Bespoke Biking customer Delphine Granger sets out on a 300-mile charity challenge

I’m sure I must have looked like a bit of a tourist perched on my set of mini-wheels, compared to some of the racers I passed along the way – but I took pride in that. I was/am a tourist!

Inspired by a few routes Bespoke Biking posted on their Strava account, I set off on those early journeys towards Alresford along the B3047 delighting in the Itchen Abbas descent and crying on the way back. I – quite selfishly – named the bench outside St Mary’s Church in Itchen Stoke “My Bench” as I stopped there many times for a break.

I then ventured a bit further, sourcing out lunch destinations such as the Northbrook Arms in East Stratton, the National Trust Hinton Ampner and Mottisfont tea shops, the Bugle Inn in Twyford and the Coach & Horses in Sutton Scotney.

I discovered with delight the thatched cottages in Stoke Charity, Micheldever, Crawley and Easton. But not so much of a delight were the Romsey and the Stockbridge A-roads.

Google Maps led me off road