How far do you cycle each day on tour?

[bobbiezak]

We cycled from Blackpool Tower to the Eiffel Tower 2 years ago cycling most days 75 miles or so and on 2 days just over 100 miles We were on the road by 07:30 every day and at our overnight stops by late afternoon. We travelled lightly as we stayed in lodges & hostels Our rest day was crossing Dover-Calais and only cycling 35 miles that day. It is all in the training how far you can cycle. I used the 2 Bank Holidays in May to test myself with 3 days cycling, 60, 70, & 80 miles each day on both occasions. We left on Sat. morning 09:30 & were under the Eiffel Tower the following Sat. at 13:00 In total our route was 590 miles

 

[Arch]

We cycled from Blackpool Tower to the Eiffel Tower 2 years ago cycling most days 75 miles or so and on 2 days just over 100 miles We were on the road by 07:30 every day and at our overnight stops by late afternoon. We travelled lightly as we stayed in lodges & hostels Our rest day was crossing Dover-Calais and only cycling 35 miles that day. It is all in the training how far you can cycle. I used the 2 Bank Holidays in May to test myself with 3 days cycling, 60, 70, & 80 miles each day on both occasions. We left on Sat. morning 09:30 & were under the Eiffel Tower the following Sat. at 13:00 In total our route was 590 miles

I think it comes down to defintion. For me, that isn't touring. It's.. I dunno what really, long distance cycling, self organised audax, expedition maybe, but that implies a bit more roughing it and exploration. I'm impressed, but it's not my idea of a holiday...

 

[Fiona N]

I'm a minimalist when it comes to planning - I tend to have a start point and an end point and everything in between depends on the day. This means mileages tend to be high if the cycling and weather are good. I'm not much of a sight-seeing tourist and happily pass by all the famous landmarks (I am known amongst my cycling friends for having neglected to look in on Ayers Rock/Ulhuru whilst cycling from Darwin to Adelaide - I spotted all the tourist coaches turning into the access road and decided it didn't look like a good idea and carried straight on...) whereas unexpected places are much more interesting.

Last summer touring in Germany, I was heading for Heidelberg and planning a rest day there. But the previous day was a stop 'n' start day - needed to find a bike shop with the bike route maps, then got a puncture, then got chatting over lunch, then another puncture so I called it a day in a small city called Speyer just across the river from Heidelberg and about 20km short of it. Well Speyer is glorious - it was a lovely hot summer evening, I found a great little hotel and an open-air restaurant located in a small square behind the Rathaus (Town Hall) - usually it's in the Rathaus cellar but comes into the light in the summer and had a look around the magnificent Cathedral - the Dom - with the resting place of German Kings from the middle ages. Heidelberg when I got there next day was OK but crawling with hoards of tourists, and expensive, and I wished I'd stayed in Speyer.

So all that to say, my mileage varies - 200km a day isn't out of bounds but days of 20km occur too. But I don't do camping tours anymore so the bike/trike is never heavily laden.

 

[CopperBrompton]

I'm with Arch, and take all day to do 50 miles with a leisurely start and a couple of equally leisurely stops en-route. To me, it's a holiday, so the idea of getting up at 6am or military-style stops holds no appeal whatsoever!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I've literally just got back from my first tour with my husband - we covered 1,124km in 13 days with camping equipment and stove etc. Don't know what it weighed, but it fitted into 2 rear panniers and a 30L rack-pack that clips onto the rear panniers. Tent & sleeping bag were in the rack-pack, along with waterproofs and lunch. (We are on mountain bikes, not tourers). We didn't use the front panniers that we had purchased for my husband's bike, there was no need and not enough equipment to put in to them.

We found that 80-110km was what we normally did, leaving the campsites around 9am each morning - not planned, it just worked out that way, we had no expectations and night stops were arranged around lunchtime depending on how we felt. We fell intoa routine of stopping around 11 am for a break and 12:30-1:30pm for a lunch, again around 3pm for another break. Sometimes we were camped by 4pm, 2 nights we had evening meal and carried on to the campsite arriving around 8 or 9pm.
We didn't have a rest day, but there was one day where the weather conditions/wind (very strong head wind) was knocking me off my bike, so we quit at 2pm, so effectively gave us a 1/2 day off.

We used the ferry home as a rest day and although tired, would happily do it again and are already planning a week's trip for October.

I found that 110km was more than enough for me (I'm a severe asthmatic), but 80km was easily obtained.

 

[Arch]

That sounds ideal - do I assume correctly France?

We had pretty much the same pattern - set off by 9am, mid morning coffee and buns (and shopping for lunch stuff), picnic lunch, mid afternoon coffee, arrive at each hotel (all our stops were prebooked for the fortnight) about 5-6ish pm. Plenty of time to shower, and congregate for a beer before dinner. Averaging about 50 miles a day, longest was 74.

We didn't have the camping kit to carry, but our trikes are heavier than bikes.

When (I'm not saying if any more) I go off and explore Europe with a tent one summer (just need to save up a bit), I think 50 will be an ideal daily target - but with the freedom to do much less if I find a nice place to look round.

 

[psmiffy]

Prior to my tour last year I tended to average about 100km a day - that was generally my budget if I was going to appear at my desk on time - however last year I did not have a desk to return to so pretty soon I just cycled what I felt like - an average of about 80km a day

I had always wondered if I did not have the incentive to get back to work if the drive to keep cycling would continue - It did - I probably did not take enough rest days

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

That sounds ideal - do I assume correctly France?
.

No, we have just come back from (mainland) Denmark.

Started on the West Coast route which though it was relatively flat was gravel and sand for a lot of the way with a strong head wind, then came back down the spine of Denmark via the old milatary road which covers Denmark's hills. They are not long steep hills, but they are short and sharp and on sand/gravel which made it difficult going at points and I would not like to have been doing them on road tyres with or without a load. There was a lot of sudden downs and sudden ups - but a good place for a someone like myself starting out in touring.

 

[palinurus]

I do around 70-90 miles a day usually, but slowly. What with stops included I average about 10 mph. Usually ride from about 8-9 am until early evening but sometimes keep going if sunset is late.

 

[HJ]

I would usually look to doing 80 - 100 Km a day, which give plenty of time to look around and enjoy the ride. I don't see touring as a form of racing, mostly...

 

[Turdus philomelos]

Dont go by the milage of route finder sites, just back from a tour round Holland, only 300 miles, and each stage was out by at least 8-10 miles longer and after a long day in the saddle, thats a killer.

 

[Arch]

No, we have just come back from (mainland) Denmark.

Started on the West Coast route which though it was relatively flat was gravel and sand for a lot of the way with a strong head wind, then came back down the spine of Denmark via the old milatary road which covers Denmark's hills. They are not long steep hills, but they are short and sharp and on sand/gravel which made it difficult going at points and I would not like to have been doing them on road tyres with or without a load. There was a lot of sudden downs and sudden ups - but a good place for a someone like myself starting out in touring.

Ah, cool! Denmark is on my to-do list - I fancy riding across, west to east, island hopping.

Only been to Copenhagen, as a foot tourist, but it seemed like heaven!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Was great fun, though at times a little daunting - have not quite got the hang of cars/lorries stopping on/in the middle of a roundabout to let me across the road on a cycle lane - I was more than happy to have a breather whilst they went past . Then there was the car towing a caravan that stopped in the middle of a junction leaving a main road becuase he had seen my husband go off to the cycle land in front of me, and I had stopped to check left before I went, and knew there was a vehicle, so had dismounted - so stops right in the middle of a busy junction with caravan sticking way out and I'm in the wrong gear to set off

The one issue with the island hopping, is that you can't cycle across the bridges between main islands - you have to put your bike on the train - which is one of the reasons we cycles clockwise around Jutland - the mainland part of DK, but otherwise - great country for cycling in - if you can see the small cycle signs (saying turn left) that are after your junction on the left that you have just cycled passed way too quickly to be able to stop..

 

[Arch]

Was great fun, though at times a little daunting - have not quite got the hang of cars/lorries stopping on/in the middle of a roundabout to let me across the road on a cycle lane

I had that problem on my recent first trip to Germany - I was busy trying to remember which way to look first to cross the road, and the cars just stopped, while I dithered!

Pity about the island bridges though - I hadn't got as far as actually researching it. Maybe I'll just include it in my grand Northern Europe Tour one day.

 

[dragon72]

Here's an interesting blog post where they've worked out a mathematical formula for calculating tour times and distances based on what you typically ride in a day:
http://www.pedalpoweredfamily.com/2...d-duration-of-our-long-distance-bicycle-tour/

I got it from a tweet by Friedel of travellingtwo.com fame. Thanks Friedel.