ask it to suggest a 100km and the biggest thing you need to climb is a river bank or bridge.

I'd suggest Ramsey to Turves to March to Welney to Ely and back as 100km with slightly more variety but nothing too steep that I can recall. That will get you a bit of everything from the area in the distance. Several other places like Spalding and the Tydds are beautiful too, but when you've got to choose...