200km West Country Summer Solstice
A stunning, pretty much car free route made up of some of my favourite local rides around the west country.
Distance: 193km
Total Climbing: 1,580m
Surface: Road / Gravel / Dirt / Sand
Counties: Bristol / Somerset
Suggested Tyre: 35mm+ Tyre size with a some tread
Difficulty: Confident cycling ability & Good endurance fitness level
GPS Route: Link at end of article
Introduction
This year for the summer solstice I wanted to get out and make the most of the longest day (of light) of the year. My longest single rides prior to this were 225km on a fixed gear and 165km on my gravel bike (technically a cyclo-cross bike) and so I wanted to breach the 200km mark again and with it being my birthday week it was a perfect excuse to get out and stretch my legs. I ride 100km rides at least every few months, usually more often over summer so I was fairly confident my fitness levels would be good provided the ride was broken up.
Essentially this ride is split into 3, based on food stops.
Morning ride: Bristol — Wells
Afternoon ride: Wells—Weston-super-Mare
Evening ride: Weston-super-Mare—Bristol
Now I’m sure there are plenty of people that could smash this out in a morning and be back just after lunch, but that wasn’t and isn’t the plan for this route. I knew there were a couple of technical bits and also I wanted to stop for food and just enjoy the ride and not be worried about stopping to muck around and take in the scenery. It’s the longest day of the year, so I wanted to embrace that.
On a longer rides with mixed surfaces I will usually average about 15—20kph and for his ride we averaged 17.5kph so bang in the middle! You can do the math but factoring in stoppages this ride took us about 13 hours.
For this ride I would be joined with my newly acquainted Greggs sausage roll enthusiast and fellow pizza consumer Daniel. We’ve done a few rides together previously including the Das Rad Klub — Dirty Sunday 100km and are on the same page with a lot things in terms of being able to chat shit and also our pace.
On to the ride!
Bristol — Bath: Swiftly does it
The ride starts off at one of the best places in Bristol to kick off a ride, Hart’s Bakery. If you know me, you know I like my food spots so take my word on this recommendation. Honestly their pastries and hot drinks are incredible and exactly what you need to light the embers for an early start. They are open Tue—Sat: 7am—3pm so great for an early ride out. I am very much NOT a morning person so honestly a good breakfast stop really makes the world of difference, as a big pain au choc fan that is my go to and theirs is MASSIVE. Highly recommended.
Now I’ll be honest and admit if I were change any section of the ride it would be the initial Bristol to Saltford section. This the probably the most car driven road on the whole ride and the A4 is a pretty busy road, there is cycle way for most of it though. There are plenty of more scenic ways to ride but they are much longer and this is a really swift route into Bath. Once you hit Saltford (10km) you’re golden, it really is a blip at the start and is a good way to warm your legs up.
Once you hit Saltford you follow the River Avon into bath along the Bristol & Bath Cycleway. This is super chill and well known route and really sets the tone for the ride ahead.
We peel off the main route into Bath to pickup another great route, the Two Tunnels. As you cross over the river avon you are taken into a Lidl, if you need to pick up some supplies for the ride this is a great spot do this.
As much of the Sustrans cycleways around the area, the Two Tunnels is on old train line which takes you through, believe it or not two tunnels, the longest being 1.6km long. It’s a pretty unique experience and I believe it’s one of, if not the longest rideable tunnel in Europe. This is a lovely stretch that takes you out of Bath and to the edge of Wiltshire through the Southern Cotswolds.
Bath — Wells: Southern Cotswolds tip
Exiting Bath through the tunnels it’s like stepping out into a totally new land. A nice gravel trail takes you down to Wellow which is your classic storybook Cotswolds limestone village. From here until Burnham-on-Sea it’s deserted country lanes and gravel track. Glorious.
This takes us on and past our most easterly point, after Wellow we continue down south-west into Radstock where we peel off on to a nice cycle path that takes us nearly all the way down to Mells, which has a lovely little village cafe in it. There’s also some nice spots for a sit down around the stream if you fancy a break here. We kept moving as wanted to try and get some of the climbing out of the way.
The route is purposely fairly flat due to the distance and this section involves the most climbing out of the whole ride, however there is nothing gnarly too worry about. It’s a steady climb through the rolling hills and villages until you get to Oakhill where you turn off for a well earned descent down in Wells for a food stop. Soak up the views over Somerset Levels as you descend because that’s where we’re headed next.
Wells — Burnham-on-Sea: Somerset Levels
As we ride into Wells you’re taken past the Cathedral and through the old market (warning: this is still a very active market and at weekends gets very busy so highly recommend not trying to cycle through it like a bellend. Best to get off and walk and enjoy all the stalls) which takes you through to the Bishops Palace. Bishops obviously did alright for themselves back in the day because it’s a pretty sweet pad. For fuel I have included one of my favourite spots in Wells to get some scran. The Bishops Table is located inside the Bishops Palace which is free go through to (you have to pay to go into the actual palace if you fancy that) but there are decent accessible toilets and indoor and outdoor seating for the restaurant.
The restaurant is open 9.30am—6pm (4pm in the winter) and serves breakfast til 11.30am and then mains from 12pm onwards. Annoyingly we got here just after 11.30am so ended up staying here a bit longer than we were planning however to wait for the kitchen to re-open, it was totally worth it though as the food is amazing. I have never been disappointed here.
After a very causal lunch stop it was time to hit the Somerset Levels… one little hill first though...
As you ride out of Wells down a nice little trail (thanks Mr. Liggins for showing me this last year) we split off this to a super chill country lane, this then takes you to a very straight roman road into Glastonbury (one where you can’t see the end it’s so straight). I try to avoid these as they can be a bit dull but there’s some nice views of Glastonbury Tor leading up to it and it’s a really quiet stretch so super pleasant to pootle along and think about how pilgrims have probably been using iterations of these for thousands of years.
I mentioned a hill… So to avoid the main road into Glastonbury, there’s a nice climb around the arse end which cuts that out and conveniently has a shop the top. It’s a nice little burner and is usually fairly quiet. The shop is perfect for topping up with supplies as it’s quiet. I’d recommend avoiding Wells and Glastonbury's high-street shops due to how busy they can get with tourists. This road then hooks round and down to join Glastonbury’s high street which you can then blitz through.
I personally don’t get the draw of Glastonbury high street. The Tor is lovely but the town is basically just a fairly small high street full of hippies selling crystals and incense. I get it’s historical significance, it’s just a bit underwhelming and I find Wells much more pleasant to spend a bit of time in if you’re in that neck of the wood.
Like with riding out of Bath into the Cotswolds, the Somerset Levels take you into a totally new landscape. From Glastonbury onwards this section has lots gravel trails and country lanes, and everything is super flat!
Coming out of Glastonbury the route takes us into the surrounding marshland along some nice gravel trails, this area is really nice to ride through and it’s routed in history as this is where some of the earliest purpose build roadways have been found dating back to 3800BC. It’s a protected area so keep an eye out for the wildlife too.
As we keep heading west we eventually pass over the motorway which signifies that we’re nearly at the most western point of the ride and approaching Burnham-on-Sea. Shortly after, we join the A38 briefly, which we quickly get off for a little “shortcut”. This takes you through a field along the river and then over it (New Clyce bridge) with some gates/styles and to a little hidden back lane which takes you to a gravel trail round to the sea-front. If you are thinking of doing this ride yourself, a word of warning, this lane is narrow! As in if you have wide bars you might not fit down it. I probably had less than 50mm either side at some points — it’s still totally rideable though and a kinda fun challenge.
You can avoid this section by not peeling off before the river and continuing to the round about and taking the first exit.
Burnham-on-Sea — Weston-super-Mare: Lifes a beach
After the Levels we’re thrown into new scenery again in the form of the coastal section. This stretch starts off coming into the south of Burn-on-Sea along a nice gravel trail that swings round onto the sea front. Places like this are great little time traps. What were once highly fashionable places to visit are now full of shitty arcades and run down B&B’s and I love it. I have a massive soft spot for tack and so places like this for me are a treat.
After coming off the gravel we join up with the beach taking the sea front parade down and onto the beach!
This was mine an Daniels first time riding on a beach and it was hella fun. The plan was to ride along down to the Low Lighthouse. A very Wes Anderson style lighthouse. I came out here last year on slicks and in torrential rain and didn’t get very far and ended up taking the road along the coast (that was a very wet ride). This time the weather had been much better and the sand was much more compact, along with my WTB 35’s it was definitely much easier to ride this time round, wider tyres wouldn’t have gone amiss though!
If you’re wondering, this is another Sustrans marked section and it 100% ok to be ridden, you my not want to ride the whole beach (this section is 8km) as it can be hard work, so there are a few bits where you can peel back off onto the road that parallels it. We ended up taking the exit by the Sundowner Cafe car park and riding up through Brean. Heads up, Brean can get busy as it’s a holiday hot spot so there can be lots of cars and kids running amuck!
Continuing on this Sustrans section, which was only opened in July 2017, we venture through the edge of a campsite on some gravel tracks and paths and head towards Uphill. Luckily as the name might imply this only involves a small uphill section and you’re rewarded with a great view of the Old Church of St Nicolas overlooking the clifftop. This section is active farmland so be sure to keep an eye out for the cows that roam about.
Uphill is a pretty little village and for any type nerds out there, there is a very cool sign writers shop which is worth a nose through the window if your appreciate that sort of thing.
We briefly join the A370 which takes us into Weston for a well due fuel stop again. We were surprised to find out it was the Air Show when we came in so it was VERY BUSY, but we did get to see some amazing aerial displays.
Weston-super-Mare — Clevedon: Woods & Trails
Weston has loads of places you can stop for food, the usual Fish & Chips does the trick, but we’re simple guys and Spoons was calling us. To be honest you can’t knock the The Cabot Court Hotel, I’ve been here many times and it has great views of the sea front and pier. On a day like ours with the sun shining it has a fantastic beer garden and the food & drink is bang on the money. The fact we got to sit down outside eating pizza in the sun watching a Lancaster fly around over the pier is a memory that I will keep forever.
Once we had fueled up, we nipped over to the high street to top up on supplies for the final stretch of the ride up the coast and back into Bristol.
Getting back on track the next section took a few bits from the last Dirty Sunday Ride in reverse along with some of my own favourite routes. One of which was a ride round to the old pier, which is very cool but super eerie. This took us to a really fun climb up into Weston Woods. It’s a little bit technical in places and if it was wet it would easily get very muddy and slippy, but it wasn’t so it was great! Riding through the woods at the top of the hill is great and leads to fun descent back down on road and through the edge of Weston.
We swiftly rode out Weston on a cycle path which takes us back out over the motorway and then onto some fun single track and farm trails through Puxton which eventually join up with the Strawberry Line, a highly popular gravel trail which runs from Yatton, all the way down to Cheddar Gorge. Where we pick it up, we follow it all the way back up the Yatton Train station.
From Yatton we take a nice country road all the way up to the the South-West of Clevedon.
Clevedon — Bristol: Final Stint — The Bonk
I spend quite a bit of time in Clevedon as I have family there, so for me, arriving in Clevedon is very much the home straight. We hook along a little gravel trail which brings as back and round to the main seafront and pier. It was at this point that I bonked. As there weren’t really any shops near by that would be open, we decided to press on to Portishead where I knew some shops that would be open on the route.
There’s a couple of small climbs to get us to the top of Portishead, luckily they aren’t steep so with my energy flagging we took a super steady pace and the views at the top over looking the severn channel in the evening light rewarded us.
Following the bay round and into the marina, we stopped off for some much needed energy. This is where my GPS died and I was really feeling the ride. This was the first sign that we weren’t going to complete the whole route. Luckily I knew the rest of it in my head as it’s all stuff I regularly ride.
Out of the marina again along a nice gravel track we’re taken to a cycle path that leads us through the port to Avonmouth, basically lots of shiny new cars sat about!
This is where we decided to cut the ride short. Normally the route goes through a tunnel next to the old train line and under the motorway, but without any signs of the path being closed we came to find it all fenced off with no way off passing through…
Time to explore! Luckily I knew the area so rather than turn around and go back up through Gordano, which would have been about a 20km detour we decided to venture back round and under the bridge along the riverside. I knew there was a footpath somewhere on the other side that went through there, I just wasn’t quite sure where! Luckily we found it, and as it wasn’t wet it wasn’t too marshy!
Due to the section that was closed, we didn’t know if access to the bridge was blocked off too, so we made the decision to take the towpath from Pill back into Bristol. We love this trail, and with us both flagging this was the right thing to do. It was genuinely a really nice way to wrap up the ride.
I have since been back and whilst the access around the bridge is closed, the bridge is still open.
So if you’re planning to do this ride yourself what did we miss? As I mentioned the next bit is some of my regular trails. Once you cross the bridge, you are taken a super steep bridal path up into Kings Weston Woods. Kudos if you attempt to ride this but there’s no shame in the using the steps to hike your bike up to the top. I don’t think I’ll ever attempt to ride it!
It’s worth it as it’s a really old very unknown trail. This takes you through the wood and past the manor house with views over the port and Severn. Out of there you then head out and towards another manor house at Blaise Castle. This is a lovely decent through a valley in a wood and onto a fun little trail along the stream.
You pop out onto a road that takes you to the final climb, up onto The Downs and past the Sea Walls. One the best view spots in Bristol and if you’ve timed it right you might catch a stunning sunset over Wales.
At this point you can make your way back into Bristol, on this route I included the decent through Ashton Court as it involves going over the Suspension Bridge, which never gets old. Finishing up down in the Cumberland Basin looking back up to the bridge you just crossed.
Wrap Up & GPS Route
Overall it was an amazing ride. Truly one of my favourites. I’m not to beat about not finishing the planned route as it’s all stuff I’ve ridden before and went on to ride again a few days later. We came a little short of the 200km target with a total ride of 185km but that only means I’ll just have to plan another one!
If you fancy this full day of cycling I’d love to hear how you get on.
Slow is ok. Have fun!
Route Credits:
Dan Liggins
Katherine Moore
Tim Wilkey
Join me
Share your steady as fuck adventures with #slowisok or do me a follow…
Medium: arafcc
Instragam: @arafcc
Strava: Araf
Komoot: Araf
— araf.cc
