Isle of wight

[Broughtonblue]

Going to isle of Wight soon, heard there are some great rides, even bike round the island. But alas I know the island quite well as a driver! As I'm recovering from an operation on the bit of me that interacts with the saddle (not piles, slightly more serious) I'm wondering if anyone can recommend flatter rides, as under docs orders I haven't cycled since last October! So slightly worried about tackling some of the hills around ventnor. Before my op I was a regular 30 miler 2 or 3 times a week, but have only done 2 10 milers in the last week, travel on October 2nd so should get a bit more 'acclimatised' over the next 2 or 3 weeks!

 

[Red Light]

The IoW is surprisingly hilly. The Round the Island ride is about 70 miles and 4,000ft of climbing, mostly in a series of short up and downs. Yarmouth to Freshwater is a nice 6 mile round trip flat mainly off-road ride with the Red Lion at the Freshwater end. Then over the two steep hills from Yarmouth the Military Rd with its sea views and back lanes of the Round the Island route round Brighstone and Mottistone are reasonably flat. Then there is a long cycle track from Cowes along the Medina to Newport (bit of a short hill at the Cowes end but otherwise flat) and then from Newport on to Alvestone. They are all marked on the Island map

 

[Chris.IOW]

It's fairly hilly here, but mainly short hills, the north part of the island between Cowes and Yarmouth is up and downy but nothing too serious. Plus you can meander down through northwood, porchfield and Newtown to avoid any main roads.

 

[Paulus]

The old railway lines have been turned into cycle paths, have a look at this site.

http://www.wightlink...ng/cycle-routes