High Leicestershire Coffee and Cake - Road Cycling

Location

Leicester / Leicestershire

OutdoorLads shares the exact meeting point with people who have signed up, closer to the date. See the OutdoorLads listing for details.

About this event

This cycling event is a single day circular route from Leicester, through High Leicestershire and return.We'll start off in lovely Leicester and head through the historic heart of the city and then out of town southwards along the Great Central Way - a cycleway running along the route of the former Great Central Railway, the last mainline railway built by the Victorians, but relegated to history by the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.  En route we pass through the Aylestone Meadows wetlands and may see Aylestone Old Bridge, a Grade II listed 15th Century packhorse bridge. After leaving the suburbs of Leicester we follow NCN Route 6 along quiet country lanes towards historic Kibworth and then on to the cute little village of Tur Langton, where we can stop at 'The Manor' for coffee and cake at Mint and Ginger Coffee House.We'll then head out further eastwards into the area known as 'High Leicestershire' - where the countryside gets a little more hilly (the trick is in the name!).  After pedalling through a few more cute villages, we'll stop at the well-known cyclists' café Café Ventoux, near the village of Tugby, which has excellent coffee and lunch options. After lunch we'll head back into Leicester through the popular Clarendon Park neighbourhood, before we head through Victoria Park and down to our starting point at Leicester Station.The cycle route is somewhat challenging: 84km (52 miles) with 840m (2,756ft) of ascent - mostly rolling hilly countryside, with a few manageable hill climbs. The route is best suited to road bikes (or gravel bikes / touring bikes with slicks, not chunky tyres) and those with road cycling experience - most of the route will be on-road, albeit mostly on relatively quiet country roads.  The proposed route can be viewed and the GPX downloaded from Cycle.travel here. If you have any questions about the event or the route please contact Skip.**  Note: this event may be postponed or cancelled at short notice due to adverse weather.  **  Image credits: All images are  PIXABAY public domain free use photos.