Cycle Ride to Hambledon Vineyard

My Sunday ritual involves a steady cycle ride around the Hampshire countryside and this week we decided on a short loop out to the village of Hambledon, situated North of Portsmouth.

Meeting up with friends in Botley we took a cross country route across 15 miles with lovely views of fields and open countryside. Being Harvest season, most of the fields were bare or some with remaing bales still to be collected. Approaching the village from the West we rode through the centre and out to the East to see how the vines were looking at Hambledon Vineyard.

Unfortunately a Sunday morning isn’t the best time to visit and as we had the bikes couldn’t really indulge in a glass so we headed back through the village to The Old Forge Tearoom to top up on the caffeine and some delicious freshly baked cakes. This is a great little spot to hydrate and watch the world go by. Sunday mornings are popular with both cyclists and motorcyclists who pass through the village on their way further North to Alton. We were quite lucky and spotted a few classic motors including a very rare Citreon Traction Avant. One of the guys informed us that this model was used many years ago to categorise the climbs famous on the Tour De France. For the cycling enthusiasts you can find out more here.

image copyright: https://www.yapp.co.uk/blog/hors-categorie-poor-old-citroen-traction-avant/

After cake and coffee we took a similar route home meandering through Newtown and back to drop off ome of the group at Botley. Trying to click over the 40 miles, I took a slight detour down to Hamble to get a glimpse of the busy river on a stunning Sunday morning.