Am I mad? Advice please

[belairman]

Ok nobody on here knows me so I am prepared to embarrass myself.

The forum looks great and I have already found lots of good stuff and laughed out loud more than once.

Here’s my question – bear with me.

This year I did a sponsored weight loss for a children’s cancer charity. I lost 22 lbs (and counting) and raised over £1500.

Cycling played a big part in this, and I am now doing evening runs of 15ish miles two or three times a week, on local country roads and occasionally on green lanes etc.

Next year I want to go one better and my latest idea is a sponsored bike ride from the Midlands (where I live) through France to the Swiss Alps near Lake Geneva (where a family member has a holiday home).

• My bike is a five year old Ridgeback mountain bike, 24 speed, but with road tyres fitted (26 x 1.7).
• Alternatively my son has a Decathlon tourer of a similar size that I might be able to use – he never does
• I would be sticking to back roads and hoping to cover 40-50 miles a day
• I expect to allow three weeks for the journey – 600 miles or so
• I would aim to have a rest day every five days or so
• I will be camping using a pop-up tent (probably)
• I will be doing it alone (probably)
• I will be 47 years old and around 14 stone (at the outset anyway!)
• I am reasonably fit for my age, and a non-smoker all my life

Am I mad? Or is this a realistic thing for me to be planning?

Look forward to any views

Belairman

 

[Rhys_Po]

It's a good idea but falls apart slightly at the Swiss Alps / Geneva bit.

Clue: Have a look at a map of the area that has contours on it.

 

[Dougster]

Certainly not. I am nearer 60 than 50 and last summer I went on my first ever cycle tour, fully loaded, to the South of France. I covered about 700 miles in 2 weeks, including some hills in the Pyrenees. Go for it.

 

[jack the lad]

Welcome.

Not mad at all. Your trip looks eminently doable and should be great fun. I'm quite jealous!

You'll need to start increasing the distance you cycle so that you know you can comfortably do 40-50 miles a day (or more if you can) and do trips of this length back to back so that you train your body to recover quickly and be prepared to do the same again next day.

If your schedule allows it I would suggest keeping your 15 miles 2 -3 times midweek and fit in longer rides at weekends. You could also (if you don't already) start to replace some car journeys with cycling. For example when I was preparing to do Land's End to John O'Groats, fom the same sort of starting point that you are at, I would do the 30 miles each way commute to work by bike, starting off doing it just one way on one day a week and ending up doing it both ways every day for a whole week. Do the weekly shop on the bike, so you get used to riding it loaded up.

My other bit of advice would be to try to keep your trip schedule as flexible as possible. Think of 40-50 miles as an average rather than a daily target. Get ahead of schedule whenever you can, so you have freedom to skive, explore and detour later if the mood takes you. Some days you'll have the wind behind you and feel good and cover great distances. Another day you'll meet someone interesting and the lunch break just goes on and on.

Enjoy

 

[Bodhbh]

It's a good idea but falls apart slightly at the Swiss Alps / Geneva bit.

Clue: Have a look at a map of the area that has contours on it.

Well there's 2 weeks to warm up...

 

[simon_brooke]

Ok nobody on here knows me so I am prepared to embarrass myself.

The forum looks great and I have already found lots of good stuff and laughed out loud more than once.

Here’s my question – bear with me.

This year I did a sponsored weight loss for a children’s cancer charity. I lost 22 lbs (and counting) and raised over £1500.

Cycling played a big part in this, and I am now doing evening runs of 15ish miles two or three times a week, on local country roads and occasionally on green lanes etc.

Next year I want to go one better and my latest idea is a sponsored bike ride from the Midlands (where I live) through France to the Swiss Alps near Lake Geneva (where a family member has a holiday home).

• My bike is a five year old Ridgeback mountain bike, 24 speed, but with road tyres fitted (26 x 1.7).
• Alternatively my son has a Decathlon tourer of a similar size that I might be able to use – he never does
• I would be sticking to back roads and hoping to cover 40-50 miles a day
• I expect to allow three weeks for the journey – 600 miles or so
• I would aim to have a rest day every five days or so
• I will be camping using a pop-up tent (probably)
• I will be doing it alone (probably)
• I will be 47 years old and around 14 stone (at the outset anyway!)
• I am reasonably fit for my age, and a non-smoker all my life

Am I mad? Or is this a realistic thing for me to be planning?

Look forward to any views

Belairman

Go for it.

I would advise taking the tourer. Pack absolutely as light as you can - every ounce you pack has to be pulled up every single hill.

Don't be put off by the fact that it's Switzerland; Geneva is practically as low as Switzerland gets, and the gradients getting up to it aren't that bad - a quick play on my mapping software say a maximum gradient of 8%. And the ridge you need to get over is only 1200 metres.

But three weeks to do 600 miles? Yes, you can. It's only 33 miles per day, allowing three rest days. Frankly I would aim for 50 miles/day until you hit the Alps, to give yourself some buffer.

 

[rich p]

No problem at all. My wife managed to average 50mpd with one day off per week over a 4 week tour (including the Alps).

 

[belairman]

Thanks for the advice and reassurance

I have done the trip by car, following motorways of course, but I have an idea of the terrain. There are a couple of short sharp inclines that I may plan the route to avoid!

Actually the French motorways do not go by the most direct route. Back roads may even be a shorter distance.

Hills generally don't bother me, although of course they do slow one down a tad . It's only the last 20km that are seriously, unrelentingly, uphill, from the lake to about 1700 m. By then, I will be a stone lighter anyway!

Belairman

 

[summerdays]

Go for it... but I'm a bit worried by the pop up tent... if it is anything like ours I wouldn't want to put it on the bike!!!

 

[RedBike]

Looks possible to me. I'm not too sure about the pop up tent though. I had so much trouble trying to mount mine on the trailer/bike I gave up and brought a cheap backpacking tent.

Others have managed though!

 

[ChrisKH]

Yes go for it. What an adventure!

 

[vernon]

• My bike is a five year old Ridgeback mountain bike, 24 speed, but with road tyres fitted (26 x 1.7).
• Alternatively my son has a Decathlon tourer of a similar size that I might be able to use – he never does

Take the tourer.

• I would be sticking to back roads and hoping to cover 40-50 miles a day
• I expect to allow three weeks for the journey – 600 miles or so

A sensible and relaxed pace. You'll cope.

• I would aim to have a rest day every five days or so
• I will be camping using a pop-up tent (probably)
• I will be doing it alone (probably)

Take something more compact than a pop up tent. I think that you'll have transport issues. Nowt wrong with solo touring - you set your own pace and schedule.

• I will be 47 years old and around 14 stone (at the outset anyway!)
• I am reasonably fit for my age, and a non-smoker all my life

I'd not worry about your weight and age. I did LEJOG at 47, JOGLE at 48, Channel to the Med at 49, Holyhead to Cardiff and Edinburg to Newcastle plus a coast to coast at 51 and will be doing the atlantic to Sitzerland this summer if the vineyards in the Loire valley don't distract me too much. I've never weighed less than 21 stones for any of the tours and averaged 60 miles per day on each one.

On the longer tours I didn't get hung up about not doing my 60 miles for the day as there was always scope for catching up later.

You'll be able to manage the ride with few problems.

 

[Crackle]

THere was a recent thread on pop-up tents

http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=36420

 

[Ben M]

40-50 miles a day is easily doable.

If not a bit boring on your own.

 

[Randochap]

“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic , grace and power in it.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Get crazy and ride to sanity

Have a look around the Touring Pages at VeloWeb. Bonne route!