Nice Cycling Routes in Cambridge

Most of my lectures are less than five minutes away, so in order to get some use out of my new bike, I was wanting to start cycling for exercise and pleasure every morning. Being fairly unfit, I can do about an hour's steady-going before exhaustion sets in, and I'd be starting from Corpus.

Can anyone recommend some pleasant, easy cycling routes in and around Cambridge, especially ones that stay off the busy roads?

Thank you!

Reply 1

dobbs

Hi,

Depends what you class as 'nice' but if you head up Milton Road (towards Milton, funnily enough) then turn left onto the not-hard-to-miss guided busway you'll find a very nicely designated cycle/walking track (all tarmac!) out towards Huntingdon.

It's only about (I think) 15-20 miles or so to Huntingdon but at the moment the track only goes up to Swavesey (about 10 miles) as the rest is waiting to have tarmac laid down.

Anyway it's a very fast route, very direct, and as I say very well laid. However it does get incredibly windy, but you get that all over Cambridgeshire!

If you want to get off the cycle route there are plenty of local roads going off it to get to local villages and such :smile:

Anyway, I enjoy it as I live in Chesterton and I can just get on it and fly over to Swavesey and back which takes under an hour but is a good little workout!

Reply 2

Lepuslapis

Take the footpath through the Grantchester Meadows to Grantchester, then take the bridleway to Barton. Once you're in Barton, take a footpath to the rifle range; cross the latter (provided the red flag is not flying). This will get you to a small country road leading to Coton. Turn into the Coton Nature Reserve to get to the footpath leading from Coton back into Cambridge, past the Cavendish. You should be able to figure out the details of this cycle ride using any decent map. This is doable in about 45 minutes.
If the rifle range is closed, go towards Comberton, take Long Road towards Madingley, and turn right into the Wimpole Way towards Coton. Long Road can get busyish at times, though. This cycle should be doable in about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
These cycle rides are a bit off-roadish. I guess a city bike would be fine, but the bridleways might not (or rather, will definitively not) be appropriate for a racing bike.

Another very nice short cycle ride is the following: Go out on the towpath next to the Cam towards Waterbeach, cross the river at Baits Bite Lock (which is where the rowers turn around), go left, and then turn left again into a bridleway that gets you to a small country road. Go left and then right on a cycle path, and then towards Cherry Hinton or past the airport. This should be doable in 1 hour and 15 minutes, too.
If you want to go for a slightly longer cycle ride, don't cross at Baits Bite Lock, but continue to Waterbeach, go right along the main road, and then turn into a bridleway to Stow-cum-Quy Fen, and thence to Anglesey Abbey. Return via Stow-cum-Quy and Cherry Hinton.

Reply 3

sonofdot

One nice way to go is out to Coton via the West Cambridge site (head out over Orgasm Bridge, up the path past the UL, right at the fork, ahead at the traffic lights and you should find a nice cycle path). This is traffic-free almost all the way to Coton, and from there there are plenty of nice routes to take on small country roads/bridleways (e.g. this one).

For something shorter, you could try cycling to Grantchester through the Meadows, along the road to Trumpington and then back into Cambridge along Trumpington Road (which has an off-road cycle path). This won't take you longer than 40 minutes at most, but I went through a phase of doing it pretty much every morning before lectures, got me in a productive frame of mind! :biggrin:

Following the towpath along the river is nice, although you have to watch out for rowing coaches who are only interested in their boat. You can get to Waterbeach (about 6 miles) on a decent path, as long as you cross over the river at the black footbridge.

There are plenty more nice routes, often best found by just exploring. There is a good map here of all the cycle routes in and around Cambridge.

Nice Cycling Routes in Cambridge

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