Map (zoom in for more detail)
Download file for GPSDirections and GPX
Route directions PDF (right click to download)
GPX file (right click to download)
Glorious Bike Rides
Glorious Bike Rides
Route directions PDF (right click to download)
GPX file (right click to download)
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Another extremely well thought-out route. I’m getting a bit keen on these routes. This was my second one in 3 days!
No defects to report. I imagine the bridle paths through the RSPB Centre north of Biggleswade could be soggy after wet weather.
As this GPS trace shows:
http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=osulonbtweadxbti
I overshot a few turns but Jack’s GPX file provided excellent navigation on my Garmin 605. I like to use a belt and braces for navigation so I printed a page grabbed from the above LandRanger and had it on my ‘bars too.
Glad to hear you’re enjoying the rides, George. As the RSPB Reserve is on the Greensand Ridge, I suspect it’s fairly free-draining, so hopefully not too muddy at any time of the year, certainly not a quagmire. I rode it in summer 2012 and it was fine. At any rate, it’s only a fairly short section.
Hallo, we Are German touristis and visit Britain for the lost lanes. No. 5 and 25 are done. The cycling Tours are real great. Nö. 5 is easy going with the route PDF. No. 25 was a little tricky. Now we are on the way to no. 22 and are confused about the route PDF. In the Route PDF are only 33KM listed… In summary, we are happy about your Book! Cycling around with our Brompton and MOULTON TSR in its Homeland! We enjoy the landscape every mile! A Great Book.
Hi there – this was an error and now fixed. My apologies for that. I’ve emailed you directly as well. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the rides, and on such fine bicycles too!
Jack
Hi there,
Great book and great rides!
We hit a bit of trouble on ride 22, when the route came off the mud track. Our Garmin didn’t like the route so recalculated us to the A1 back to Baldock! We turned back and tried to manually follow the Garmin route through the RSPB centre, but the route map as downloaded to our Garmin was literally through some trees (not even an off road track). Maybe there was a track but it’s been closed?
No problem in the end, as we simply came out of the centre, turned right and looped back into Biggleswade. But just wondered if anyone else encounted this, or if anyone had any guidance as to the right was through the RSPB centre.
Thanks
Paul
Hi Paul
I’m not sure I’d want my Garmin to decide on whether it likes the route or not, and I certainly wouldn’t trust any route that’s recalculated by a Garmin. The way I use a GPS when cycling is to upload a track and follow it like breadcrumbs on the screen. So all the Garmin is doing is showing my location, the track to follow, and the map of the surrounding area. Maybe if you do it like that you’ll be less at the mercy of your technology. I hope that’s helpful.
best wishes
Jack
Cycled this route today. It is indeed, fantastic. Transferred the route to Garmin which worked perfectly. The short off-road section was no problem with road tyres (it was dry). The section of road Langford to A1-crossing was the busiest and a little unpleasant. But apart from that, splendid. And Jack…you’ll be pleased to know. The birds are back in abundance. The fields and hedgerows were full of song, including skylarks.
Enjoyed this ride today. Lovely section through the RSPB reserve! We made a detour to Broom for lunch at The Cock. Lovely eccentric pub, but the menu was rather basic. We passed Jordans Mill 5 minutes before and would suggest trying lunch here at the riverside cafe, which probably opened just after Lost Lanes was published.
Just did this route today, was very good. It’s a really minor amend but there’s been a 1 way change, I guess recently: When Potton Rd crosses the train tracks, you need to now turn right onto Rose Lane and then left on to Sun Street and resume the remainder of the route.
I have done many rides from each of Jack’s four (to date) Lost Lanes volumes. In general, I find that Lost Lanes South listed in this volume have changed a lot since it was published in 2013. I did this ride yesterday and the “B” roads were too busy.
Hi Amory
Sorry to hear this but I’m not entirely surprised. There is a rising tide of traffic on many roads in the south east, and those of us who prefer to ride on quieter lanes have to continually adjust to this. Having said that I do think it’s still a minority of routes in the book that feature roads that are too busy to cycle, and much does depend a bit on time of day and the day of the week.
Lost Lanes South will need an update / 2nd edition with new rides and revisions to those that include roads that have become too busy for many of us. This is something I am discussing with the publisher. Can you help me by telling me exactly which roads were too busy, assuming it wasn’t just all of them? Was it the bit through Biggleswade?
Jack
The stretch from Biggleswade back to the fields around Edworth Road wasn’t much fun, the B659 I think. Looking at the map, I’m wondering if it’s possible to negotiate through the wind farm – not sure on the public access with that.
That’s a really good idea John-Paul. The wind farm was built after the book came out, so it wasn’t an option I was able to look into at the time. Having had a look at Strava’s global heat map and various other sources, it does look as though those tracks through the wind farm are useable and are in fact being used, though (1) it’s not a public right of way and (2) it might be necessary to lift bikes over locked gates.
It would be a great if a local reader could take a look and if it works, I can include an updated alternative route here on the website.
My current plan, subject to approval by the publisher, is to produce a second edition of the book in 2022, hopefully for publication in 2023, i.e. ten years after the first edition.
I had a look around on the public right of way map for the council, and it looks like you should be allowed to go through a reasonable chunk of it. The idea of cycling through fields of those turbines sounds fun, if a little geeky.
You might need to drag that link below around a bit, it doesn’t remember your zoom/offset positions. It’s BW40.
http://my.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/?ms=CentralBeds/AllMaps&layers=cbc_boundary_only,row_legal_network&starteasting=512647.49908447&startnorthing=238829.50027466&startzoom=1995
Yes – BW40 gets you to Langford. However, the tracks through the wind farm would enable you to bypass Langford and get closer to the crossing point of the A1 on road to Edworth. The next question is how rideable BW40 is. It looks OK from this photograph from 2016.
Another alternative is to avoid Edworth Road, which is a bit of busy cut-through at times, and use the BW from Langford to Henlow, then pick up National Cycle Route from Arlesey – Stotford – Norton – Baldock.
I’m not local, but I tried this today: cycling through the windfarm. It was pretty cool in a very geeky way.
We were passed by two other cyclists who I assumed to be locals (since they weren’t standing around looking at maps trying to work out where they were going), and met two or three dog walkers. Unfortunately we did need to lift the bikes over at least two gates — but other gates had bits of fence missing, and looked to be pretty well-used. Maybe the local dog walkers and cyclists take a slightly different path to get back on to Edworth road?
On a dry day in early November the gravel path through the windfarm was rideable on road bikes (and a Brompton). Jack, I can send you some more recent photos if you want an idea of how it looks on the ground today?
The only other thing I would mention is that it requires crossing the train tracks at a rather scary (to me) level crossing. There’s a light, and lots of signs, and you can see a very long way in both directions, so in theory it is safe, but it is still quite intimidating to cross 4 high speed train tracks on foot, especially if the light goes to red while you are halfway across.
A 2025 update: we did this route today and started the wind farm section at the level crossing at Jubilee Lane. We went as far as it looked like we could and then joined the B Road for the last section that takes you to the roundabout for the A1 flyover. The good news is there were no fences (previously reported that there were two) to navigate and it was a really pleasant route, much better than the B Road which we could see was really busy. Though I can imagine it getting pretty muddy after rain.
Interestingly I did notice a public bridleway sign at the A1 roundabout so it’s possible you might be able to skip the B road altogether and go all the way through the farmland but that’s for the next adventurer to find out!
Thanks for the great book and routes, we’re in year two of ticking them all off.
Hi Jack, Fantastic to know about the second edition. It might be too much, but you’ve obviously got a whole ‘peloton’ of enthusiasts who have ridden these rides and will have recent experience. Another road I seriously thought would be my last ever is Hidden Hertfordshire B655 from Hexton to the Little Offley turn. Cars and huge lorries travelling at speed with little room to escape. We’ve subsequently adapted the route cutting that section and now ride Lilley to Great Offley. The increasing traffic and speed of vehicles in South East England is a blight. Pat
Thanks Pat – good info, much appreciated. Jack
Yes, that one stretch isn’t fun: feels like an abrupt change of pace compared the rest of the route.
I’ve modified it to carry on straight for a bit, up to Higham Road, then right to Apsley End, then back down towards Pirton, and then cross the B655 again and resume the original route. You’re then not too far away from the entrance to the Pegsdon Hills and Deacon Hill, if you wish to do that also.
Thanks John-Paul. We’ll give that a go next time.
A pleasant ride with on a sunny day. Do stick on the road to 25.3m.The sign for Hazell Hall is on the wall diagonally opposite the metal gate. I joined an earlier bridle path but ended up on B1042 at Deepdale. At the RSPB there are now signs coloured with the cycle route to Biggleswade Common and in text. Easy to see and follow. Note at 18.8m on Potten Road, you will come to a junction; turn left onto Rose Lane. Follow round to a crossroads. Turn right and join Sun Street here.
I did this route on Sunday 15 Oct 2023. Sunny 14 degrees with 7mph Northerly wind on my Orange Five Pro mountain bike. Went around clockwise due to lack of concentration in Ashwell. That got the awful bit between Langford an Hinxworth out of the way early on! I went to Cock Inn at Broom (Nice!) then returned to route via Gypsy Lane and B658 into Biggleswade. Biggleswade Common was my favourite part of the route by a long way. Even found my first Death Cap mushroom there! 🙂 Ashwell was nice as well. The book says 195m ascent. OS Maps tells me 380m ascent and my arse confirms that! I enjoyed the ride but I did Route No.4 last week and this was nowhere near as good. I’d give it 3 Stars but definitely worth doing. Plus I didn’t give the Station car park £6.50 as parked in side street. Gave that money to the Cock Inn. My route was 34 miles.