A fun jaunt through the Mendips taking in the sights of Bath, Bristol, and Cheddar Gorge. This is mostly a paved route, but thanks in large part to the Bristol and Bath railway path only 50% is on roads, while 20% is genuinely off road for which tyres with some knobbles are recommended even if riding the route in summer!
The route is intended to start and finish from Brassknocker Basin Car Park just outside of Bath, which means starting by riding along the tow path of the Somerset Canal, and finishing with the Combe Down tunnel (disused railway line), which together is most of the Bath Two Tunnels cycle route. However, the route is easily joined from either Bath Spa or Bristol Temple Meads railway stations also.
This ride includes a number of Simon Warren's Greatest Climbs, specifically Vale Street, Burrington Combe and Cheddar Gorge. The route passes very close to Belmont Hill and Draycott Steep and could easily be adapted to include them. They have been intentionally omitted from this route based on experience of completing a similar route to this; Belmont Hill is by far the least interesting of the significant hills tackled on this ride, while Draycott Steep is very tough on fresh legs let alone 50+ miles deep into a hilly ride!
A selection of pictures of some of the sights you can expect to see on this ride can be seen in this shared Google Photos album.