Something New for 2026:

Ride the North 360

 Ride the North was conceived as cycling tour that helped participants explore the beautiful, but often lesser-known parts of our region. The joyful part of riding a bike is that it takes you off the main roads that frequently bypass local communities and that means visiting local towns and villages, supporting local businesses and enjoying the scenery and tranquillity of the roads less travelled become intrinsic parts of cycling.

The future of the event has never been wholly clear BUT I have known since the post-pandemic return that changing everything each year is not sustainable and recent editions of the event have been partly embracing the joy of discovering new places and partly searching for solutions that can last more than one year.

However, I’ve been keen to keep alive some of the cycle touring origins of RtN and keen to hold on to some fond memories and great relationships. This summer I came up with an idea!!! What if I pieced together various routes I’d used over 13 years to created a multi-day route? I mapped it out – it was 580 km long. The Ride the North 580? Then I clicked ‘convert to miles’ …360!! The Ride the North 360!!

Ride the North was always seeking to spotlight that the wider region in which I lived as a wonderful cycling destination.  We have a beautiful country and the region covering Aberdeenshire, Moray, Angus, East Highlands and East Perthshire has an incredible network of minor roads carrying very little traffic.  We may not have cycle paths to rival The Netherlands but we do have opportunities to cycle without a whole lot of interaction with motor vehicles amid a wonderful natural environment.

Ride the North 360 is a bit of an experiment. Scotland hosts the Tour de France in 2027 – it seemed the time to try something new. We’ll just have to see if anyone is interested in a blend of great cycling roads and some traffic free paths to create a touring/bike-packing route showcasing Castle Country, the Malt Whisky Trail, Loch Ness, the Cairngorms National Park, Highland Perthshire, the Angus Glens, Royal Deeside and a whole lot more. The route has also sought to connect towns and villages with visitor accommodation to make it easy for the cyclist to split the ride into any number of days they might wish.

I plan to run supported rides and/or possibly a small event on the route in the year ahead and will be developing a website and will engage in some communication. The website will be developed to provide routes, photography and a visitor guide. This website https://ridethenorth360.com/ is showing interim information with the real website to be created in the new year.

More news about all this soon.

Thanks for your support.

Neil