| Refreshment stops:
Cotswold Outing All Beacon's Cotswold Audax events give you the opportunity
to eat and rest at comfortable, cycle-friendly cafés and hostelries. On the Cotswold
Outing, there are two official stop-off points, or 'controls' (where, as well
as getting refreshments, you pick up a sticker for your ride card). If you are
going clockwise, you will stop first at Charlcote and second at Welford; if you
are going anticlockwise, you stop at the same places, but in the reverse order.
At Charlcote, the café is in the Garden Store, clearly signposted on the left,
just after Charlcote Park NT. Wheel your bike down the right-hand side of the
store to the gate at the end; please don't take your bike inside the store building.
At Welford home-made refreshments will be available in the Memorial Hall: a small
building on the left, in the middle of the village directly opposite the maypole.
Sometimes, the cafés on the Cotswold Outing can get busy. This year, we
have specially chosen places where there are fewer non-cycling customers, so that
you are less likely to be kept waiting a long time for food. All the same, at
the first control, when everyone is still quite close together, there may be a
bit of a press. So we have identified an alternative venue very close to each
of our official controls. Riders therefore have the option of pressing on a little
further (after collecting a sticker for your ride card from the official cafe)
to get a bite to eat elsewhere. Alternative to first clockwise control:
Wellesbourne Airfield. Directions: Continue along the route from the Charlcote
control; cross the B4086 as per route sheet. After about 0.8km, Touchdown Café
is on the left, by the control tower, about 200m after the windsock. Using this
café will not add to the total length of your ride, but it will mean that your
first stop is about 1.5km further into the ride. Alternative to first anticlockwise
control: Domestic Fowl Trust, Honeybourne Directions: continue to follow your
route sheet past Welford to junction at 43km. There, instead of turning left for
Mickleton, continue straight ahead. After 0.5km, turn right at crossroads, signposted
Bidford. The Wildfowl Trust is on your left after 0.4km. After using the café,
retrace to the Mickleton turn to resume the route. Using this café will add about
1.8km to the total length of your ride; it will also mean that your first stop
is about 11km further into the ride. |
