FNRttC 2017 (that's next year, folks) thinking ride thread

[Flying Dodo]

From my perspective, the claim that the Friday tours have become less inclusive since LonJOG does not at all do justice to @mmmmartin's effort.

If you look at hard facts like mileage covered and climbing done, LonJOG was by far the hardest ride of them all, with two +100 miles days (these days, we rarely have +100 km day on a Fridays tours) True, we had van support, but so did we on the Bordeaux gig, with shorter days, nicer weather and less climbing.

And no matter how strong a rider you are, on every tour there can be days where you will be struggling, either due to bad weather / wind or bad personal form.

LonJOG isn't a valid comparison, as you're not taking into account the fact that many people dropped in and out and only did a few sections. There was also the possibility for anyone suffering to simply hop on a train back home.

If we're looking at a foreign tour, then we want to make it as accessible as possible. We're getting 6 or 7 new people turning up on each ride so far this year. Most of of them probably had all sorts of uncertainties about if they could manage a FNRttC. That would be amplified for a foreign tour, so that's why it's vital any route isn't too challenging and puts them off ever considering coming along.

A solution would be to have quite a few days where there are 2 routes available from A to B - a normal route and an elongated, technical route.

 

[Flying Dodo]

As I've done a couple of days of TEC duties on LonJOG, I can tell you that it was bloody stretched out at many times too.

That is not actually a good thing. We don't want to run the risk of losing people.

 

[mmmmartin]

Leaving aside the Plymouth problem, I think this might suit everyone;
https://goo.gl/maps/T9fhEoLoQK62

Shortens earlier days to below 100k, but the final day is longer as it cuts out the Bayeaux Tapestry option, but do-able.

 

[redfalo]

Leaving aside the Plymouth problem, I think this might suit everyone;
https://goo.gl/maps/T9fhEoLoQK62

Shortens earlier days to below 100k, but the final day is longer as it cuts out the Bayeaux Tapestry option, but do-able.

between Carhaix and Loudeac, you could even pinch the PBP route!

 

[mmmmartin]

about a dozen have commented on this thread.
a post on the Facebook Fridays group reached 102 with another 64 in the group not yet reached.

 

[ianmac62]

about a dozen have commented on this thread ...

Just commenting then, @mmmmartin, so that you know I've been reading this thread today (albeit for the first time)!

Thanks very much for starting the thread and posting some ideas for next year's *dates* which - in the spirit of "If The Fridays are going there, so am I!" - are more important to me than the places involved. Anyway, I'm on for Brittany and Berlin. Or anywhere else starting with B ... so that's Biarritz to Barcelona, and Bari to Bolzano, and ... whoa, I got carried away there.

I should say at the outset that I'm probably not going to volunteer to drive a van. I loved doing that for LonJoG, partly because I thought that the longer days were well beyond my comfort zone but I nevertheless wanted to be with The Fridays.

Looking forward to everything already!

 

[ianmac62]

... A (Fridays) tour would take in Hanover, Brunswick, Leipzig and Dresden on the way to the capital - all the places with history. I write that not knowing anything about the distances involved, or about the towns except that they were all big centres of 18th century music and therefore must have a history ...

... Success might be measured in the number of photos taken that didn't include a bike ...

Dresden does indeed have a history ... the Florence on the Elbe ... the model DDR city. Here's an eighteenth-century part:

and a DDR part:

oh bugger, somebody sneaked a bicycle in there!

 

[DaveJ]

We are riding Caen to Roscoff later this month, something like this: https://goo.gl/maps/1NdYcSVr3ry

That takes 1000m off the climbing you are looking at, I guess because we are not following along the north coast. I think it'll be flatter than that too, because we've got some river and canal paths to follow which I don't know how to get Google to show. You could take a bit off the distance too. We are going out of our way so to stay at Raids so we can do day rides out to see Le Tour, but you covered some of this ground previously so could take a more direct route between Avranches and Bayeux.

Yes, the Plymouth/Portsmouth problem is a real pain, especially with a tandem.

 

[StuAff]

Pompey's a doddle for London peeps & fairly straightforward for everyone else. Let alone if you leave 1.5 miles from the ferry port, natch. I for one would rather have the bother of getting to Plymouth for the start of a tour rather than returning from there, and associated stresses and strains.

 

[Gordon P]

I don't know how to get Google to show.

Try planning with RideWithGPS

 

[Flying Dodo]

Pompey's a doddle for London peeps & fairly straightforward for everyone else. Let alone if you leave 1.5 miles from the ferry port, natch. I for one would rather have the bother of getting to Plymouth for the start of a tour rather than returning from there, and associated stresses and strains.

That's a good point. Although overall, despite Martin's amendments to the route, the concept is still about starting from Point A, cycling each day, and then after a certain number of days travelling in a roughly straight line, arriving at Point B.

I think a better idea would be to start and finish at Caen and have some days travelling around, and others based in one location, to then allow sightseeing and general pottering around.

This would then allow you to do things like have a proper look at the Normandy invasion beaches, the Bayeux tapestry, Mont St. Michel, Dinard etc etc.

 

[mmmmartin]

starting from Point A, cycling each day, and then after a certain number of days travelling in a roughly straight line, arriving at Point B.

yup, that's a good description. It's a journey. Across the landscape.

start and finish at Caen and have some days travelling around, and others based in one location, to then allow sightseeing and general pottering around.

That is a good idea, and has a lot of merit - we could stay at each hotel for two nights and have a day doing a pottering, sightseeing loop from that hotel before moving on the another area. It wouldn't be a Tour, it wouldn't be a journey. Fridays Tours have always been a matter of travelling rather than pottering or sightseeing. LonJog, Bordeaux, the Lowlands, and the Vi(v)a Colognia are all journeys.

Also, we've been near, or in, or out, or through Caen loads of times - on the mini-tour last May, the chateau, the Bordeaux trip. While many will just sign up for what's on offer, I think we should, and I want to, offer something new. My idea for a tour riding northwards from the Hoek of Holland to the German border with a coach to get back is a good one but we went to the Netherlands last year and are going again in September and we can't keep returning, we need to offer something new for the Tour.
We could quite easily work out a separate trip into Caen and then a pottering type of tour involving two nights at each place and a day ride out for sightseeing followed by a day moving on. This format would fit quite well as a trip idea secondary to the main Tour, perhaps in the spring or early autumn. My next trip is arctic Norway for July and August and then a ride in Belgium, then the Tour in September, and next year is LEL training. So I'm a bit short of planning and recce-ing space. There's no time this year unless someone else wants to do it.

 

[Flying Dodo]

But what exactly should be a "Fridays Tour"?

Maybe if I was 20, then an invasion style ride would have been of interest, to get lots of miles under my belt. But I really think a pottering around style will have greater appeal, to more people.

 

[mmmmartin]

But what exactly should be a "Fridays Tour"?

Similar to Bordeaux and The Lowlands ones.

 

[velovoice]

Similar to Bordeaux and The Lowlands ones.

And wasn't Bordeaux a central-base-plus-day-rides sort of affair? i.e. not a "journey".