Ugly Rides

[Bollo]

Today I did a recce for a BC Guided Ride from St Mary's Stadium in Southampton to the Winchester Criterium this Sunday. The first part of the route kinda follows NCN246 from the city centre north west to Redbridge and the start of the M271 before turning north out into the sticks.

Feck me if that's the ugliest stretch of riding I think I've ever done. Just ..... horrible. If you’d like to mix it with 40tonners from the port, ride past strip development industrial units, a railhead, stacks of containers, cut-and-shut garages and a congested six lane trunk-road and through litter-strewn copses that probably hide at least one body apiece , then I recommend this route. Otherwise, not so much.

So what’s your route that delivers on the fugly? I’m not talking somewhere that’s just a bit busy or unpleasant for cycling, but full-on wasteland or dystopian nightmare.

 

[StuAff]

…and it starts at St Mary's to boot (Fratton Park would make no less an apocalyptic start point, though). That part of Southampton is nasty to ride in, no doubt about it.
Round here: Market Way roundabout (shudder), Eastern Road bike path (definition of a necessary evil), the A27 alongside North Harbour, Paulsgrove, Leigh Park....

 

[Bollo]

…and it starts at St Mary's to boot (Fratton Park would make no less an apocalyptic start point, though). That part of Southampton is nasty to ride in, no doubt about it.
Round here: Market Way roundabout (shudder), Eastern Road bike path (definition of a necessary evil), the A27 alongside North Harbour, Paulsgrove, Leigh Park....

If the Tricorn Centre was still part of the skyline I'd say we have a winner - that part of Portsmouth is quite scabby despite the supposed historical interest from HMS Nelson.

If I needed an omen of how visually unappealing today's ride was going to be, it started with a 6ft picture of Matt Le Tissier's face along the tribute wall on the foot/cycle-bridge out of St Mary's.

 

[Crackle]

Widnes

 

[Vantage]

Manchester

 

[Sharky]

Widnes

Yep, riding over the Runcorn Bridge, breathing in all the chemicals & smells from the factories below.

May have been cleaned up nowadays, but in the 60's !!!!!

 

[Old jon]

Holbeck

 

[mikeymustard]

Bourton on the Water. All those identical cotswold stone houses and bridges, fighting your way through chinese tourists, the bridges are too small, especially in the model village

edit: not my picture by the way - far too much hdr processing for my taste

 

[Lavender Rose]

The worst route ever was when I completely messed up the GPS and ended up coming through Ashford on the busy roads and through industrial estates and terrible pedestrian walkways...

 

[Levo-Lon]

I often thought id hate to cycle around Cambridge.
Its ok on foot but in or on anything with wheels!!
And london,infact most inner cities.

 

[Alan O]

For me it was probably back in the pre-GPS days when I was riding from Leeds to Liverpool. It was lovely until I got over the Pennines and down the other side... but then it was Rochdale, Bury, Bolton.

 

[Slick]

Almost anywhere in a city is never going to be great, at least outside the center anyway. Glasgow is no different and if you want to head out to some of the best parts of the country, you have to cycle past not the worst but certainly not the prettiest.

 

[brucers]

Scunthorpe Steel works side....got a puncture there today to add to my woes.

 

[Venod]

Don't ever ride from the A19 across the south of Middlesbrough through the steel works/factories unless you want to loose the will to live.

 

[rrarider]

Bootle-Liverpool, the dock road from Millers Bridge to the city centre. At least the dreadful potholes mean that you have to keep your eyes fixed on the road surface, thereby avoiding looking at the scenery.