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Strava reveals Londoners most popular cycling cafes

The 15 most popular meeting cafes and shops for London-based cyclists according to Strava data

Strava has used the huge number of ride activities uploaded to its website every week to reveal the most popular cafes and bike shops with London-based cyclists.

The data has been generated from 78,000 weekly London rides and also shows that cyclists on average stop for coffee after 90 minutes of pedalling, and stop for just 16 minutes, long enough for a latte and cake.

Unsurprisingly, Roehampton Gate Café in Richmond Park is top of the list as the most popular meeting point for cyclists heading out of London into the surrounding countryside. Not only is it the most popular place in London, it’s the most-stopped at location in the world on Strava.

The Box Hill Cafe came a close second, again no surprises there. Many rides start at Roehampton and take in the ascent of Box Hill before returning to London. It’s a well worn route.

The list also includes recent award winning G!RO at number four and a number of other cyclist friendly cafes like look mum no hands! in at eight and the Rapha Cycle Club rounding out the top ten.

Here’s the full list:

1. Roehampton Gate Café – Richmond Park
2. Box Hill Cafe (National Trust) – Tadworth
3. Peaslake stores - Guildford
4. Cadence Cycling Performance Centre – Crystal Palace
5. G!RO - Esher
6. Old Village Café – Hayes
7. Dish – Hampton Court
8. look mum no hands! – Old Street
9. Garden Café – Regents Park
10. Rapha Cycle Club - Soho
11. Cafe St Germain – Crystal Palace
12. Bike Beans Cycling café - Ashtead
13. Pretorius Coffee Bar - Hoxton
14. Grind Coffee Bar - Putney
15. Artisan Coffee - Putney

If you were in any doubt as to the popularity of Strava, the US company also reveals in its press release that an astonishing 78,000 rides are recorded on its website and mobile app in London each week, clocking up a total over 1.7 million kilometres.

This got us thinking, which are the most popular cycling stops with road.cc readers? Let's hear your nominations below...

Photos are of G!RO cafe in Esher supplied by Strava.

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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18 comments

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JoshCroxton1 | 9 years ago
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My new fave stopping point has to be the new cafe opened in Barnstaple at the Bike Shed. 40 miles from Exeter, an hour stop with coffee, bagels and cake whilst watching some Giro D'Italia before returning home! Perfect.

http://www.bikesheduk.com/barnstaple-store

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timbola | 9 years ago
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Lavender Cafe in Chalford near Stroud - our rides always seem to gravitate towards it - only 4 miles home from there and only one big hill, so one too many coffees are not a major problem. Crucially, they make EXCELLENT cakes - best is a lavender drizzle, for that taste of southern France, perhaps.

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Scoob_84 | 9 years ago
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Fair play to Big foot CC for single handedly getting Old Village Café in Hayes up to 6th spot.  41

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RobD | 9 years ago
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Papermill lock in Essex, right at the bottom of north hill from little baddow to danbury (the only decent sized hill in the area).
The cakes and coffee are good, and if you're lucky/made to feel hopelessly inadequate, you might get overtaken by Alex Dowsett on the way up the hill afterwards.

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ouv3rt | 9 years ago
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There is a really nice coffee spot in a little square, Old King's Head Court, Dorking. Friendly staff and I've always found room for a bike in there. Good cakes as well, obviously.

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McTag | 9 years ago
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The Blue Egg!

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AJ101 | 9 years ago
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I wonder if Peaslake gets counted three times each visit or one? Once when you turn up in the car and roll down for a cuppa, once after Winterfold/Pitch for cheese straws and once after Holmbury/Barry's when you're getting ready to go home again

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Matt Triban | 9 years ago
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Jodrell Bank café - always full of cyclists and has a covered bike park, The Old Smithy at Monyash in Derbyshire and if you want to go up in the world try Flash Bar Stores at Flash on Staffs/Derbys border - excellent coffee and home made cakes at a great price.

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stealfwayne | 9 years ago
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The Bohemia in North Finchley. Many of my non club rides (hi ICC) end up here for a swift refreshing pint. very friendly and welcoming.

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Stef Marazzi | 9 years ago
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A ton of choice if you happen to be based near Bath..? http://cyclebath.org.uk/i-want-to-ride/cycle-friendly-cafes-and-pubs/

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msmtb | 9 years ago
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Go Peaslake Village stores!

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hylozoist replied to msmtb | 9 years ago
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msmtb wrote:

Go Peaslake Village stores!

The bus shelter in Peaslake needs to be listed as a scheduled national monument, as it essentially marks the centre of the cycling universe.

That might be more of an MTB thing though  1

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BigManLittleHair | 9 years ago
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Southbank, anywhere - for various beer related cycles you can't help but start in a good mood.

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andymatthews | 9 years ago
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Is their GPS data really good enough to tell the difference between Cadence and St Germain in Crystal Palace?

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crazy-legs replied to andymatthews | 9 years ago
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andymatthews wrote:

Is their GPS data really good enough to tell the difference between Cadence and St Germain in Crystal Palace?

Go in close enough and GPS data is good enough to tell you the difference between the black, red and blue sprint lines at Herne Hill Velodrome so I'd imagine the 100yards between St Germain and Cadence wouldn't be a problem!

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Colin Canski replied to crazy-legs | 9 years ago
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crazy-legs wrote:
andymatthews wrote:

Is their GPS data really good enough to tell the difference between Cadence and St Germain in Crystal Palace?

Go in close enough and GPS data is good enough to tell you the difference between the black, red and blue sprint lines at Herne Hill Velodrome so I'd imagine the 100yards between St Germain and Cadence wouldn't be a problem!

Wow, a black line on black tarnac, useful  21

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mhtt replied to Colin Canski | 9 years ago
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Colin Canski wrote:

Wow, a black line on black tarnac, useful  21

It's called black, but it's actually white(ish) if i remember correctly.

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JamesDulwich replied to andymatthews | 9 years ago
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It has to be accurate to record segments. I've had 30 minutes added to my time up Annerly Hill because I stopped for a coffee at Cadence. You need to cycle up to the traffic lights and do a U-turn if you are chasing a record and wanting a coffee stop.

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