• Distance: 19.5 miles (31 km) for the whole trip
• Type of route: Off-road and country lanes. Mountain bikes and hybrid bikes are best.
• Grade: Intermediate
• Start and Finish: Near Littlehaven station (but you can start anywhere in Horsham to pick up the route)
• Map below and on the Social Hiking website (Ordnance Survey version as well!)
• You can easily find the route on this Ordnance Survey Map.
• Pubs near the route include the Greets Inn, the Bax Castle, and the Foresters Arms.

The Route

Don’t Get Lost!

A few points about the route.

• There’s a lovely off-road section west of Warnham. Pick up this bridleway by turning left off Northlands Road. The route takes you past Warnham Manor which is an imposing house.
• Cycle across the A264 at Broadbridge Heath using bridleways.
• Pick up the Downs Link at Christ’s Hospital
• The last quarter of the route is along country lanes from Copsale to Sedgwick and then across the A281 before a short off-road section back into Hampers Lane and Comptons Lane.

This will become one of my regular routes I’m sure. It’s a good mixture of bridleways and country lanes and, at 19.5 miles (31 km), is a reasonable distance but not an all day ride. Perfect for a quick getaway on your bike!

I can now report that last weekend, with this short cycle ride near Horsham, the target 1200 miles was completed. Hurrah!

Overall, I found the 1200 mile target challenging from a mental perspective rather than physical. The nature of 100 miles/month and the shortish cycle rides that are my usual trips meant that consistency was key. Of course, I only realised that a couple of months ago and if I do something similar again, I will make a much bigger effort in earlier months.

Thinking back on the year, I also realise that at the start, I didn’t feel nearly as fit as I do now – so that’s a good result and should help me maintain fitness for the winter months and into spring 2012. And with a few weeks of the year to go, I might even get a few more rides in!

With a bit more time, I may write up the year in more detail with a chart or two but for moment this post will have to do.

My cycling challenge for 2011 has now reached 1132 miles which means that there is less than 70 miles to go! Despite several months where my distances were inconsistent, to say the least, I’m hoping that I will reach the 1200 mile target in early December. Hurrah!

• Distance: 74 miles
• Start and finish: Canterbury
• Start time: 8.45 am
• Terrain: Quiet lanes and a few off-road cycle trails
• Suitable for: Mountain bike (road tyres) or hybrid bike or road bike (off-road sections were flat paths).

Where We Stayed

We stayed in the Best Western Abbots Barton Hotel which is less than a mile from Canterbury city centre. It’s an ideal location because it’s a short walk from the hotel to the plethora of bars and restaurants in the centre of Canterbury. The hotel itself was comfortable and we were able to park cars there from early on the day we stayed.

The hotel was virtually directly on our route.

The Route

Reculver Towers and Roman fort near Herne Bay

Our route headed west from Canterbury before turning north to the coast via the outskirts of Faversham. We cycled through Whitstable and Herne Bay before reaching Margate. Turning the ‘corner’, we headed south again through Broadstairs before turning inland south of Ramsgate and back to Canterbury via some quiet villages.

• We used this Ordnance Survey map; it covers most of the route. We had planned the route with MapMyRide so we also had printouts and GPX tracks from there as well.
• Much of the route is part of the Viking Coastal Trail.
• I tracked my progress on the day using Instamapper on my mobile phone (real-time GPS tracking) and the route was plotted live on the Social Hiking website.

More About the Day

A large proportion of the ride was along the northern Kent coast and even along the sea wall in places! It was quite a different experience to be cycling with the sea crashing on the beaches and the sea wall just a few yards away. As a result, the ride was very flat with only a couple of climbs of any note. By the end of the ride, I was quite glad of this though!

• More information, picture above: Reculver Towers near Herne Bay

Unfortunately, I was the only one in our group to get a puncture so that meant that my lunch break was spent replacing the tube followed by a quick bite to eat. Not exactly what I had planned. A relaxing 30 minute stop would have been better!

We finished the ride at 6.30 pm which was later than we had planned (at least, it was later than I thought it would take). We had a few delays while we navigated through Canterbury at the start and finish of the ride and we needed to wait for one of the group who took a wrong turn in the late afternoon. That’s an ‘occupational hazard’ on a group cycle ride; it happens to us all!

• Tip: On an October ride, you really need to have bicycle lights with you. Luckily, we came prepared!

Final Thoughts

This was perhaps not the most scenic route I have ever cycled but I still enjoyed it. The riding along the coastal path and the sea wall was great and we went through quite a few seaside towns and some quiet villages.

The night out in Canterbury was also good and we had a curry and a few beers. That combination may not be a prescribed ‘sports recovery food and drink’ but you can’t beat it after a long day cycling!

• HTC Desire smartphone
• ViewRanger GPS mapping and tracking app [reviewed here]
• Instamapper GPS tracking app
• PowerTraveller PowerMonkey Classic mobile charger

Last but not least, a trip meter on the bike!

I could combine several of these into one by using a GPS-enabled trip meter like the Garmin Edge 200 but I also need my GPS device to work with the Social Hiking website which I use for live tracking of the route (combined with posting of Twitter and photos if I have the time during stops!)

Thinking back a few years, I wouldn’t have used any of these! That’s progress I guess.

• Distance: 21 miles (33 km) for the whole trip
• Type of route: It’s mostly on-road with a section of well-maintained bridleway. Mountain bikes and hybrid bikes are best.
• Grade: Intermediate
• Start and Finish: Littlehaven station (but you can start anywhere in Horsham)
• Map below and on the Social Hiking website (Ordnance Survey version as well!)
• You can easily find the route on this Ordnance Survey Map.

Map of the Route

Here’s the route. Just zoom in and out or change the map type in the upper right to get more details. I’ve added a few of my Twitter comments (blue icons) on the map. These comments were tweeted live as I cycled the route in August.

More About the Route

The route starts at Littlehaven (that’s only because I live near there!) but you can start anywhere in Horsham. The first part of the trip is along Kerves Lane south east of Horsham town centre. There’s a short but steep climb (Hard’s Hill, kinda appropriate eh?) on Kerves Lane before it joins up with Broadwater Lane (downhill) to Copsale.

At Copsale, take the Downs Link bridleway heading south east, via the old station at West Grinstead, and on to Partridge Green. This is the halfway point; it’s about 10 – 11 miles to here.

At Partridge Green, cycle up the main village street before turning left and heading back via Littleworth (and the Windmill pub) and crossing the busy A272 south of Maplehurst.

At Maplehurst itself, turn left to Copsale, and then retrace part of the route as far as Sedgwick Lane. This is a right turn before you get to Kerves Lane. Cycle up Sedgwick Lane until you get to Sedgwick Park entrance on the right. The road bends left and there’s a long downhill section to the A281 Brighton Road. Cross that and turn left at Hammerpond Lane to bring you back into Comptons Lane – and home.

Overall

I really enjoy this route because it’s a mixture of on and off-road, it’s not without its challenges (Kerves Lane being one of them!) and it’s normally very quiet without much traffic. At the end of it, I feel like it’s been a good ride and 21 miles has been completed. Now, where’s that beer?

South West Mountain Biking

South West Mountain Biking is a brilliant little book that describes 26 mountain bike rides, between 10 km and 30 km, in Dartmoor, Exmoor and the Quantock Hills. Each ride has a description, detailed step-by-step directions, and Ordnance Survey maps. In addition, each trip incudes other information such as difficulty grading from blue (medium) through red (hard) to black (extreme), an estimated time for cycling the route, and pub and cafe stops noted in a summary at the start of each ride.

Other details such as Tourist Information Offices and cycle hire places are contained in an appendix at the end of the book. The first chapter of the book has some sensible advice about planning your ride, safety, essential kit and descriptions for the riding in each area.

I’ve not cycled any of these rides but I’ve cycled the Devon Coast-to-Coast route and this included the area around Okehampton where two of the rides are situated. This book certainly makes me want to return to that area and explore the off-road riding in the South West. The book is nicely designed, it is printed to the same high standard as other books by the same publisher, and it fits easily into a cycling jersey pocket. All in all, a great book that describes some exciting off-road routes and that maintains the high quality of other books from this publisher.

• Buy from Amazon UK

This review is also posted on Amazon UK.

• Author: Deirdre Huston
• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Vertebrate Graphics Ltd
• ISBN-10: 1906148244
• ISBN-13: 978-1906148249
• RRP £14.95
• Buy from Amazon UK

Cycling Days Out: South East England is another attractively designed and hugely informative book from the folks at Vertebrate Graphics/Publishing. Their other books include South East Mountain Biking: North and South Downs (which we reviewed here) and Cycling in Sussex: Off-Road Trails and Quiet Lanes (also reviewed). You cannot help but be impressed by the books and they just look and feel very high quality.

The cover of Cycling Days Out: South East England

This book is divided into chapters by county and each has 5-7 cycle routes (between 1 and 21 miles) with Ordnance Survey mapping and lots of information on each route. For example, step-by-step directions, how to get to the start points, what to see, food and drink stops, and parking and public transport information. The book also includes some very nice photographs.

Each route is graded for difficulty between 1 and 4 stars and there is a useful Cycle Routes at a Glance section near the beginning which divides the routes into different groups, for example good for families, good for wildlife, mountain bike routes, country park routes etc.

One chapter of the book is devoted to Surrey and this includes several cycle routes through London parks, for example Richmond Park and Bushy Park.

The West Sussex chapter includes the Downs Link bridleway, from Shoreham to St Martha’s Hill near Guildford, and this is divided into six stages of between 4 and 7.5 miles. If you are a regular cyclist/mountain biker it’s quite possible to do the whole Downs Link route (37 miles) in a day but the book is all about encouraging families so shorter sections are a good idea.

The Hampshire section includes two routes through the New Forest and having cycled part of the routes when I was cycling from Blandford Forum earlier this year, I can definitely recommend the fantastic scenery and trails in this part of Hampshire.

In summary, this is a high quality and well thought-out book with a wealth of information about leisure cycling in the south east of England. Despite this being one of the busiest and heavily populated areas of the UK, the book does a great job of describing a range of traffic-free cycling routes suitable for all the family – and for more experienced cyclists (like me!) who might want to explore away from their home environment!

• Buy from Amazon UK

Check out the video for more details.

In recent months, I have been away on a cycle trip in Dorset and cycled 100 miles to Chichester, both of which have boosted my mileage total. I don’t have anything else planned though so the next few months will probably be lower distances.

It seems likely that I will reach 1200 miles before the end of the year which is great! The challenge has also helped motivate me to go out more on my bike – which is also great!