Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
A pottering tour is still a journey. It's just it's not a head down, rushing through countryside in a blur type of journey, but a meandering, edifying type of journey, to fulfil mind, body and soul.
FNRttC 2017 (that's next year, folks) thinking ride thread
- Thread starter mmmmartin
- Start date
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velovoice
Veteran
- Location
- Between the City and the Sea
Ah. I thought Bordeaux was the Chateau. I am losing track!
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
No. Though we did ride past plenty of chateaux - Lafite, Rothschild, St-Estephe...
It felt quite a meandering ride to me - not a lot of head-down arse-in-air stuff. And what @mmmartin's suggesting in version 2 looks quite a lot more straightforward and meandery even than that.
It felt quite a meandering ride to me - not a lot of head-down arse-in-air stuff. And what @mmmartin's suggesting in version 2 looks quite a lot more straightforward and meandery even than that.
OP
OP
mmmmartin
Random geezer
Off to Norway this week, am back in August and will start to loom at maps/hills/restaurants/coffee shops/hotels/roads/etc when I get back. My current thinking is for two Tours:
- June 30-July 8 for Roscoff-Caen the moving on Tour and
- September 8-17 for the pottering Tour which will go in and out of Caen and spend two nights at a hotel with the day there as an out-and-back ride then the next day moving on. Rinse and repeat. There would be four hotels (Sat/Sun, Mon/Tues, Weds/Thurs, Friday and back on the boat on Sunday). This will inevitably mean covering some ground with which we are familiar.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Like both options. Advance notification of dates is very helpful, I should imagine the procedure for me will be the same as last year (i.e. a week to get the form in) so if I can get the right weeks to start with, even if I don't come along in the end, so much the better.
ianmac62
Guru
- Location
- Northampton
Both. Thanks, @mmmmartin!
Jacqueslemac
Active Member
- Location
- Mostly Normandy, sometimes Norfolk
I live about 30km from Caen now, and happy to provide local feedback on your plans as and when they develop.
OP
OP
mmmmartin
Random geezer
Just a quick note to say in the next few weeks my thoughts will move to next year's Tour and I'd appreciate any thoughts you have - so a PM via this forum is probably a good way of telling me your thoughts.
My current thinking is to go from Plymouth to Roscoff overnight on Friday June 30 (2017, obvs) and on the morning of Saturday July 1 immediately turn left and go eastwards and leave at Caen on the night ferry of Saturday July 8, arriving in Portsmouth on the morning of Sunday July 9. Note this is different from a previous idea to go southwards to Brest then to Quimper and then turn eastwards. This newest version allows days to be very much shorter and prettier (I think) but hillier. The date means we might have decent weather - as opposed to going in September.
My plan is to recce the route in April.
(If it turns out to be a terrible route we'll probably go back to the lowlands, but let's see.)
My current thinking is to go from Plymouth to Roscoff overnight on Friday June 30 (2017, obvs) and on the morning of Saturday July 1 immediately turn left and go eastwards and leave at Caen on the night ferry of Saturday July 8, arriving in Portsmouth on the morning of Sunday July 9. Note this is different from a previous idea to go southwards to Brest then to Quimper and then turn eastwards. This newest version allows days to be very much shorter and prettier (I think) but hillier. The date means we might have decent weather - as opposed to going in September.
My plan is to recce the route in April.
(If it turns out to be a terrible route we'll probably go back to the lowlands, but let's see.)
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
Am interested!
Yep - my scales have just reported the 2016 flat variant has had the opposite effect.
ianmac62
Guru
- Location
- Northampton
OP
OP
mmmmartin
Random geezer
Ladies & gentlemen, your thoughts please.
I have been doing some planning work on next year's tour.
Three problems with doing Roscoff- Caen have become evident and while running The Tour always has problems, these ones are big enough to make you decide to go elsewhere.
1) getting to Plymouth is a pain as you can't take your bike between 4.30 and 7pm (which arrives too late to be sure if getting the boat), so everyone must be out of London by 4.30. Bikes should be booked.
2) no matter what I do with the route the Brittany section is hilly, with a usual day of say 50k having 500 metres of ascent.
3) roads near the coast seem on Google Streetview to be narrow and possibly busy, and if we leave the coast to avoid the coastal traffic we might as well not be in Brittany at all. The bridges we have to cross seem sometimes to have a narrow and muddy apology for a cycle lane.
SO
To avoid the stress and grief we endured at Harwich at the start of this year's tour, we could start from Calais or Dunkirk: dead easy to get to and no problems with bike reservations.
We could return from The Hook of Holland as we did last year, this was logistically very robust.
We could quite easily work out a route up the Belgian coast (good cycling on good surface) and some sort of anti clockwise route into The Netherlands: it would need to avoid ground over which we rode this year, obvs.
This would be a flatter route than Brittany, on better cycling infrastructure.
It would however be similar to last year and this year. And not a pretty bit of coast which we'd have in Brittany.
Finally, the train system is better for jumping a day if you're ill, have a broken spoke, etc. And Eurostar is an
Then again, I suppose the last two tours were good so if it ain't broke don't fix it?
Thoughts please, on which you'd be more likely to sign up to.......
I have been doing some planning work on next year's tour.
Three problems with doing Roscoff- Caen have become evident and while running The Tour always has problems, these ones are big enough to make you decide to go elsewhere.
1) getting to Plymouth is a pain as you can't take your bike between 4.30 and 7pm (which arrives too late to be sure if getting the boat), so everyone must be out of London by 4.30. Bikes should be booked.
2) no matter what I do with the route the Brittany section is hilly, with a usual day of say 50k having 500 metres of ascent.
3) roads near the coast seem on Google Streetview to be narrow and possibly busy, and if we leave the coast to avoid the coastal traffic we might as well not be in Brittany at all. The bridges we have to cross seem sometimes to have a narrow and muddy apology for a cycle lane.
SO
To avoid the stress and grief we endured at Harwich at the start of this year's tour, we could start from Calais or Dunkirk: dead easy to get to and no problems with bike reservations.
We could return from The Hook of Holland as we did last year, this was logistically very robust.
We could quite easily work out a route up the Belgian coast (good cycling on good surface) and some sort of anti clockwise route into The Netherlands: it would need to avoid ground over which we rode this year, obvs.
This would be a flatter route than Brittany, on better cycling infrastructure.
It would however be similar to last year and this year. And not a pretty bit of coast which we'd have in Brittany.
Finally, the train system is better for jumping a day if you're ill, have a broken spoke, etc. And Eurostar is an
Then again, I suppose the last two tours were good so if it ain't broke don't fix it?
Thoughts please, on which you'd be more likely to sign up to.......
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