The twin villages of Goring-on-Thames (Oxfordshire) and Streatley (Berkshire) form an ideal base for some of the best cycling in England, on-road or off, with easy access to
- The Ridgeway, a continuous 40 miles off-road ride from Avebury to Streatley, along one of the country’s most ancient highways, with numerous interconnecting bridleways and distant views over the chalk downland
- The Chilterns – Bluebells and beech woods, with (mostly short) steep climbs and dry valleys
- The Thames valley, running from Oxford gently down to Reading
- The Berkshire Downs, sloping down southwards from the Ridgeway to the Pang and Kennet valleys
- The Vale of White Horse, lying north of the Ridgeway and south of the Cotswolds
Goring Gap Cycling has details for some of the best local rides, starting from Goring and Streatley station. Go to the Routes or Map page to find them and download free maps and GPX route files. Use the Map page to find local cafes, bike shops and railway stations.
See the Away pages for multi-day trips, including C2C (as in Sea to Sea) routes across France and Wales, for those who want to go further.

🚲
Good to get out for our Monday ride after being rained or frozen off for the whole of January. It's February, so it must be peak pothole season.
🕳
Local riders will recognise this perennial unfavourite, on Icknield Road just by Grove Farm, north of Goring. It currently meets the Gromil Level 2 criterion for pothole reporting (Level 1 is you can float a plastic duck in it). Note this bike does not have a kickstand - it's just propped up on its pedal.
You can find it at https://www.fixmystreet.com/report/7024350#update_19943206
@bbcoxford One for the next episode of Tour D’ Pothole.
#gromils
#goringgapcycling
#goringandstreatley
#wearecyclinguk
#FixMyStreet
#roadmaintenance
#Oxfordshire

🌬🌞❄️🌨🌩💧
After three Mondays of walking instead of cycling, the Gromils were looking forward to getting out for a ride. Storm Herminia had passed over, leaving only a wind warning, with Goring on the northernmost margin of it. With a forecast of 7C and showers, it looked like we might make it this time, particularly when the sky cleared to sunny blue.
⚡️
About an hour before we were to meet, clouds came over and turned yellow. There was an enormous flash of lightning and clap of thunder. This wasn’t in the forecast. Our planned route to Didcot was over Cholsey Hill, definitely not the place to be in a thunderstorm. Reluctantly the word went out via WhatsApp to forget the ride and meet at the Village Cafe instead.
🌤
“Was that the right decision?” we wondered, as we walked down to the cafe in bright sunshine. We soon had our answer - not just heavy rain, but hail and more thunder. No one was pining for the delights of Cholsey Hill.
🗓
So all four Mondays wiped out for the first time in more than 10 years’ Gromilling. I guess we’ll all be glad to see the back of January, and hope February brings some warmer and drier times along with the crocuses.
#gromils
#goringgapcycling
#goringandstreatley

🚲 After something like 45,000 miles’ faithful service, my trusty steed BJ was looking and feeling rather the worse for wear.
❄️ I decided to treat him to a winter trip to Argos (@argos_racing_cycles) to set him up for the next 10 years of active service.
Argos did a wonderful job, including replacing the worn headset and adding braze-ons for a rear light. Such a friendly and efficient business 🌟🌟🌟
⚙️ Thanks also to #spacycles for the speedy supply of Dia Compe brake levers, which make it possible to use V brakes with dropped handlebars.
🌱 What we need now is some warm and dry weather- Roll on Spring!
#goringgapcycling
#bikerestoration
#retrobike
#bluebicycle

The depths of winter, when it’s too cold/snowy/rainy/windy to go out cycling, is an ideal time to plan a Grand Adventure for warmer months. What grander adventure could there be for a UK cyclist than to pedal from one end of it to the other - the classic LeJog, from Lands End to John O'Groats?
Many people do LeJog as a challenge, or as part of a charity fundraiser. That's fine, but it can also be done just “Because it's there”, to savour favourite places and make new discoveries. This is what my daughter and I did, taking as much time as we could afford (three weeks) and planning the prettiest route we could think of.
Taking three weeks to cycle 1200 miles gave us the freedom to camp, reducing our costs but increasing our connection to the rural areas we travelled through.
Ten years on the memories are still vivid, so I thought it would be useful to share the map and our GPX route files as a resource for other wanderers on wheels. Some of the campsites may have changed or gone out of business, but the country lanes are still pretty much the same and still just as pretty.
Follow the link in the Bio and search for LeJog on goringgapcycling.co.uk.
#LeJog
#goringgapcycling
#ActiveTravel
#wearecyclinguk

New Year, New Sealskinz
❄️ Appropriate that my new Sealskinz arrived the day nearby Benson recorded the lowest temperature of the winter so far at -8.2C.
These overshoes are great for keeping your feet warm and your cycling shoes clean in mucky winter weather.
It's a pity the soles wear out so quickly, just from the distance from 🚲 to ☕️
🗓 Here's to a Happy New Year of cycling (once the risk of ice has passed, of cours).
#goringgapcycling
#Oxfordshire

Top marks to our new local MP Freddie van Mierlo for securing a Westminster Hall debate on Cycling Infrastructure in Rural Areas yesterday. Scan the QR code to go direct to the Hansard report and see exactly what he and other MPs (including Layla Moran from Oxford West and Abingdon) said.
A few takeways from the debate:
💀 Mortality rates on rural roads are 2.7 times higher per mile cycled than on urban roads
👊 For every pound spent on cycling and walking schemes, £5.62-worth of wider benefits is achieved
🚗 The introduction of the 20 mph speed limit in Oxfordshire villages has seen “the largest reduction in collisions in the whole country. Research shows that a 1 mph reduction leads to a 6% reduction in collisions.”
🤞 Simon Lightwood, the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, announced that “In the very near future, Active Travel England will announce further details of the Government’s investment plans for this year and next… The Government will then set out what further funding for active travel will be available in future years, following the spending review. We will do so alongside producing a new cycling and walking investment strategy, which we anticipate will be published next year.” Fingers crossed time.
#goringgapcycling
#Chilterns
#Oxfordshire
#ActiveTravel
#wearecyclinguk
#Sustrans
🌨🌞 Sunday’s early morning ride was cancelled due to the cold and wet, so it was great to be greeted by mild sunny weather for the first Monday in December. Even better was to enjoy it in the company of a group of friends. The Gromils recorded their highest ever turnout, with 12 riders enjoying the countryside and chat from Goring-on-Thames to Henley.
❄️🚴♂️ Winter cycling brings its own challenges, and it’s good to have friends to help you through them. First a puncture on the gravelly cycle path from Bix to the Fairmile. Mark’s tubeless tyre refused to self-seal because of the size of the hole. As we came into Henley Roger’s brand new front tyre went flat. On inspection there was a sizeable flint embedded in it, which at least made it easy to find and fix.
☕️🍰 After such trials and tribulations it’s always nice to regroup and warm up, and where better for this than the Chocolate Cafe, sister to Goring’s Village Cafe? Wonderful cakes made good fuel for the haul back up the Harpsden Valley and through the woods to Goring.
🚧 There’s often a short debate about what to do when encountering a road closed sign. Usually a very short debate, along the lines of “We should be able to sneak through”, particularly if the alternative is a busy road, as road diversions never consider the needs of cyclists. This time we lucked out. Blackmore Lane is narrow, and it was proper blocked, by a truck fixing overhead wires. Not only did they let us through, the guy even helped to lift bikes over the truck’s outrigger 😊
⚙️ On the way back a couple of friends commented on the amount my back wheel was wobbling. Fortunately it wasn’t a big enough problem to make the brakes or mudguards rub. Investigation back home showed that one of the drive-side spokes was broken. I blame it on the Oxfordshire potholes.
#gromils
#goringgapcycling
#Chilterns
#wearecyclinguk
#roadmaintenance
#Oxfordshire