The Olympian-designed Cotswolds sports break that anyone can master (2024)

I’ve saddled up and I’m at the starting gates, giving the side-eye to the competition, ready to give it my all and go for the burn on my bike. I’m trying to channel the spirit of a British sporting champion, one who has Olympic gold and silver medals to her name and a successful career spanning several disciplines.

I’ve come to the Cotswolds to follow in the footsteps of the Olympic track cyclist turned jockey Victoria Pendleton, who has helped to design a sporty break in partnership with the hotel group PoB (formerly Pride of Britain).

The idea is that you move between five of the group’s luxurious rural retreats in the Cotswolds and the Chilterns, tackling different activities at each. These are “Britain’s five most-loved sports”, they say, and do not include, as you might presume, Luke Littler-inspired darts, watching footie, or playing pool while drunk in a pub, but are in fact cycling, horse riding, tennis, sailing and rowing.

Attempting an “inspiring sporting odyssey” is not my usual idea of a relaxing holiday, but I’m game and remember thinking of Pendleton as a sporting hero after her performance at the London 2012 Olympics, so I’m up for letting her inspire me off my sofa and into the outdoors.

I’m only inspired enough to tackle a shorter, three-day version, though, with an off-road cycle at Calcot Manor and Spa near Tetbury in Gloucestershire then horse riding at Wiltshire’s Lucknam Park, which is about nine miles from Bath.

The country lanes near Calcot will be my race track, my partner, Rafi, my opponent, and the starting gates for our bike ride are the posh wooden sort.

I’ve donned my Ayda activewear, zipped up a waterproof jacket and headed out on one of the Specialized mountain bikes (a lot slicker than my usual city runaround, a vintage Peugeot racer), which are lined up beside the spa, available for hotel guests to use. It seems odd for the package to focus on mountain rather than road cycling (track would be tricky), but I’m sure you could BYOB (bring your own bicycle) should you wish to set out on a 100-mile training ride, or link the hotels together that way.

The hotel supplies us with a few suggested routes and we pick a not-too-taxing 5.5-mile trail to explore the undulating fields solo, under steely skies. We don’t race and instead enjoy the scenery. Bar a punishing grassy knoll and some wild winds, we find the whole thing invigorating (but the link to the Olympian somewhat tenuous). Admittedly, hiring a cycle guide (bookable through the hotel) may have encouraged a more Pendleton-worthy attempt.

But in fact, even Pendleton believes in the pleasure of taking your time with active pursuits. “Objectives and goals are great when you are training,” she tells me, “but they take away some of the simple pleasure of the scenery, setting or appreciation of the company you are with. Slowing down is something I’ve learnt to do better. Though when you have spent your lifetime being active, it’s hard to be any other way. This is my normal.”

Calcot is a 16th-century manor that is Cotswolds incarnate: all honey stone and pointed roofs, with clipped topiary, magenta tulips and verdant surrounds, where a group are enjoying a leisurely game of disc golf.

The newly opened Grain Store gym has a co-working area and is kitted out with shiny Technogym equipment ranging from ski ergs to spin, treadmills and sled tracks.

But it’s the polished spa I’m heading to next, to test out the £120 Stretch and Align massage, a treatment aimed at sporty sorts. After a five-minute consultation, my softly spoken therapist, Melissa, attacks the knots in my back with a practised firmness and stretches out my tense limbs using Proverb’s “performance” body oil, followed by a cooling minty gel.

Post sauna and steam, we dine that night at Calcot’s conservatory-style restaurant, starting with an oyster each (£4.50) and a chive-topped dressed crab to share (£38) alongside a glass of local Woodchester Valley fizz (£12). For mains it’s Stokes Marsh Farm chateaubriand served atop truffled mash and cavolo nero (£74 for two). The generous portions mean we’re too stuffed for dessert and retreat to our room for some R&R.

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Woodchester is a spacious cottage with a separate kids’ room with bunks, and wooden stairs leading to the first-floor bathroom with a waterproof television beside a pair of stone-rimmed bath tubs, which we fill for a post-dinner soak with lavender and ylang-ylang-scented Aromatherapy Associates products (athletes must take care of themselves).

It’s all immaculate and family friendly with modern-country design touches, including a wooden stag’s head, forest-print headboards and the prerequisite duck-egg Roberts radio. I spy slightly Noughties touches: ceiling-mounted speakers and ice-white recessed spotlights in the floor.

We’re woken by a cacophony of singing thrushes outside the window, ready for the next part of our active escapade about 40 minutes’ drive away at Lucknam Park. The 42-room five-star hotel has been perfecting its country house hotel flex since it opened in the Nineties. The fawn-coloured pillared Palladian mansion stands at the end of a mile-long driveway lined with beech and lime trees that during the Second World War concealed Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft from the threat of German bombing.

Lucknam has 30 horses under equestrian manager Dawn Cameron. After Pendleton retired from cycling after her gold and silver medal wins at the 2012 Olympics, she spent a few years training as a jockey and describes riding in the hotel’s 500 acres while designing the package with vim: “I love horses and especially chestnut ones, so I was in heaven at Lucknam.” I have to agree.

• Read the full review of Lucknam Park here

All abilities are catered for at the equestrian centre and while I’d done a little riding as a teenager (my Saturdays were mostly dedicated to Polish school), Rafi had zero experience. But that’s no issue for Dawn and her cheerful daughter, Roberta, who help us to get set up with the appropriate gear and introduce the horses we’ll be riding.

I’m on the good-natured Troy and Rafi is with a handsome bay called Carlos. Once mounted, we set out on a hack through fields and woodland. Any trepidation soon dissolves into unbridled joy. It’s a freeing and incredibly fun two hours, with Roberta a no-nonsense delight who gets us trotting within minutes and feeling completely at ease on the horses.

Lucknam Park is an old-school English country bolt hole with attentive staff for whom nothing is too much trouble. Wellies can be borrowed for romps, there’s a child-friendly adventure play area and a cabin stocked with PlayStation consoles, board games and toys. There are also tennis courts and more bikes to borrow.

The grand communal spaces include a wood-panelled library and drawing room with open fireplaces and glorious sash windows, where we sink into a sumptuous sofa for an afternoon tea (£48pp) of perfectly cut sandwich fingers, fresh scones with clotted cream and patisseries washed down with a glass of Blanc de Blancs champagne (£21 a glass) and teas brewed in silverware.

Our elegant Cornflower suite has a four-poster bed with chandeliers and pale gold curtained windows overlooking the tree-lined drive, plus a luxe bathroom decked out with Calacatta marble and Lefroy Brooks bathroom fittings. After all the activity we stroll through the beautifully manicured gardens to spend a few hours blissfully ensconced in Lucknam’s sprawling spa, padding between the Japanese salt room to sauna and steam room, plus the glass-roofed indoor and outdoor pool.

That night we eat at the casual Walled Garden restaurant, sampling a rainbow-coloured carrot terrine with pickled raisins (£12) and velvety chicken liver parfait (£14). On other nights there’s the Michelin-starred Restaurant Hywel Jones.

Pendleton’s full package includes a sojourn at the Painswick in Stroud for trail biking in the Five Valleys; a stay at the Royal Crescent in Bath for kayaking; and rowing on the Thames from the Relais Henley. I wish I’d had time.

So, am I a sports holiday convert? Yes, hats off to Pendleton: the riding was a ten out of ten experience, and one I’d do again in a heartbeat, even if there’s no medal at the end.
Victoria Brzezinski was a guest of PoB Hotels, which has B&B doubles at Calcot Resort and Spa from £334; at Lucknam Park from £472; equestrian experience from £95pp (pobhotels.com)

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