How do you 'Build your route' ?

[seashaker]

I need something positive to be thinking about at the min and well it won't be for a while ( prob next year actually) but I have started to think about my proposed cycle to my mums place in France.

I will be starting off from Swindon and probably be getting ferry from Poole to Caen then cycling to near Le Dorat. Now roads in this country will be ok to plan a route for but how do you guys n gals plan for touring to unknown places??

I have looked through the great thread
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/my-tips-for-cycling-in-france.80485/

and knew a lot of the stuff there and have learnt a lot as well!

My main concern is what route to take? do you just go to a mapping site (bikeroutetoaster or Ridewithgps) and route it from there or as i'm kind of expecting do you take far more time in working out the route? ie going very detailed through google maps etc and mapping the route manually?

It will be my first 'big tour' and want to be as prepared as I can be!! Cheers in advance!

 

[Glow worm]

The first thing I do when planning a route is just grab a ruler and draw a straight line in pencil between my start and end points, then find the quietest routes or tracks as near as I can to that line whilst avoiding the steepest hills. If I was heading to say, Bayonne for example, I'd draw two lines , one from here to Plymouth, then another line from Roscoff to Bayonne (Swindon -Poole then Caen- Le Dorat in your case).

This site looks interesting and I've used bike toaster to plot routes too. Google Street view is good for the detail- gaps in hedges/ cycleable tracks etc and they've done most of France
too.

Edit- Just noticed that in the course creator section of Bike Toaster, if you click on the 'cycle' button on the right, the French cycle tracks appear (in France that is, not Swindon!).

 

[psmiffy]

I look at a map of the area I am going to (or if it is somewhere I an reasonably familiar with then just imagine it in my head) - pick the points and memorise them - detail I do on the day

A bit simplistic - but really the only thing I need to know is a rough overall distance - is it doabable in the time I have

 

[rollinstok]

I mark campsites on the map and work out ( guess ) which route would be best to get to my destination

 

[rvw]

The IGN "Top 100" maps - 1:100,000 - are very useful. SRW and I did Belgium - Spain, and all our mapping was based on these first, and put into a Garmin eTrex afterwards. These do show some off-road cycle paths (such as along canals). NB do check the distances between the contours: I have a vague recollection that these vary between maps, with some at 5m and some at 10m, which can be misleading! You can get these at Stanfords bookshops.

We used hotels, and found that the Logis de France website was also extremely useful - and that also dictated our route a bit, as the first draft of the trip had quite a lot of stops in places where it turned out there were no hotels, and so we had to rethink!

On the whole, our trip was a great experience, with much better road surfaces than we are used to. Mind you, we're in Buckinghamshire, which is pretty horrible!

 

[Ajay]

You know your start and finish point, so you decide how many days you've available to get there / how many miles you want to ride in a day, and whether you want to get there quickly or take in some sightseeing/detours along the way.
For some, the planning and the detail are all part of the enjoyment, whilst others prefer a more freestyle approach, it's down to you.
I cycled from Caen to the Med last year, on a route the took me not a million miles from Le Dorat (passed it to the east). I'll link you the route if you're interested.

 

[seashaker]

Cheers for all the advise guys! Thought as much with the planning, will be giving it some proper thought!


Ajay, thanks for your reply and if you could send me the link it would be very helpful I'm sure!

You know your start and finish point, so you decide how many days you've available to get there / how many miles you want to ride in a day, and whether you want to get there quickly or take in some sightseeing/detours along the way.
For some, the planning and the detail are all part of the enjoyment, whilst others prefer a more freestyle approach, it's down to you.
I cycled from Caen to the Med last year, on a route the took me not a million miles from Le Dorat (passed it to the east). I'll link you the route if you're interested.

 

[doog]

I dont think a ferry goes to Caen from Poole unless something is due to change for the summer...

 

[snorri]

I dont think a ferry goes to Caen from Poole unless something is due to change for the summer...

Now there's a thing. Even if you plan nothing else, do make sure there is a ferry where you think there's a ferry.
Ah, the memories.

 

[chrtho]

I like playing with the Michelin maps which are are online here:
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/web/Maps

If you zoom to the right scale, the 'scenic' roads are marked in green. There is also hotel and tourist info.

Then it's up to you to choose a route according to your own preferences regarding hills/towns/main roads etc.

 

[vernon]

The Michelin maps have a cycling option and will pick the scenic routs for you....

 

[doog]

If you are doing a one off tour this Michelin 1:200 000 map is detailed enough and at only £8.39 for the whole of France,it is great value. I used GPS / Bikeroutetoaster but backed it up with pages ripped out from this map book. It has the scenic routes marked plus chevrons on roads to indicate steep descents / ascents ..excellent

http://www.amazon.co.uk/France-2012...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334783808&sr=1-2

 

[avsd]

I have used GPSIES web site successfully but only for local (Ireland events)

 

[Fubar]

I mark campsites on the map and work out ( guess ) which route would be best to get to my destination

Not that I've even done a tour but in my head that's how I'd do it as well - mark daily accommodation and plan how to get there.

 

[psmiffy]

I think accommodation is the crux of the matter - if you are relying on pre-booked accommodation then you have lost a lot of the ability to be flexible with your route - some degree of pre-planning then makes a lot of sense - it really comes down to how much you pre-plan - getting to the detail where I have every road and junction listed/GPS'd and having looked at them on Google Earth to determine their pros and cons is pure anathema to me.