As the weather improves and the days get longer its a great time to get out on your bike and explore the wonderful countryside around Worcester.

You can get out a map and plan routes for yourself, but to help you find some of the best and safest routes Push Bike! members have supported the County Council to provide five signed family friendly leisure routes starting from the outskirts of Worcester.

Broadway Hallow Loop - 7.5 mile or 14 mile routes starting from Worcester University ‘s main campus.

Crowle Tibberton Loop – 12 mile route starting from Worcester Woods Countryside Centre.

Kempsey Norton Loop – 8.5 mile or 13.5 mile routes starting from Worcester Woods Countryside Centre.

Northwick Ladywood Loop – 6.5 mile and 10.5 mile routes starting from the Pump House Environment Centre.

Worcester City Circular Loop – a 9 mile loop using the City’s existing cycle network.

You can download a PDF map and GPX or KLM files for of any of the above routes from the Worcestershire County Council website www.worcestershire.gov.uk by searching for ‘Cycle Routes and Maps’.

Also on the website is the 18-mile ‘Bredon and Around the Hill’ route (signed as L21) and longer routes using the National Cycling Network (NCN) leading out from Worcester to Droitwich, Pershore and Evesham plus a route between Bewdley and Bridgnorth.

Using the two signed NCN routes 45 and 46 between Worcester and Droitwich provides an excellent round trip of about 16 miles using cycle ways, canal towpaths and quite country lanes. You’ll need to book your bike in advance, but using the train to Pershore or Evesham and returning on NCN 442 offers rides of 10 miles and 20 miles respectively. Alternatively, for the more adventurous, NCN 442 links to all the stations on the Worcester to Paddington line as far as Oxford.

Push Bike! also helped Malvern Hills District Council and the University to develop 6 routes of between 5.5 miles and 8.5 miles in the Teme Valley. These, together with GPX and KML files for your smart phone, can be downloaded by searching for ‘Teme Valley Trail Guide’ at www.visitthemalverns.org

In the last year the Malvern Hills Trust has also created three new off-road mountain bike routes on the Malvern Hills. The short, medium and long routes are all well signed and 5.6km, 8.7km and 19km in length. A route card and gpx file for each route can be found at www.malvernhills.org.uk

Although not signed the 25 and 42 mike long Towers and Spires’ routes starting from Worcester Cathedral takes you on quite country lanes to some of Worcestershire’s historic churches. A leaflet with detailed map can be downloaded from cofe-worcester.co.uk or by doing a web search.

Printed copies of some of the above can often be found at Worcester’s tourist information centre, the Pump House Environment Centre and local independent bike shops.