Thames Valley Adventure: Reading to Oxford

* This is a long day out with a late return. Please read the ride description carefully before booking a place. *

We are squeezing in another train-assisted ride outside London, before the autumn nights draw in. This will be our longest and most challenging ride of the year! It is 72.5km/45 miles and has a few sharp climbs, most of them in the first couple of hours. Places are limited to 6 riders, to facilitate taking bikes on trains.

As daylight hours are starting to shorten, you will need your lights for the last few miles of the ride and for your return home.

Although this is a longer ride, it will be at a steady pace. There are significant stretches on unpaved tracks, riverside paths, canal towpaths.

From Ealing, we take the Elizabeth Line to Reading.

The first section of our ride is the most hilly, riding through country lanes, sometimes surrounded by open fields, sometimes in woodlands, until we return to the river at Wallingford (24.5km/15 miles), where we will have a refreshment stop.

After Wallingford, the terrain levels out as we ride via Didcot to Abingdon on the Hanson Way, a largely traffic free route. We will have another refreshment stop in Abingdon (50km/31miles).

The last section of our ride is the easiest, as we join the Thames Path and follow it into Oxford. After navigating the city centre, we return to the river, to ride through the extensive green space of Port Meadow to the north of Oxford, as far as the ruins of Godstow Abbey. https://www.britainexpress.com/cities/oxford/godstow-abbey.htm Then we turn back through Wolvercote and join the Oxford Canal back down to Oxford Station.

Our return is on the Chilterns Line service from Oxford. This is a slow service, with only one train per hour, but is much more cycle friendly than GWR services. We will aim to take the 18.12 service to Wembley Stadium, arriving at 19.28. From here, it is a short ride back to Ealing via Stonebridge Park.

Train assisted ride from Reading to Oxford. Elizabeth Line from Ealing Broadway to Reading; returning on Chilterns Railway line from Oxford to Wembley Stadium & then back to Ealing.

Quiet country lanes; off road cycle tracks & shared paths; riverside & canal paths; some short stretches on busier roads.

Refreshment stops at Wallingford and Abingdon.

Plenty of snacks & water. Money/card for train fares & refreshments. Lock for your bike.

First-timers welcome!