frank9755
Cyclist
- Location
- West London
Would you like to make a specific suggestion, Stuart? Then people can give it a thumbs up or down.
The poll gives the greatest support to @redfalo's ride. That is the biggest thumbs up. The issue is that, as planned, it is significantly more than the 100km/day average which would, for some of us, be a bit too much. We could still do that and us weaker riders could decide whether to forgo it or struggle. Personally I would prefer to struggle but maybe it could be shrunk a little - either by varying the destination or starting from another point to make it more inclusive.Would you like to make a specific suggestion, Stuart? Then people can give it a thumbs up or down.
Same here.The new suggestion wasn't an option when I voted. I for one would withdraw my vote for the German ride (which I made on the principle that it would probably get amended as time went on) and vote for this one instead.
here's an idea
http://bit.ly/1r4KfJ1
about 500k - not including the nightride from Newhaven, so not an "eyeballs out" tour. Night ride to Newhaven, easy ride to Neufchatel to a decent hotel in the town or to the B&B about five miles away that I have used annually for about 10 years. Avoiding the busy coastal road to the north-west of Dieppe - I rode that in September and it's tedious and busy. Then we turn inland and follow a river valley - I think this is the route followed by The Lovely @swarm_catcher when she does the DIY 200k audax by GPS to her parents' house in Belgium. Then we cross Belgium, and the odd kinks in the route take us to Ostend, which is much more interesting and scenic than you would think, but we avoid the busy coastal route - which can be bloody windy as @StuAff knows from his ride back this May. Then we see Bruges, which is lovely with canals and old stone buildings etc etc. Into the Netherlands and along the coastal dykes which have things called "cycle paths" but anyone who has ridden in the UK will laugh at the term - these are as wide as a busy UK road and banned to all traffic except bikes and maintenance lorries. We pass some enormous pieces of machinery in the dykes, used to control the water levels. You soon see why the job of water engineer in the Netherlands in so important. The strange kink in the route takes us to the museum set up after the floods in 1956 in which 3,000 people died. The buildings of the museum are housed in some concrete cassions left over from D-Day and they were towed across the North Sea and sunk in the gaps in the dykes to keep the floods out. Many countries of the world rushed to help by building houses and those houses are still there today, called "Norway Street" etc etc. I've been there and it was really interesting, Worth a short detour. Then we go along more dykes through the countryside and return on the Hook of Holland ferry to Harwich. Amsterdam is a bit of schlepp and the ferry from Esbjerg has closed - there are rumours of it opening again but only rumours. So we can't bank on it.
This should be an interesting tour, not hard with lots of hills so if you want that you may prefer to follow Simon's tour from Irun to Girona.
Thoughts please - the more critical the better - the "hallelujah chorus" is no good.
Paris - Med is doable in 8 days ~ 850km. Form an orderly queue at St PancrasBoredeaux-Med got my vote (and that of HelenS and CathyG) but the current favourite suggestion sounds good as well.
I like the idea of Dieppe to Hook.
Interestingly, only today I had an email advising me of a cheap Netherlands map for my GPS, so it must be a sign. With the French map I bought last month, and taking account of the overlap in coverage into neighbouring countries, it means I only have a tiny gap around Ostend to Bruges in the middle of Belgium. And Belgium's not big, so not much chance of getting lost.
Yebbut..... on the first of the @swarm_catcher rides we turned south while following the canal and it was only when I realised the sun was coming up in the west (which is wrong) that we were heading south instead of north west. So even we managed to go wrong.