Forest of Dean

+1 for what Dave says. The Forest is lovely for road biking - there are 100's of roads that are virtually traffic free and the majority of main roads are not bad at all. The climb up from Goodrich to Symonds Yat and Yat Rock as Dave says is fantastic and there are plenty of other ace climbs and descents around Walford, Lydney, Joys Green and Ruardean. Ross-on-Wye and Monmouth are 'pretty' towns, some of the towns in the forest itself aren't so much, but there are plenty of good pubs and food stops about. It is surprisingly hilly though - last weekend I went out for a 100k ride and did 1500m climbing. The FoDSC Dave mentions above gets just short of 3000m in 144k.

HTH, Jezzer

The FoD is super for road biking. One of my very favourite events is the FoD Spring Classic, 6 May this year...

http://www.wheelsinwheels.com/FOD/forest_of_dean_spring_classic_cycling_...

There's lots of great routes to be done in the Forest itself, or you can head out north towards the malverns or west to the brecons. or east to the cotswolds. or south over the severn bridge to the estuary. it's all good.

if you've never cycled there before you have to do the symond's yat climb from the North. that's the LAW. and after that head west on the A4136 into Monmouth, that's a super descent...