Think London is just busy roads and city traffic? Think again! Today I’m taking you on an incredible gravel cycling adventure, right in London’s backyard. Hidden trails, beautiful scenery, and routes you won’t believe exist in the city limits.
Ready to discover a side of London you never knew? Let’s ride! 🚴♂️🌳
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Now, you probably wouldn’t believe me if I said London has some of the nicest gravel roads I’ve rode. See, as I come from the Forestine, which is all gravel, that’s saying something. Why am I looking at these gravel roots, you might ask? Well, it’s because I’ve signed up to the Stone Circle 220k the bastard travel ride. So, I need to get some gravel practice in. But while I weave in and out of this traffic, let’s have a look at what I’m riding. Would you look at that? This is the Scott Addict Gravel. Got the Arrow up front. We got the Explore rear cassette. Plenty of room for hills on that I find. And we got the Zip 353 FireCast with the zagged edge. Helps in air, but really it just looks cool, doesn’t it? So, that’s what we went for. And it comes with some nice aero bars, all integrated cockpit. Just looks awesome. So, as you know, if you follow my channel, that is the paneer pace. And the first section of gravel I’m going to hit up is the temp’s toe path. Uh yeah, hit the temps to path and check out what that’s like because I think it’s one of the better routes in uh in London if you try have a little casual cruise with your friends or your family on the weekend. Apologies if it is a little bit windy. We have a strong headwind today. It’s not going to do me any favors. We’ve actually got to put in three sets of intervals on this route to try and uh pick up some stamina. Yeah. Have a look at here. The 10 toe path. It’s what I really love about gravel riding is like it just opens up so many more opportunities compared to uh riding your tarmac bike. I also find I don’t think it’s any slower, you know. I can do just Whoa. Nails. Ah. Yeah, I don’t think it’s much slower. And then you can take nifty little shortcuts like this to beat all of that traffic. For those of you that enjoy a Richmond loop, you probably didn’t know surrounded by mega gravel. It’s actually a really nice view about the same as the normal one. 10ks. You can edit pretty fast. It’s nice and smooth. Bit of a leg burner cuz there are some decent pumps bumps, but one of London’s best. The only thing I’d say you do notice with gravel is, man, it burns your legs. This is 30 kph now, but you’re using sort of 350 400 W here. So, you really burn the wicket both ends. Some of the nicest sections of gravel there. Beautiful in Richmond. We’re going to head out down at the bottom of Richmond and we’re going to be into I call it Ether. For those that know, it’s by Sigma Sigma Sigma Sports. We’re going to head down there and there’s some lovely toe paths. Beautiful. Beautiful. Just grabbing a few cable toys cuz I’ve noticed the Insta 360 is falling off. This should fix it. So, I now have a pocket full of cable ties. We’re here in Tedington. Nice little village. Actually, if you want to stop for a coffee, why don’t I have time, unfortunately, so I’m going to keep moving. On some open trail now, probably about 30k into this 70k. It’s been a really nice mix. Nice bit of tarmac, mostly loose paved what type one gravel. Really nice and smooth. We’re on a bit of a rough off-road fieldy section here. Coming up to a nice h actually. I don’t know what they did. So, I didn’t really plan this ride very well. It’s a bit impromptu. So, I haven’t got any fuel on me. And it’s turning out to be a little bit spicy. I’ve been averaging 250 W average, which is quite a lot. We are a few kilometers now from the gravel. So, let’s go. It’s beautiful. I must be on the temp’s toe path now down past telling till I’ll drop a pin on the map so you can find it. I wanted to say why I picked this bike really because it’s quite unusual looking, this new Scott gravel bike, but I think it looks really cool. The paint job on it drew me in, but it’s also got a bit more of an aerof framing setup. But I wanted a gravel bike that I could really do a bit of both with in terms of keep some good speed on the tarmac and keep moving in a nice fast pace, but also be able to take it off road and run these different gravel routes. So, I’m really pleased with how this bike’s came out. I don’t know if it’s a race really or adventure coming up. Comment below if you’ve done any gravel before, how to pace it. The biggest I’ve done is a eing forest loop 100k on a gravel bike and it definitely takes the energy out of you more than on a uh you know on a normal bike. Stop here is we’re pretty much halfway now as it’s beautiful. Such a lovely little area. I don’t know where this is but I’ll drop a pin in the map. This beautiful little lock here with this cool what would have been a pump house I guess maybe or something. I think it looks quite industrial. Probably flats now. Yeah. Breaking onto this beautiful river. So, I think this would be a good spot to get a thumbnail. Want to end my ride? What a cool place to live, eh? Right on this river front here down uh down this river is. Woohoo. This is sketchy. Um yeah, it must be beautiful. So peaceful. We’re only like 20ks out of London from here, which is mad really. The only benefit I do have is I raced motocross for 10 years when I was younger. So, the off-road doesn’t scare me too much. And those that follow me on my other channel, I race cars professionally at 42 Bennett. So, go check that YouTube out, although I don’t really post on there anymore. Um yeah, certainly gives you a bit of an advantage I would say. Hopefully on the gravel event that I’m doing in about four or five weeks time now that’ll come through and show that having this bit of an ability off road can uh help in the gravel sections not sketch yourself out. New whole lock. So, at least we know where we are. And this is what it is in London. It’s a lot of these gravel or straight rides, but you can pick up the caves. It’s nice, enjoyable. But again, another beautiful place. it wouldn’t be spring training in with intervals during a week alongside um you know a big long ride on the weekend. And I will say from the Morca 312, my endurance is just increased tenfold. I’m just getting no lactic acid on the bike, I only seem to be able to push through much more than I used to be able to. Um, so it just seems time on the bike is really paying off and it’s really getting us to um a new level, which I’m excited for. But anyway, I’m going to finish this. We’re going to cycle past some really flipping nice houses. Like the nicest hoses I’ve ever seen. I don’t know who lives there, but it must be footballers. And then we’re going to wind up some nice actual natural woodland back into the center of London. It’s going to be a nice little trip. We’ll see how many watts I pushed out at the end of this and how big a ride I manage to achieve. And then yeah, just get ready for the next gravel adventures. Okay, I know this isn’t gravel, but I needed to stop and show you some of these houses. They are absolutely mad. This is just before we dive in to the deeper forest on the last little 30k back to uh center of London. Beautiful smooth woodlands here. Cruising back towards Ether, I believe. Uh down in the bottom of London. Yeah, it’s beautiful. All right. No worries. Nice little climb here. This is what I mean. You would not know this is just on the outskirts of London. Few nice wide smiles in here for the thumbnail. Flying through these woods. Absolutely mega. Woo. Let’s go. Where can I get my sweets? Where can I put you guys? Sugar girl. Nice bit. I just stopped and got more snacks. These watts are eating fuel and calories today. This headwind there has been brutal. I’ve been in it for like what feels like 40 years. Come on, let’s go. And just like that, I am back in Richmond Park. That was a fun 60k gravel loop here in London. I hope you enjoy seeing what it has to offer. My training is just beginning for the bastard. 220 uh kilometers, 2,700 m of climbing at the stone circle. I’m looking forward to it. Yeah, still not no climber. Thanks. you like, comment, subscribe, and as always, let’s go.