THE WIGHT STUFF
Appealing for riders, the roads here are the smoothest you’ll find anywhere in the UK
One sunny morning, Cycling Plus editor Matt, photographer Steve and I cycled off the ferry from Southampton to East Cowes. We were here on the Isle of Wight to ride the perimeter of the island – around 65 miles – in a day. We’d stay overnight in Gurnard, West Cowes, and return to the mainland the following morning, but it’s easily doable in a day, meaning a foot-passenger day ticket is an option.
Roam in a day
The Isle bills itself as a cycling island. And a walking island. And a running island. If it moves, the marketing team tag and sell it. It’s also a fossil island, with professional and amateur palaeontologists flocking here, with finds as old as 130 million years. However, this set-adrift land only broke from the mainland around 8000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. Sea levels rose, flooding the Solent. This
