Date / Time
Date(s) - 29 May 2014 until 1 Jun 2014
All Day
This promises to be a hard but exciting 3 day bike ride that is the Wessex Way Mountain bike route (not to be confused with the Wessex Way walkers route which starts from Lyme Regis).
Our route is approx. 110 miles but the official end-to-end MTB route is 250 miles and starts on the East Coast in Weston Super-Mare and joins up with the South Downs at Winchester to finish in Eastbourne on the South coast. With NMC having completed the South Downs in 2011 it will be nice to join this up to complete the official route.
The route we take will see a steep climb out of Weston Super-Mare to then up over the Mendip Hills that lie ahead. Here we hit the high point of the entire Wessex Way at 325m (1041ft) followed by some superb descents before we head into the medieval town of Wells. Heading out the other side through Longleat we have some great singletrack before a dramatic change in scenery as we cross Salisbury Plain. Heading into Pewsey Vale offers some scenic and fast downhill sections before a calf-searing climb up Fyfield’s leading into the roller-coaster run to Collingbourne. Then we finally join the ancient ridge route that end up at Combe Gibbet that we all know and love. From here we can cycle straight back to Newbury to finish off with a round of drinks and maybe a meal.
The overall mileage for this trip is approx 110 miles and a total elevation gain of around 13,000 ft, but then there is also 12,00ft of descent :-). Just over half the route is off road but there will be a few busier A-road sections. The route is not officially waymarked so there will be lots of map reading/GPS navigation so expect the days to be a bit stop-start (any excuse for a break).
I have now finalised the schedule as follows:
Thursday 29th May (evening), take the train from Newbury to Weston-Super-Mare (via Reading) and stay at the brand new Premier Inn Seafront (£49 per twin/double room) right by the starting point for the ride.
Then we cycle approx 35 miles to our second stop in Oakhill at Larkshall hostel (http://www.cerberusspeleo.org.uk/hut.htm) at a cost of £10 per person.
We then have a 40-45 mile cycle to the 3rd nights accommodation at the Green Dragon pub in Lavington (http://www.greendragonlavington.co.uk/). This costs approximately £40 per person including breakfast. The pub only has accommodation for 6 so we will look to book additional people in The Bell pub (http://www.thebellgreatcheverell.co.uk) 5-10 minutes away.
The last day will see us cycle straight back to Newbury another 40-45 miles…
We should be able to accommodate up to 11 or 12 people on this trip (depends on Lavington accommodation availability) but reservations have initially been made for 6. If you wish to come along please give as much early notice as possible in order to guarantee accommodation.
Selection of route detail:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/341199140
http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=wxjnlhfeiisqiset&language=en
Please email me directly if you are interested or use the contact page on the website.
Organiser Andy Moss
