Those of you who follow me on Twitter will have seen today this blurry picture:
I posted it because I wanted to see if everyone could guess correctly where it is. The picture is from Richmond Park and not a single person guessed incorrectly. I shouldn’t really have been surprised because Richmond Park is a firm favourite amongst London cyclists. If you haven’t discovered it yet then make a plan to go see it next weekend.
It doesn’t take someone long to work out why Richmond Park is a huge hit. Big open spaces, fantastic views, enough hills to make it interesting but at the same time not too challenging. You even get to see Rudolf running around with all his buddies. The park is definitely a rare treat in London where you are more likely to find yourself behind a white van chugging fumes than next to a deer.
My reason for going there today, aside from pure cycling enjoyment, is that it is one of the routes featured in Cycling Britain. A book I will be reviewing fully tomorrow.
I started in Swiss Cottage and did the long journey to Hammersmith Bridge and took the Thames Path. The Thames Path itself is a fantastic cycling route. At least if you don’t mind getting muddy.
From there I made my way down to Richmond Park. There are plenty of different cycling routes to do in Richmond Park but as I was testing out the Cycling Britain book I followed their instructions.
The route is good for both road bike cyclists and for mountain bikers. Mountain bikers will probably enjoy taking a slightly more off road route. As I did with my Hybrid bike.
If you get bored of cycling around Richmond Park then you can also head towards Twickenham and then down towards Bushy Park. This route follows the Thames and is also very pleasant.
The full route is a decent challenge, especially if you have already cycled a long way to reach the starting point. At 22.5 miles it should take around 3 – 4 hours according to Cycling Britain.
Keep an eye out for my review of Cycling Britain tomorrow and hope some of you enjoy trying out this route as much as I did today. Now just have to clean the bike and repair the puncture!
Equally interesting (if not more):
I love cycling in Richmond Park and used to ride there alot when I lived in West London. Now having moved to North London it’s too far and I miss it.
I love Richmond park…my only problem is persuading anyone else to go for a cycle with me…yup still working on converting someone/anyone to cycling…even if it is just a fun weekend leisure cycle rather than everyday commuting.
Got same problem its hard to convince friends to get in the pedals.
im always going ricmond park i travel from walton bridge and take the river all the way up
100Mile, I saw lots of people cycle training there. One guy was just repeating the same hill many times over!
Angi, hope you find a riding buddy! Luckily my friends have been easy to convert!
I would be interested in knowing if the John O’Groats to Lands End section in the Cycle Britain book. Am planning to do JOGLE this year and the more help the better
There is a section on that in Cycling Britain, I’ll include that in my review shortly.
Yeah, the extension down the Thames path via Teddington Lock has some nice trails and jumps parallel to the river for the mountain bikers.
I know cyclists who do laps of Richmond Park before heading down to the North or even South Downs!! Crazy! It’s fairly hilly!
That is the best place for Mtb.
Best one near London..
Crazy down hills
and lot off country sides
was there last sunday and man was it amazing, can someone tell me how many miles it as all around?
ugh, nothing on your blog is loading fast for me. I click something and it just waits for around 40 secs, then my anti virus thing pops up and says there’s a threat and asks if I want to proceed. Anyone else getting this or do I just have a crappy antivirus?
I thought the cycling was absolutely horrible, An absolutely dreadful experience, very dangerous, dirty and very expensive. Complete waste of my time, I am so angry I wasted my time on going there, and we live quite far away, (I was expecting it anyway, but my bro couldn’t stop complaining that he’d like to go) I wouldn’t advise anyone who would like to cycle to go there. I am a tennager aswell.