Devon and bicycling should go together like cream and scones or Dartmoor ponies and gorse, all those winding lanes filled with cow parsley, the streams for aching feet, the shady oaks and the quaint pubs selling scrumpy and pork scratchings.

Actually it’s a potentially lethal combination unless you have Chris Hoy’s thighs and Lewis Hamilton’s reflexes. The penny farthing never made it to Devon, they preferred horses. It’s the hills that are the most offputting, they seem to rise endlessly upwards, before tumbling into Cornwall.

Then there are the lanes, sunk deep into the red mud and flanked by nettles as well as primroses. Teaching children on the corkscrew roads is like expecting them to start riding at Brands Hatch, you have no idea what is about to come round the corner, a combine harvester or a herd of sheep. And only Rebecca Adlington could enjoy going uphill for four miles with a baby sitting behind her dropping raisins down her neck.

Suffolk, where I spent my childhood holidays, is easy. The gentle inclines are a doddle, who needs a view when you can bicycle all day without feeling a twinge in your calf muscles? Devon, however, takes nerves. You need to plan your expeditions meticulously, but after 20 years I have finally found the perfect routes.

Related Internet Links

• The best cycling holidays in the world

The dos and don’t of buying a bicycle

With thousands to choose from we offer a practical guide to purchasing the model that’s right for you

• Hot wheels for cyclists from £200-£800

Cycling from John O’Groats to Land’s End

Riding the length of the land in ten days tests mind and body to the limit

• Cycling in the New Forest

Cycling in the New Forest

The only risk of collision is with a leaping deer, says Ben Webster

Related Links

• Ilfracombe: The gem of the West Country

• North Devon: not for novice cyclists

They pass though villages with names like South Zeal, Honeychurch and Sticklepath, loop across rivers and along beaches, and wind their way through the heart of Devon, far from the madding crowds. The first is the Tarka Trail which wends its way along the Torridge valley between Dartmoor and Exmoor to the sea.

You cycle beside rivers and along a disused railway line as you follow the journey of Tarka the Otter in Henry Williamson’s tale. A seven-year-old and 70-year-old can do it in a day.

If you start at Meeth, you can begin with a pint or an ice cream from the 16th-century inn then follow the meandering river down to the sea. After picking up fish and chips in Barnstable, you can dive into the waves at Saunton Sands. If it looks a little chilly, they sell wetsuits for £12 in the shop. Alternatively, take the path to Braunton from Barnstable, cycle along the Taw-Torridge estuary, go past Crow Point and over the new Yeo Swing Bridge to look at the fishing boats.

The other excursion is from Tiverton along the Grand Western canal (actually, rather a small canal) as long as you don’t fall in. It’s only eight miles long and flat, very flat, you don’t need to change gears but you do need to beware the occasional horsedrawn barge as you cycle under the bridges. Y

ou should be stable and sober enough to cycle in a straight line (there are lots of tempting pubs along the route). The swans will try to nip your tyres, otherwise it’s a soporific, gentle ride. But if you have come to Devon searching for hills, there is only one route to take, the 102 coast-to-coast challenge from Ilfracombe to Plymouth.

I’ve seen them cycling past our house, heads bowed, arms resting on the handlebars, eyes on the tarmac — perfect for a midlife crisis rather than family entertainment.