Devon to Monaco

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beermonster

Über Member
Location
Teignmouth,Devon
hi all, I am organising a charity ride in memory of my brother in August starting from our childhood village near Exeter and finishing where he worked for a time in Monaco. Have a rough route in mind, is there a good app to customise route so as to avoid the main roads? Google maps want to take you on the A roads!
Plan on 10 days of cycling with a rest day half way, Plymouth to Roscoff ferry seems the best option.
Any advice,accommodation ideas, routes etc etc...
 

Broadside

Guru
Location
Fleet, Hants
Use the route planning at www.strava.com it defaults to planning routes that are most popular with cyclists in the area.
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
Sorted, 900 miles from Cherbourg

I use this app https://cycle.travel/map
You have to sign up, but it's free
You can save your route, which means you can fine tune it over a period of weeks
You can try 'what if...' options to see if avoiding a hill but going 5 miles further is the better option
You can share your route with others, so they can chip in with ideas
You can download the route as a .gpx file for GPS's
The app runs on smart phones, so mount a smart phone on your handlebars, and all members of the party can have the same live route map.
No excuses for getting lost!

upload_2019-1-12_11-4-18.png
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
Thanks, had a quick play around, can add in ‘via points’ which is useful!

You can also click and drag.

My experience of using this app in France is it's pretty accurate.
For example where we had moved the route suggested off what we considered a main road, we found than on the ground not only was it not a heavily used road, it also had a bike lane off on one side

End result is that by day 3 we were largely ignoring our carefully planned armchair route and in most cases simply going with whatever the app proposed.
 

gavroche

Getting old but not past it
Location
North Wales
Sorted, 900 miles from Cherbourg

I use this app https://cycle.travel/map
You have to sign up, but it's free
You can save your route, which means you can fine tune it over a period of weeks
You can try 'what if...' options to see if avoiding a hill but going 5 miles further is the better option
You can share your route with others, so they can chip in with ideas
You can download the route as a .gpx file for GPS's
The app runs on smart phones, so mount a smart phone on your handlebars, and all members of the party can have the same live route map.
No excuses for getting lost!

View attachment 446727
That route goes through my home town: Orleans.
 
Sorry to hear about your brother, this sounds like a great way to honour him.

The only thing I'd say is: 10 days is very little time to get across France with a touring load. Will you be camping at all? Do you have much experience of bike touring? Will there be a support van?

(When you get there, be sure to do a lap of the F1 track. Avenue d'Ostende is a lot steeper than it looks on TV or in F1 games - struggling up it on a touring bike with an audience of bemused tourists was fun, but overtaking supercars on the Fairmont/Loews hairpin was magnificent.)
 
Thanks, had a quick play around, can add in ‘via points’ which is useful!
If avoiding busy roads is a priority for you then cycle.travel is what you need. I've used it in the UK and France for thousands of miles and it consistently produces routes that use the quieter roads, which is important to me. I do experiments with other websites from time to time however none produce routes that suit me as well.
 
OP
OP
beermonster

beermonster

Über Member
Location
Teignmouth,Devon
Sorry to hear about your brother, this sounds like a great way to honour him.

The only thing I'd say is: 10 days is very little time to get across France with a touring load. Will you be camping at all? Do you have much experience of bike touring? Will there be a support van?

(When you get there, be sure to do a lap of the F1 track. Avenue d'Ostende is a lot steeper than it looks on TV or in F1 games - struggling up it on a touring bike with an audience of bemused tourists was fun, but overtaking supercars on the Fairmont/Loews hairpin was magnificent.)

We plan to have support to avoid carrying stuff and a couple of us have done London to Paris so think 100 miles a day is doable with a day off half way down.
A mix of air bnb and camping will probably be the way to go.
I know Monaco and that area very well and a lap of the circuit is a good call!
The finish line will be the ‘Ship and Castle’ English pub on Port Fontvielle :^)
 
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OP
beermonster

beermonster

Über Member
Location
Teignmouth,Devon
If avoiding busy roads is a priority for you then cycle.travel is what you need. I've used it in the UK and France for thousands of miles and it consistently produces routes that use the quieter roads, which is important to me. I do experiments with other websites from time to time however none produce routes that suit me as well.
That’s good to hear, looks like what I was looking for!
 
OP
OP
beermonster

beermonster

Über Member
Location
Teignmouth,Devon
You can also click and drag.

My experience of using this app in France is it's pretty accurate.
For example where we had moved the route suggested off what we considered a main road, we found than on the ground not only was it not a heavily used road, it also had a bike lane off on one side

End result is that by day 3 we were largely ignoring our carefully planned armchair route and in most cases simply going with whatever the app proposed.
Will give the click and drag a try. When I did London to Paris we kept having to stop and recalculate as some roads were so busy and not always easy to see from just looking at map, hence asking for ideas! We did find French drivers were so patient and passed with care, hopefully that’s still the case.
 

briantrumpet

Legendary Member
Location
Devon & Die
We plan to have support to avoid carrying stuff and a couple of us have done London to Paris so think 100 miles a day is doable with a day off half way down.
A mix of air bnb and camping will probably be the way to go.
I know Monaco and that area very well and a lap of the circuit is a good call!
The finish line will be the ‘Ship and Castle’ English pub on Port Fontvielle :^)
I did a solo Exeter to Die six years ago, via Portsmouth, and 100 miles a day, very little luggage, was about my limit. Averaged about 15mph, which was a couple of mph slower than I was anticipating. French part of the route here: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1441823 - first couple of days were rather draggy in places (some of the straight 'main' D roads weren't great), the last three days were fabulous. But it did take me a lot longer if I avoided the straighter D roads.
 
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OP
beermonster

beermonster

Über Member
Location
Teignmouth,Devon
Thanks for that. It may be prudent to add another day as we plan it. There are 7 of us doing it at the mo which may increase so a bit of slip streaming may be in order!
 
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