Cycle Seahaven's Woman's Festival of Cycling fun ride

To celebrate the Women's Festival of Cycling, Cycle Seahaven are hosting a ladies ride from Seaford to the Beanstalk Tea Rooms in Firle.

This will be a leisurely paced MTB ride starting at 11 AM and finishing at around 5 PM. The route is suitable for MTB, hybrid and E-bikes with knobbly tyres. This is a beautiful cross-country route that will have the group passing through cow and sheep fields the Southdowns before descending onto the historic Old Coach Road where the Beanstalk Tea Room is situated. We will enjoy a leisurely lunch there in the company of the resident Peacock before riding back to Seaford.

For those not familiar with the local area the route will be broken up into legs as follows :

 Meet at the cycle path on the seafront at the bottom of Edinburgh Road, Seaford.

There will then be a short road ride on quiet streets to take us to Firle Road.

We then follow the concrete road (not open to traffic) that borders the Seaford Golf Course.  This is a gradual ascent that leads to the bridleway that takes us up to Bo Peep car park. This section is also a gradually ascending route on grass and gravel.

Bo Peep car park we take the South Downs Way across the top of the Downs with fantastic views to the south and north. There is a mixture of gentle climbs and gentle descents on short-grass tracks leading to Firle Bostal.

From the Bostal there is a lovely descent that takes us to the Old Coach Road (the original horse and coached route between Lewes and Eastbourne) which has a compacted rough surface of gravel and chalk. This is an undulating track used by walkers and cyclists.

After lunch, we continue along the Old Coach Road towards the picturesque village of Alfriston. This section is either on or beside a road,  due to extensive roadworks it is anticipated the road will be quiet. We ride from the village on a gradual climb up towards Cow Lane. 

Cow Lane is a descent along a partial tarmac to the pathway leading to a bridge across the River Cuckmere and the Littlington Road.

Lillington Road is a flat tarmac country road that joins the A259. This is a flat and short section of busy road that the traffic is usually very slow due to a bottleneck at the bridge.

Crossing the bridge we enter the Cuckmere Inn Carpark before going off road onto a mud and grass track leading to the 'Sheep Field'.

This is the last final gentle ascent of the day which takes us through fields to join up with quiet back streets in Seaford.

These back roads will take us to the promenade and the Martello Tower where we will ride along the promenade back to the start point.

The total distance is about 25 miles.

Participants must wear a helmet and advised to bring drinking water, spare inner tube, pump, lights, and a bike lock.

The ride leaders, Sarah Winser and Kate Carver can be contacted using the following link.