The Mega Caker is a glorious 232 mile circular ride, broken down into 6 Stages and designed to work as a little cycle holiday. It explores the leafy lanes of the Chiltern Hills, gravel tracks over the Berkshire Downs and quiet corners of the Cotswolds.

Every last mile of the route has been meticulously planned, staying well away from main roads and stringing together instead villages (to stop and take pictures in), market towns (to stay in) and tucked away coffee and cake stops (to refuel in).

It’s a celebration of what West Berkshire and Oxfordshire does best – sleepy backroads, endless farmland and open skies. Where the most common sounds are the squawk of a fat pheasant or rumble of a distant tractor.

And, if we’re being really honest, from November to March, gentle pitter patter (ie hammering down) of (as I like to think of it) Organic Oxfordshire rain.

Stage 1: Henley on Thames to Goring on Thames  - 40.5 Miles

Stage  2: Goring on Thames to Hungerford -  40.5 miles

Stage 3: Hungerford to Lechlade on Thames – 44.5 miles

Stage 4: Lechlade on Thames to Chipping Norton – 40 miles

Stage 5: Chipping Norton to Oxford City Centre – 33 miles

Stage 6 – Oxford City Centre to Henley on Thames – 36.9 Miles  

Using Trains for Ride Stages

I have tried (oh have I tried) to link in as many stages in with train stations so you can do them as individual rides and then jump on the train home. This wasn’t possible with all of them as there aren’t train stations exactly where I need them. However, with the exception of a few stages (Lechlade up to Chipping Norton) pretty much all the other rides work as single, two or three stage combinations.

When booking your trains, the key thing to understand is that there are two types which differ significantly for cyclists. And these are as follow:

Two types of Train - Hoppy Trains & SAT Trains

Hoppy Trains – these are the wonderful trains that you can hop on and off easily with your bike as there is ample room in each double door of the carriage. On, off, no bike booking required and aside from avoiding peak times these are easy-peasy.

Stupidly Annoying Trains  (SATs for short) – these are the ones with only two or four bike spaces which you have to absolutely have book in advance. Plus, they are pretty stressful to get your bike on and off. If you refer to Chapter 13 in the book (The Mega Caker Ride) you will see that I go into plenty of detail on how to use (and not use) these SAT trains.

Which trains are Hoppy Trains and which are SATs trains?

Stages on the Mega Caker that link up with trains:

Accessing the rides from London:

The whole ride is easily accessible from London. Head for Reading and then check above details for all branch lines onwards.

London Paddington to Reading: SAT trains but also plenty of Hoppy Trains (about two an hour). So make sure you head for the right one. Plus, the Elizabeth Line runs out to Reading and you can get bikes on and off that with ease.