The Canterbury Bike Ride Is Back On 19 July 2026
Find out all about this year's event, plus top tips on taking part in your first sportive.
Top & Homepage Image © Fleur Challis Photography
Great news for Kent cyclists, as The Canterbury Bike Ride is back on 19th July with a choice of three route lengths, offering cyclists the chance to enjoy a day out in the picturesque Kent countryside, while raising money for charity.
Why not get a group of friends together, or enter on your own, to experience the excitement and camaraderie of cycling an event with hundreds of other like-minded people?
The Canterbury Bike Ride was first held in 2014, and since then has grown to attract hundreds of participants. It’s a non-competitive “sportive” event, designed to appeal to both experienced and novice riders: suitable for road, hybrid or mountain bikes.
In 2026, the event will once again be hosted by Canterbury Rugby Club and on Sunday 19th July, hundreds of cyclists will roll out of the club and into the Kent Downs AONB to take on one of the three new routes: approximately 24, 54 or 73 miles.
The three routes will explore the picturesque countryside, and are front loaded with climbing with a loop of the glorious Kent Down AONB, via the charming village of Wye where there is a refreshment stop at the Wye Hub for those that need it. The medium and long routes head east along the Elham Valley towards Sandwich. The routes turn left at Woodnesborough and go through Ash Village to the Cricket Club, where riders will enjoy a refreshment stop before returning to Canterbury Rugby Club via the Bridge Downs.
The 2026 charity partners are Kent Neuro Therapy Centre (formerly Kent MS Therapy Centre)and Canterbury Hellfire Wheelchair Rugby. You can help support these charities by adding a donation to your booking at the basket, or by using the events to fundraise for them directly.
If you would like to Partner or Sponsor Canterbury Bike Ride, please email stephen@indexmagazine.co.uk in the first instance.
Image © Fleur Challis Photography
6 mistakes to avoid in your first sportive
You’ve done all the preparation you need for your first sportive: you have trained hard, you’ve eaten well and your bike is in tip top condition. But there are a number of mistakes that every sportive rider makes at some point. So, we’ve put together this list of top mistakes to avoid when riding your first sportive to hopefully give you a bit of a heads up of what could potentially go wrong.
Showing up late
If you are the sort of person that normally arrives late for bike rides, you might want to make a concerted effort to get up that bit earlier. You need to take into account the traffic, parking, and the urge for a pre-ride trip to the toilet. Even a small-ish event like the Canterbury Bike Ride will have 300-400 participants. There is parking at the start line but it can take a bit of time getting all of those cars into the car park and parked up. When there’s 2,000-3,000 riders at an event, it will take even longer, and for some events you will need to think about parking elsewhere and riding to the start line. One other thing to factor into your event day timing: thanks to the gut-brain connection, there is normally an unusual demand for the toilets before a big ride.
Starting too fast
It is easy to get a little over excited before your first big event. The adrenaline of the day can make your legs feel amazing, so you push on, riding with groups that are perhaps a little bit too fast for you. This might be okay for an hour or so, but eventually your legs fatigue, and you’re left crawling to the end of the sportive. Instead, just relax in the first hour and take it easy, look to maintain or perhaps even build your effort throughout the day, in order to finish strong. This is particularly important if the sportive you’re riding is a hilly one, because there is nowhere to hide if you blow up on a long climb.
Not eating enough
This one goes hand-in-hand with starting off too fast. The excitement of the day, the nerves (and the urge for a pre-ride poop) stop people from feeling hungry. But remember, when you get hungry, it’s already too late. It’s important to remember to eat little and often – if you struggle to remember, you could set a reminder on your head unit or your phone – and start from the beginning of the ride to avoid a big crash in energy levels later on.
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Eating too much
In contrast to the previous point, even if the sportive might be the longest and hardest bike ride you’ve ever done, you don’t want to fuel up with a huge breakfast and then stop at every opportunity to eat everything that’s available – you will only end up feeling bloated and unwell. As mentioned earlier, little and often is the key.
Getting lost
Sportives are generally very well sign posted. At the Canterbury Bike Ride, for example, the routes are fully sign posted and organisers will place signs at every important junction to stop you getting lost. But it is possible that one grumpy local could take down or move a sign, which means that you could quickly end up heading the wrong way. So if you have a bike computer, or a phone and a mount, make sure you download the .gpx route file, and for safety maybe even take a paper map as well – after all paper never runs out of battery and it can’t lose a gps signal.
Taking it too seriously
A big event, like a sportive, should above all else be a fun day out. You might suffer through some hard moments and enjoy some fantastic ones too, but it’s important to remind yourself why you’re doing it. You’re spending the day out on your bikes, hopefully with your mates. So don’t get stressed about your time, if you want to stop and take in the view (or a selfie with friends) or chat to the people at the feed station, then go and enjoy it.
• Visit canterburybikeride.co.uk
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