The Swansea & Gower Cycling Festival returns after a five year absence.

Swansea CTC have taken on responsibility for organising the festival which will run for 5 days from Thursday 24th to Monday 28th August.

The programme will consist of up to three rides each day, catering for a wide range of cycling abilities, from those fairly new to cycling, to more experienced riders looking for a challenge. We plan to run short, flat rides of 8 – 10 miles for families with children (all young riders under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult), intermediate rides in the range of 15 – 30 miles for regular, experienced riders; and more challenging and hilly rides of up to 65 miles.

Our Rides Programme takes advantage of the stunning coastal scenery of Swansea and Gower, as well the exceptional cycle paths and quiet country lanes that wind their way through the beautiful, hilly terrain further inland.

None of the rides in the programme are competitive. They are social rides, and will feature regular stops to regroup at junctions and the top of climbs, breaks for coffee, and, for longer rides, a lunch stop. Each ride will have a specified ride leader, a back marker and one other support rider. As with our regular club rides, we adopt a ‘no drop’ policy, meaning no rider gets left behind. Rides will be graded according to the difficulty of the route (distance and amount of climbing), and pace. See our ride grade system in the link at the bottom of the page.

Rides will be over routes on Gower and the greater Swansea area, extending into Carmarthenshire and Neath/Port Talbot (for longer rides). Family friendly rides will be all or largely on traffic-free cycle paths, although the majority of rides will feature at least some parts of the route on public roads.