This is a guide to cycling in Dartmoor. The rolling roads of Dartmoor offer some of the best cycling in the UK. This beautiful national park lies a little way north of Plymouth, in the county of Devon. It’s just under 1000 square kilometres, and measures 20 miles across in both directions. Compared to other national parks, it’s a relatively flat area. The landscape is an undulating, beige, grassy expanse punctuated with little brooks, rocky outcrops and reedy patches of marsh. There are small, pointed tors in every direction. On clear weekends, countless walkers are dotted along the dry, grassy moorland ticking off these modest peaks.
For cyclists, this park is well worth a visit. The climbs here are smaller and shallower than in other national parks – there is no equivalent to the lakes’ Hardknott Pass or North Wales’ Horseshoe Pass – but who’s to say that’s always a bad thing? Dartmoor’s healthy mix of fast rolling, open roads and steep, winding country lanes means a day in Dartmoor is varied, challenging and fun.
There are a few “main” roads going right across the park. These roads, usually B roads, cut straight paths through the centre of Dartmoor, intersecting with each other at various points along the way. They might seem like the ones to avoid, but in fact, they’re usually quiet; the speed is limited to 40mph; and cars tend to give a wide berth. These open roads offer expansive views along the moorland – the views stretch out for miles in every direction, and it feels like you are in a total wilderness, the only mark of civilisation being the road beneath your wheels. They give you the space to enjoying the sensation of riding, rather than constantly worrying about navigation, potholes or tight corners. And although they look straight on the map, these roads are full of sweeping bends, wrinkled chicanes and small rises and falls. The game is to keep momentum through these obstacles; I found myself dropping knees through corners, and sprinting up little climbs to maintain speed.
The moorland sits a few hundred metres above sea level, so to get up there, you have to climb at least 300 metres no matter which direction you come from. I stayed in a village near Tavistock, so entered the park via a climb known locally (by which i mean, named as a segment on Strava), as the Rundlestone climb, which is listed on the map as Pork Hill. Ascending 350m elevation gain, it is, by English standards, an epic climb. It’s reputation spreads far and wide, and so the Strava leaderboard is topped by big names like national hillclimb champion Andrew Feather and 2014 world champion Michel Kwiatkowski.
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The best way to ride in Dartmoor, and the only way you can make a circular route, is to link up the larger roads with tiny, single lane roads. As soon as you turn onto these smaller roads the scenery and sensation changes completely. The expansive view is exchanged for a high, thick hedgerow bristling with flowers and goosegrass. On these roads the corners are sharp, and the climbs steep and enclosed. Many lead to the kind of desolate, isolated farms that always remind me of Wuthering Heights. In combination with the larger roads, these little lanes mean you can put together a truly varied day of cycling here.
But you can make it more varied still by heading onto some of the 350km of gravel, mud and sometimes cobbled bridleways. Planning a bridleway route is a bit of a gamble: you could discover a smooth, sandy foresting road – these are a joy to blast along at full pelt – or you could end up clunking over a rutted, rocky field, wondering if your bike will survive the day.
Terrain aside, the best thing about riding here is the views. It feels like you’re in nature for once: Dartmoor ponies line the roads; they’re not wild, but they look it. Buzzards scour the ground for rabbits; skylarks call erratically; crows circle ominously around Dartmoor prison, which is grade two listed and, remarkably, still open. When you cycle somewhere this beautiful, it brings the experience up a few notches, above training and exercise and into something far more enjoyable.
