Sunday 21st September 2025
I had thoroughly planned this ride with everything thought through beforehand until I received a text from my Sunday night Airbnb host in which he happened to mention that this weekend was the Kop Hill Climb, a large gathering of classic cars racing up Kop Hill (unsurprisingly). That was very useful information, since my planning had included for me to cycle up the very same hill soon after arriving in Princes Risborough on Sunday! So I quickly changed the plan so that I’d do that ride on Wednesday instead and cycle around Bedford today. Not at all an issue, but so glad that I found out in time.
I parked near Grafham Water on the route of a previous ride from 2021 so that the rides would link. I headed South to Bedford and then looped round through St Neots and back to the car. I must say I’m disappointed in the scenery here. The villages are pretty, but between them is only flat arable land which today was even devoid of any greenery, the crops having already been lifted. I didn’t explore the centre of Bedford, but what I did see didn’t make me want to hurry back, but returning is exactly what I’ll be doing tomorrow.
There’s a very interesting pyramid-shaped building in Bedford which apparently houses a swimming pool, but the business operation seems to have encountered difficulties and may even have closed. It certainly looked a bit sad as I cycled past today.
I then visited St Neots and promptly fell out with my route planning software which sent me zigzagging along difficult-to-navigate cycle paths through urban parkland thronged with families on bikes and with dogs. Whilst it was good to see all the families enjoying the weekend, it was just too crowded so I abandoned the route and followed quiet roads through the town instead. There was a lively main street, but not much else.
I then drove across to Princes Risborough where I’m booked into an Airbnb which is very well appointed, close to the centre of town and handy for restaurants. The host has also very kindly let me leave my car on his premises for a couple of days.
I ate Italian tonight, enjoying a huge calzone at a restaurant just up the road. I’m back in the same digs on Tuesday so I spent some time sussing out a different venue for then.
Monday 22nd September 2025
David Bowie was born in Brixton but there is a wonderful statue of him in Aylesbury. I was passing through the town today so I swung by to take a look. Why Aylesbury? Well it appears that he debuted Hunky Dory in 1971 and just weeks later launched his Ziggy Stardust persona at the town’s Friars Music club. Apart from this, a clock tower and a spectacular bridge over the railway line, the town is famous for its ducks, although I never saw any today.
It was a bit disconcerting to realise that I’m about a decade older than the city of Milton Keynes, although some of the villages the city absorbed as it developed are way older than me. One such, Stony Stratford, is an old coaching village whose lovely main street sits above part of Watling Street and boasts abundant coffee shops. I sat outside for my lunch and imagined Romans sitting here doing the same thing almost two millennia earlier, probably not wearing lycra. The bright sun made it feel less autumnal than earlier – it was a very cold start today, demanding arm and neck warmers.
I passed many attractive villages on the way North and I was pleased that the scenery had improved over yesterday, more undulating and greener fields with more livestock, although some of these weren’t actually live. After lunch, I went searching for the concrete cows for which Milton Keynes is famous (I think the Open University is the only other thing). I used to see these sculptures whilst travelling to London on the train in the early 80s, and I was delighted to find them today, except that they aren’t the same ones. The real ones were becoming a bit weather worn and so were moved indoors; the ones I saw were plastic replicas, but just as impressive.
Cycling through the city was marvellous. There are scores of cycle paths which pass beside or often under the road system meaning that you never need to stop at junctions. The only criticism is that occasionally the surface was very uneven and bumpy.
I visited Bedford once again and I was a little better disposed towards it today, even though I did catch school throwing-out time.
Skirting the paths beside the river south of the city gave it a much better perspective.
The cycle network here is very good, especially since where a side road joins a main road, there are two sets of give way lines so cars first give way to bikes on the cycle path and then to other vehicles on the road. So, Buckshaw Village planners please take note; it can be done.
My Airbnb host tonight is Italian, and she invited me to join her and her family for their evening meal. It was marvellous food; a pasta dish accompanied by slices of home-made pizza with a Parma ham topping followed by tiramisu and an espresso. Delicious. And I was even given a glass of wine! We spent a lovely evening just chatting.
Tuesday 23rd September 2025
Today began after a good night’s sleep and a great breakfast and so I set off at 8.30 on a very cold morning. I stopped after a mile to put on another vest which was just about sufficient. It was sunny, though, and I could feel the warmth breaking through, but it was a good two hours before the temperature reached double figures.
I wasn’t really looking forward to the ride today. At the planning stage, my preferred route-planning app, Cycle.Travel, suggested that the route had less than 1/2 mile on busy roads, yet in my mind I’d developed the idea that by travelling through the centre of towns such as Hertford, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, and St Albans the route must be really busy. I hadn’t allowed for the excellent cycle routes between these towns such that I probably spent more than 18 miles on traffic-free former railway lines, and perhaps twice that distance along pleasant country lanes. Even in the towns, the infrastructure made cycling very easy and so I had a lovely, stress-free day.
I rode along plenty of quiet roads in the morning, but also spent a fair stretch on a gravel track bypassing Letchworth. This was OK, but a bit slippy-slidey where the gravel was loose.
I stopped for a coffee at a café in Hertford before continuing along the former St Albans branch line which was very smooth and flat and took me more-or-less all the way to St Albans. When I wasn’t on this traffic-free cycle route, I rode on a dedicated path alongside busy main roads.
St Albans is an impressive city. I don’t know what I expected, but I think I was anticipating another version of Hertford. I was wrong. Although it’s only small (80-odd thousand population), it has grandeur. And I’ve not seen anything more grand than its cathedral which is huge, and unlike many cathedrals, not covered in scaffolding. Although it was started in the 11th century, it looks much newer.
I had lunch in the cathedral café called the Abbot’s Kitchen and I was served by a bloke with ‘dinner ladies’ emblazoned on his uniform. It was true that most of the staff were ladies, but I felt that the branding didn’t quite work for chaps such as him. I suppose it demonstrated equal opportunities.
An aside. When southerners always insist on calling their evening meal ‘dinner’ and laugh at those of us who have dinner at dinnertime (and tea at teatime), why do they still have dinner ladies serving in schools? Why don’t they call them lunch ladies?
Leaving St Albans I rode through Verulamium Park which was Roman in origin (also on the route of Watling Street) and boasted some substantial town walls, albeit a bit crumbly now.
From here, the route became a bit harder since once I’d skirted Hemel Hempstead I began gently climbing into the Chilterns. I was interested to cycle past Chesham tube station. I know the Metropolitan line runs overland at that point, but it still looks incongruous seeing a London Underground station in such a rural setting.
I travelled through Great Missenden which apparently was used quite a bit as a film location in the TV programme Midsomer Murders. I’ve never seen the programme, but surprisingly the village wasn’t nearly as attractive as many I’d passed through.
As the day progressed I’d begun to entertain a pleasant image of me enjoying a pint in Princes Risborough while waiting for a traditional pub meal. However, after freshening up at my digs, I set off to the only pub in town advertising that they served food but it turned out that they didn’t serve food on this particular evening. (“Sorry Guv, the kitchen’s closed tonight” said in such a way that suggested sorrow was a very distant emotion). I needed grub, so I pitched up at an Indian restaurant, which, unsurprisingly was doing a roaring trade. Once again, I was almost over faced with the quantity of food even though I didn’t have a starter or dessert.
Tomorrow’s a complicated day in terms of logistics, so I spent some time in the evening planning what should happen.
Wednesday 24th September 2025
Today I went on the ride in the Chilterns that I’d planned for Sunday. The weather was kind (warmer than yesterday) and so I enjoyed a lovely mooch around the area. I managed four climbs from the Southeast Cycling climbs book since they were all very local. I could have cycled up and down those hills all day and never ridden the same piece of tarmac. None of the climbs were killers; generally less than a mile long with no stupid gradients.
Before that however, I enjoyed another delicious breakfast baguette at a lovely café and spent so long chatting to a local guy that my coffee went cold!
After I’d ticked off the first climb (Whiteleaf – it started after just a mile), I went down Kop Hill which I would climb up at the end and meandered back through the town (in this case, ‘meandered’ is a euphemism for getting lost) searching for an anonymous building in a small business park within which I have spent many uneasy hours. Whilst at work, my professional body was the Association for Project Management (APM) and in the later years of my career, I spent many days working with them, occasionally at their headquarters in Princes Risborough. The meetings with them weren’t daunting, but the APM were the acknowledged experts and I regularly felt out of my depth. Going back there today was quite cathartic.
There were more picturesque villages and churches today, but I didn’t take many photos (I was too busy puffing up the climbs or zooming down them). It would’ve been great if I could have photographed one of the many red kites which were everywhere. One swooped down just beside me and quickly lifted off with a vole in its talons. It then reached down with its beak and ate it whilst flying away!
I’m back home now after a very successful trip which ticked off two more English counties (Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire) leaving just Norfolk and the City of London left to collect. This ride also linked up two previous rides which looks very satisfying on a map. I covered 220 miles in total with just over 10,000 feet of climbing and also rode in 238 new explorer tiles.
My next trip is just next week when I’m on a mission to extend my cluster further South. Thanks for reading.