H A NDLE BAR, OXFORD
There’s no doubting the bike-friendly credentials of this welcoming cafe serving quality local fare
“Quirky and trendy – I came for a postride brownie” Anna J
“The bike shop next door and the coffee!” Martin Johnson
“Super-healthy, wholesome food with lovely service and somewhere safe to store your bike” Steph Baker
With the Cotswolds to the north west, the Chilterns to the east and various Downs to the south, Oxford has plenty of super options for day rides – and the smooth riverside path by the Thames (called the Isis here) is perfect for trundling (unless there’s a regatta!) or heading south to Abingdon. To the west, lack of river crossings (until they get round to reinstating the tiny ped-bike ferry at Bablock Hythe) means getting out can be a touch dreary – there’s only really Botley Road’s shabby cycle path and then the busy B road towards Eynsham – but once there you have lovely, quiet heart-of-England scenery.
The city centre, colleges and all, is patchy in terms of infrastructure, but can feel full of A-to-B cyclists, especially in term time and particularly between lectures with students zipping around. There’s no better place to grab coffee and cake before or after a jaunt than the Handle Bar, a chic urban cafe right in the trendy centre. It sits by and above its sister bike shop, Bike Zone, and is decorated with all sorts of bikes, distracting you from your lemon drizzle cake or celeb/academic-spotting.
As you’d expect, veg and vegan options are plenty, and allergies are no problem. The cakes are homemade, and all ingredients are sourced locally from suppliers known personally to Céline, who’s in charge. Breakfast starts from 8am and there’s local craft beer for winding down afterwards, plus tapas on weekend evenings (it’s open late or late-ish 7/7). It has decent bike racks outside, too. handlebaroxford.co.uk
SIGNATURE DISH Chocolate brownie (vegan), £3
SHOWSTOPPER Full house breakfast: local bacon, sausage, egg, plantain chips, tomato, mushrooms, beans, £9
I’M A COFFEE SNOB, HOW’S THEIR
FLAT WHITE? Great, from local roastery Missing Bean: £2.70 KEY STRAVA SEGMENT Headington Hill, 0.44 miles, average grade 5.4 per cent, elevation gain 128ft, 28,698 attempts by 4,073 people
KOM Joe Baker S 1.04, 08/06/2017
QOM Roberta Dionello 1.34, 20/03/2011