Cycle routes

Swindon’s bike paths are its best-kept secret. There are traffic-free approaches to the town centre from four points of the compass. In turn, these link up with local paths in each neighbourhood, and cycle tracks parallel to the newer roads.

We wouldn’t go so far as to call them a ‘network’. You’ll normally need to piece together a route from paths and quiet roads, and the signage isn’t consistent enough for you to do without a map. But this combination of paths and roads, and (mostly!) sympathetic terrain, is ideal for cycling.

National Cycle Network route 45 skirts the town on the ‘Old Town Railway Path’, a high embankment converted into an attractive (if sometimes muddy) cycling route. There’s also a route along the old canal, from the edge of Wichelstowe to the town centre, and then out the other side to Greenbridge. The other path you’ll find yourself using repeatedly is the ‘Western Flyer’, an invaluable link north from Swindon station which passes under the railway line in a wide subway.

The town centre is pedestrianised with no access for cyclists. There’s handy cycle parking on each edge, but it’s a shame that there’s no simple through-route.

ITV keeps the Tour de France

If you enjoy watching a bunch of scarily fit cyclists parade their way around the French countryside every July, you can breathe a sigh of relief: the spectacle of the Tour de France is staying on free UK television.

Ever since Sky announced their presence in UK cycling by sponsoring the team of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, as well as a host of ‘everyday cycling’ activities such as the closed-road Sky Rides, speculation has been rife that the satellite broadcaster would bid for the Tour rights. That would have ended a tradition of free Tour coverage that dates back to Channel 4’s half-hour programmes in the 1980s.

But not only has ITV secured the rights for the Tour de France until 2019, it’s also agreed to screen a series of Tour organiser ASO’s shorter events: the Criterium du Dauphiné (usually considered the ‘warm-up race’ for the Tour), the Criterium International, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. But perhaps the most exciting is Paris Roubaix, a famously brutal one-day ride known as the ‘Hell of the North’.

Meanwhile, ITV4’s coverage of the Tour of Britain starts on 15th September, with both live coverage and evening highlights.

Sky Ride coming to Birmingham

A clutch of Birmingham’s streets will be closed to traffic on Sunday 15th September as the Sky Ride comes to town.

The traffic-free cycling event will be starting at Cannon Hill Park – already a part of the popular Rea Valley cycle route, of course – and looping back to the centre of Birmingham via the Pershore Road, usually a busy, dangerous city street. Riders can join at any point along the route: a PDF map is available from the organisers.

This, the fourth such event in the city, will include local Olympic cyclist Jess Varnish as one of the participants; she was born in Bromsgrove and competed for a cycling club in Halesowen. Last year’s event starred another Olympian, Laura Trott.

Full details are available at the Sky Ride website.

Exploring the area

The canals and disused railways of the West Midlands have encouraged many locals to map their own favourite routes: after all, one of the most enjoyable aspects of cycling around Birmingham is discovering historic urban details. Push Bikes, Birmingham’s cycle campaign, produces an excellent set of ‘Urban Explorer’ routes that can be downloaded from their website. West Midlands Cycling catalogues off-road routes in each area, and the Birmingham Cycling Greenways site has lots of useful canal info.

Birmingham to Cannock Chase

Cannock Chase has long been the West Midlands’ cycling playground, with miles of forest tracks to explore. The quickest way to get there is by train to Hednesford or Rugeley, but you can also follow NCN 5 most of the way – it’s just 25 miles from the city centre, via Walsall and Brownhills.