Ride the Colchester Rose

Those nice people at Essex County Council - most notably Merryl Mackenzie - are busy putting together plans for a Colchester Rose map of leisure routes around the town.

The venture is a team effort, with CCC, CTC and Colchester Rovers all surveying routes.

The idea is to provide a series of six petals leaving the outskirts of the town and covering ten to 15 miles before returning riders to Colchester.

Each petal will have details of attractions, such as pubs, shops, play equipment and places to see.

Riders will have the opportunity to join up petals to create a longer ride - possibly up to 140km!

If the route is published in time for this summer, then in 2007 we hope to join with the Visit Colchester tourist team to try to organise a four-day event - a non-sponsored bike ride for all ages and abilities just for the fun of it! Villages along the routes keep their summer fetes, flower shows, etc, specially for the ride - when thousands of cyclists turn up.

The Dutch love this type of cycle ride, and the classic is the Drentse Fiets 4 Daagse. In fact, they like it so much, they keep it to themselves - the website is only in Dutch!

We would like to create a British version - and we will benefit from being close to Holland to draw tourists, plus have totally different terrain.

If you would like to help with this project - especially if you are from the Lions, Round Table or Rotary, please e-mail colchester.cycling at mac.com.

:: Remote beauty - Alresford Ford is likely to be part of the Colchester Rose cycle routes. Picture copyright: Jack Bramhill