Cycling UK Forum

I'd agree with others that you might get more riding in by looking for more than one base for three weeks.

I'd suggest looking through the suggestions and then looking at maps - perhaps google Earth - to see which might really suit you. eg A problem for road cyclists in some really hilly areas of the UK can be that the only roads going anywhere are now busy main roads. This particularly applies to parts of Wales and the Highlands of Scotland and the Lake District.. At the other end of the range, some "hilly" areas are not really hilly, if you are looking for hills as a priority. (I say that knowing full well that for a cyclist, there are no easy hills.)

I'd agree with the suggestion of the Yorkshire Dales: plenty of strenuous climbing but also a good network of relatively quiet lanes. These days, there's nowhere where you could ride for long and not meet a car. An exception to that is much of Norfolk, but that's not polka dot jersey territory.

On the subject of road racing - on which I am totally out of date - I think there's more to it than holding a valid racing licence. The field in a road race is restricted to 60 riders (unless they sneakily changed that without telling me) so places tend to be at a premium. It's the reason for non( )competitive events being popular. Current racing licence holders will advise you better on that than I can.

Yep, the highlands has the best scenery in the UK, and the best roads, trouble is most of the time these are the only roads, and thus are relatively busy with traffic.

Lots of races have fields of 80 or even 100 nowadays. A circuit race can have even more. Mallory Park (Leicestershire) have mid-week races and there are other circuits around the country - mainly in the south - Milton Keynes, Hillingdon (West London), Hog Hill (East london), Gravesend Cyclo-park (Kent). You can ride on a day licence but it costs about £15 on top of the entry fee. Most weekend events are enter in advance, but some will have places available to enter on the day.

Northern Scotland has the best scenery and some wonderful roads and climbs. North Wales or the Brecon Beacons are also good if you like hills.

If you're looking for a variety of riding terrain then try my home county of Cumbria. Previous posters have referred to The Lake District which is one part of Cumbria. The Lake District has lakes (doh!) and challenging climbs but the rest of the county is also great for cycling. Cumbria has a long and varied coastline to the west and a hidden gem called The Eden Valley in the east. Quiet lanes, fine scenery and great eating places make the county a fine base for cycling. Just remember to bring your waterproofs!

Why are you visiting the UK? If I wanted some cycling in Europe for three weeks, I wouldn't come here. The food is expensive and often poor quality, the accommodation is expensive or soulless or poor quality, the cycling requires a certain confidence in your abilities to fight. The only place I have ever cycled that is worse than here is Texas, where I had someone pull a gun on me. I met a guy from Texas this summer who led me from Portsmouth to Reading when I was cycling back from France. I was exhausted and just followed his wheel. He was a very nice chap, and I was embarrassed to discover he had gone significantly out of his way to help me. Thus I am inclined to take an experienced cycle-tourer who has cycled all over the world and is willing to add 20 miles to his day to help a knackered fellow cyclist with a visibly swollen knee, at his word. His opinion was that the UK was, by a significant margin, the worse place to cycle he had ever had the misfortune to turn a pedal.

If you have to come here and you have no other option, then the best area by far is the Cotswolds. The cycling is brutal and the villages are idyllic. There are also great connections to the rest of the UK for the non-cyclist. Stratford, Birmingham, London, Bristol, Bath Cheltenham, Gloucester, the many Cotswold villages etc, are all within reach. Just accept the fact that the roads will be busy and people will threaten to kill you regularly.

Thank you all for your suggestions, probably looking at 3-4 bases now
My route research has led me to quite a few sportive routes which claim to have quiet roads and great scenery, sounds good, I guess I'll find out.

The (rough) plan:
-Touching down in Heathrow and staying with the in-laws Sth of London I plan to kick off with a few days exploring South of the M25, branching to/from these places, Biggin Hill, East Grinstead, Horsham, Dorking, Godalming etc.
-Then up to the Cumbria region, exploring out from Keswick, Penrith & Grasmere.
-Across to Newcastle way and Nth of Ponteland, then Sth of Hexham which apparently is a must?
-I have a softspot for Scotland having lived in Edinburgh for 6mths (but wasn't a cycle nut at the time) so more research to follow on that.

How does that bucket list sound?

teh wrote:Just accept the fact that the roads will be busy and people will threaten to kill you regularly.

Trust me when I say UK motorists have nothing on my local moron motorists.

Crawf wrote:How does that bucket list sound?

Sounds like a good plan to me.

The food in the UK is actually often very good - it has changed dramatically in my lifetime: most pubs serve decent-quality food for reasonable prices - and if they don't they go out of business.

Use booking.com for accommodation.

I'd take with a huge pinch of salt what people on forums like this say about driving in the UK - the UK's roads are some of the safest in the world (and as you say significantly safer than the US), when it comes to cycle safety our performance is some way behind the best (Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden) but significantly better than the rest. Just stay the hell away from trucks turning left at junctions.

Whilst I know that you want to have a base, a wild card suggestion would be to do Lands End to John O'Groats. This would take, say 2 weeks. That way you would get to see from the bottom to the top of the country, you could make the route bend a bit to cover some more interesting stuff, you would see mostly what has been mentioned by various people above, you would have a goal for the time here plus you would get very fit, making a race in the final few days a walk in the park !

Crawf wrote:...........Trust me when I say UK motorists have nothing on my local moron motorists.

I don't know where you're home-based, but don't be too sure about that, especially in the conurbations. If you do come to Yorkshire, I would personally keep clear of Bradford.

I'd agree with the suggestions for Yorkshire, and would consider York/Harrogate areas. You can't really do the whole of the country in 2-3 weeks, but starting from York/Harrogate, you're into the hills and Dales to the west and the flatlands to the east and south, and more hills and Dales to the north-east. From York you are also particularly well provided with direct rail routes - London is just over 2 hours away, and there are direct trains to Penzance, Aberdeen, Glasgow and nearer destinations like Liverpool/Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, Hull...................as for motoring - dunno - never needed one.

York is itself a lovely city, but nothing like a metropolis (London, Birmingham) and very friendly. Harrogate is posh, and where CTC started - and the home of Spa Cycles.

A lot depends on how many miles you'd want to do, but Harrogate is within a day's return ride distance of both east and west coasts.

edited for missing words.

Noone has suggested the ultimate UK cycling experience of doing a LeJog

Mark1978 wrote:Noone has suggested the ultimate UK cycling experience of doing a LeJog

Aside from Devon and Cornwall and Scotland, you're not actually seeing the best scenery, unless you make significant diversions from the main route that most people use.

A Lejog through the Cotswolds, Pennine Hills and Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland or the Lake District might hit the spot.

Mark1978 wrote:

cycleruk wrote:The biggest problem with any area is knowing your way around. Most areas have good cycling if you know the routes.

Very true, it's the main issue with unfamiliar areas. You can't tell from a map how busy it will be with traffic on the particular time you're going to ride it, or how aggressive the drivers are etc etc.

Surely that's quite easy - just stick to the yellow, as Les Woodland used to say. Avoid roads with numbers as much as possible. The best scenery is up the yellow roads too!

teh wrote:Why are you visiting the UK? If I wanted some cycling in Europe for three weeks, I wouldn't come here. The food is expensive and often poor quality, the accommodation is expensive or soulless or poor quality, the cycling requires a certain confidence in your abilities to fight.

Yer not wrong there!
There are however some pockets of decency.

......Texas, where I had someone pull a gun on me.........

I've not had anyone pull a gun on me............yet.
But I have,for no reason whatsoever,had a chap in a big white Merc Sprinter van threaten to kill me with his vehicle and try,he only backed off when I told him he was on camera(an outright lie),of course the police were useless .
whenever my wife and I (tandem) have cycled in France,Italy,Netherlands,Belgium,Portugal,we feel safe on the roads,are treated with respect and as human beings,the second we're back in good old blighty(or should that be blighted?),we encounter loonies on a daily basis,usually though not exclusively,driving oversized 4x4's or some kind of German prestige car.
The number of times I've had to "have words" with said loonies is times out of number and frankly it gets a bit tiring after a while.
My "close encounters" are usually one or more per ride,TBH the UK as a cycling destination is dismal for that one reason,secondly I've met a few German and Dutch cycletourists touring the UK and after initial pleasantries have registered their dismay at our cycling fa(r)cilities.
We are a nation of morons or should that be motons,with the driving standards of lunatics.

Crawf wrote:-I have a softspot for Scotland having lived in Edinburgh for 6mths (but wasn't a cycle nut at the time) so more research to follow on that.

There are some superb cycle routes south of Edinburgh. I can recommend the Borders Loop, the Tweed Valley cycle route, and the 4 abbeys loop. More info here - http://www.cyclescottishborders.com/