CHELTENHAM, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
DISTANCE 35.5KM (22.1 MILES) CLIMBING 940M (3,083FT) TIME 2HRS TO 3HRS 30MINS
Route summary: Either a ride of two halves or two rides; the northern loop explores the rolling green open hillsides around Cleeve Common, while the southern loop provides some steeper, more technical riding in the woods on Leckhampton Hill
Start/finish: Charlton Park roadside parking (postcode GL53 7DF, grid ref SO 955/214)
1 From The Meadows Cafe, join the cycle path, turning left shortly after the houses start. Make a left before a large pond and cross the brook. Turn right then left, following Chancel Way to the main road. Go left then right at the grass triangle and take the first left (Oakland St). Turn right on the A40, then left at the crossroads (Greenway Ln).
2 Climb, turn right at a T-junction (Aggs Hill), ascend more steeply, bear right at a fork and turn left on the Cotswolds Way (CW) when you reach the trees. Go through a gate and right through another, uphill, to the top (quarry). Turn left on the bridleway, along the hill.
3 Fork right, uphill, to a road. Turn left on it, then head quickly left on a bridleway, downhill. Go right at the bottom and quickly right through a gate (CW) up to the top, then bear left down a rocky track. Head right when it gets grassy, around the foot of the hill, joining the parallel singletrack, to the right of the main track around the bend.
4 Keep ahead to the golf clubhouse and turn sharply right, then fork left and, as you descend, go left on the singletrack. Climb to a quarry and bear right. Drop into the valley below/left, and go left down it. Join the track ahead, and turn left onto the CW, to the golf clubhouse.
5 Retrace your tracks along the hillside under the old fort and go right on the grassy bridleway, downhill. Make a left on the B4632 and right at a roundabout, then straight over the next one, on a cycle track on Bouncers Lane. Keep ahead back to Charlton Park.
6 Go through the park on the cycle path again, but keep ahead and turn right on Moorend Road. The route becomes o -road, uphill, onto a wider track until a right turn through a gate (CW). Ascend and cross the hilltop, up a rocky slope to go through a gate and find the tyre tracks leading to the downhill trails o to the right.
7 At the bottom, join the trail that runs left along the foot of the hillside, eventually bearing left up some steps to the hilltop again. Turn left (CW) and look for hidden trails to the left, dropping steeply downhill. Keep descending until you reach Daisy Bank car park
8 Turn left on the tarmac and go over the B-road onto a path. Keep ahead to rejoin the road, cross the first roundabout and make a right at the second. Turn left at a T-junction, pass over the railway line and bear right at a roundabout, then left at the next one (Moorend Road). Rejoin the cyclepath on the left, back to the start.