Steve Kidd Cycling Trips and Guides
Steve Kidd Cycling Trips and GuidesThis is a must-do cycling trip. At least it is if you can work out why it is a must-do.
I reckon it's exactly 50 miles as near as dammit, the grades are well reasonable, and a lot of it is off-road, but on good, some superb, track.
The customary negatives of poor signage, stupid obstructions, time consuming diversions and subservience to cars abound on the route, but it is still good, right from Penistone to near the A1 at Doncaster, and generally very fast, albeit busy with some excellent quiet stretches approaching Scunthorpe.
I had the pleasure of doing it with my nephew, Andrew. Like going to the cinema, I
think it may be better doing these things with company.
The route splits into two sections, divided by the city of Doncaster. The first part starts from
Penistone station, and is an absolutely fantastic cycle route until.. Well I'm not sure, because we
fucked up with the signage and sat nav and ended up spending half an hour exploring nether
Yorkshireworth, before gaining the track proper again near Hoyland.
It is such a shame that the
powers that design these things would rather send you an extra mile on a shitty track, then straight
down the hill on the road which isn't that busy anyway. Once on the main trail, it takes you all the way
to Conisborough and past. We crossed by a huge viaduct as we approached Doncaster instead of following
the official route and were quite happy we did so.
Doncaster itself is just a city to get out of the way, and then its flat to Scunthorpe on fast roads. Some of the back roads are exquisite, the picture shows one stretch which is exactly what a cycle route should be, but this can be quite busy in places, so its single file heads down
Distance = 50 miles