FNRttC The (not the) Fridays Tour of the Low Countries 2015

Which of these week-long tours would you sign up for?

  • Lincolnshire, a big house, single centre with day rides

    Votes: 9 23.7%

  • France - Caen to Bordeaux again

    Votes: 3 7.9%

  • Hook of Holland to Berlin - Germany is great, I've heard the Radio 4 programmes, Olaf is from there

    Votes: 7 18.4%

  • Bordeaux to the Med along the Canal du Midi, because it's a flat easy short ride

    Votes: 8 21.1%

  • That old chateau in Normandy we went to in 2013, single centre, day rides because we know it

    Votes: 4 10.5%

  • Roscoff to St Malo along the north French coast, new area, France is nice

    Votes: 8 21.1%

  • St Malo to Dieppe - because we know some of those roads already

    Votes: 6 15.8%

  • Spain because it's steep, tough and high - and I'm well 'ard and up for it

    Votes: 8 21.1%

  • Couldn't give a damn, if The Fridays are going there, so am I. where is it? I'm in.

    Votes: 14 36.8%

  • Dieppe, French wine, Westvlerden, Belgian beer, flat roads, Dutch cycling, the wind behind me.......

    Votes: 19 50.0%
  • Total voters
    38
  • Poll closed .
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StuAff

StuAff

Silencing his legs regularly
Location
Portsmouth
mmmmartin said:
We are in Eu. Can recommend the bistro etoile, nice peeps, good grub, clean rooms. Three course Dinner inc beer, wine and Calavados, single room, breakfast for €80. Weather good, and the ride from dieppe was surprisingly pleasant. The main road was busy, as expected, and we opted for the little country lanes through villages. Lovely. And several members, inc @Flying Dodo were very quick to spot the navigational tests I set them.
Click to expand...
Navigational tests? :smile:
 
Flying Dodo

Flying Dodo

It'll soon be summer
Location
The sunniest place along the south coast
StuAff said:
Navigational tests? :smile:
Click to expand...
Pointing out where he'd taken a wrong turn!:rolleyes:
 
Flying Dodo

Flying Dodo

It'll soon be summer
Location
The sunniest place along the south coast
And after a lovely day's cycling now we've arrived at Hesdin where we found someone, possibly German, had bagged the sun lounger.....
20150905_163807.jpg
 
OP
OP
mmmmartin

mmmmartin

Random geezer
Lovely morning in hesdin, superb hotel. Great communal meal last night. Wonderful company. Sun just rising into a cloudless sky. Looking forward to navigating across France. Have left the map at home so looking forward to more navigational tests for adam, olaf, titus, jason, Andrew, ian, Gordon, and all the others who helpfully brought gps units into which they have loaded the track I drew on ridewithgps which has turned out to be wrong.....
 
Flying Dodo

Flying Dodo

It'll soon be summer
Location
The sunniest place along the south coast
Somehow, we managed to find the only bar open in the region on a Sunday morning. What are the chances of that eh?
So naturally we had to stop for coffee & Calvados. And the bar ran out of Calvados. Another quite amazing thing.

20150906_121111.jpg


Anyway, from a ride report point of view, we didn't lose anyone, and according to Martin, we've now seen the last of the hills until Bordeaux. A few challenging slopes but generally we've all rolled together. A bit of a nasty headwind at times, so we all bunched together on the nice little country roads. Once we crossed the (unmarked) border into Belgium though, there was a marked deterioration in driving standards - no wonder Eddy Merckx was so fast, as he had to outpace the bad tempered drivers.

We're now safely ensconced in Iepers (Ypres) which is a stunning city. A gentle 51 km tomorrow.
 
StuAff

StuAff

Silencing his legs regularly
Location
Portsmouth
Flying Dodo said:
Somehow, we managed to find the only bar open in the region on a Sunday morning. What are the chances of that eh?
So naturally we had to stop for coffee & Calvados. And the bar ran out of Calvados. Another quite amazing thing.

View attachment 102880

Anyway, from a ride report point of view, we didn't lose anyone, and according to Martin, we've now seen the last of the hills until Bordeaux. A few challenging slopes but generally we've all rolled together. A bit of a nasty headwind at times, so we all bunched together on the nice little country roads. Once we crossed the (unmarked) border into Belgium though, there was a marked deterioration in driving standards - no wonder Eddy Merckx was so fast, as he had to outpace the bad tempered drivers.

We're now safely ensconced in Iepers (Ypres) which is a stunning city. A gentle 51 km tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Ypres is rather gorgeous, isn't it? I didn't see that much of it in May (station-Menin Gate, to pay my respects- out of town, basically) but what I did see was great. Looking forward to feedback on your accommodation choices- thinking of booking the May bank holiday week off if I can and combining Els' FNRttK (Brussels-Ostend) with a mini-tour, riding back to Le Havre or Caen. Ypres or Poperinge are probably going to be the best options for the first night if I do that, so a recommendation or two would be useful.
 
OP
OP
mmmmartin

mmmmartin

Random geezer
9.30 at the Menin Gate, team.

@Gordon P is alive. I managed to get him and @redfalo out of that dodgy bar with the tattoed bloke with the nipple piercings, but alas only by the expedient policy of paying the bill myself. This was after the drunken northern cyclists arrived.

He managed to get us lost on the way home so I commandeered the map to save the day.

The people I've met are the wonder of the world.

Happy days.....
 
rvw

rvw

Guru
Location
Amersham
We weren't so lucky with the weather today - bits of drizzle turned into some proper rain, which was rather tedious. Still, hot chocolate and a waffle in the Grote Markt, and a hot bath, have restored equanimity and I'm looking forward to exploring Brugge a bit later.
 
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Flying Dodo

Flying Dodo

It'll soon be summer
Location
The sunniest place along the south coast
Yes, sad to say, but we had a bit of precipitation. Bits of drizzle then some heavier stuff for a short time. It was the sort of wet-ness meaning you put a jacket on, then it stops, and you take it off, then it starts again and you put some trousers on and then it stops again. So a certain amount of faffage. Whilst riding along at the back, Andrew & I were trying to work out the formula for what the actual ride time would be:

TAT = TST * N(D*S)3

where
TAT = Actual time take
TST = estimated time to be taken
N = No. of riders
D = length of ride
S = No. of scheduled stops

I may have mis-remembered the formula,,,,,,,,

A very poignant day - seeing a fairly recent excavated Yorkshire regiment trench & dugout, and then after passing a number of small cemeteries, hearing Olaf give a moving resume of the history behind the German cemetery at Langemark. The train spotters got excited over a train........
train.jpg

Anyway, a total of 239m of climbing today - and a good proportion of that was climbing the bridge over the E40 motorway just before Bruges, which is a stunning city, but yet again, like French historic towns, is spoilt by allowing traffic through the centre. Arriving in the square, we dived for a bar, where drink (and some food) was consumed.
train.jpg
Martin.jpg


A long day tomorrow - 120km, so an early start at 08:30. Eek!
 
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