tips for planning a route

[Georgem123]

hi guys and gals

how do you guys prep your route for a tour of a few weeks/month.

Im planning a month long tour through france to the middle of italy and other than looking a road maps and google earth im not sure how best to plan a good route

how do you know the profiles of a days travel?
how can you avoid not so nice places and seek out the places with the best scenary etc etc
are there any good websites that i should be utilising?

thanks

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Crazy guy on a bike

 

[Dave Davenport]

Bit of Googling before and a road map, making it up as you go works for us.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

bike route toaster is excellent once you know roughly where you want to go. it has terrain and profiles etc so you can steer clear of hills or seek them out whichever is your preference. then just dump the track file in your garmin and hit the road

 

[BigonaBianchi]

towns suck for the mostpart on a tour imho, scenery appears when the mountains appear, fear yee not the climbs of doom for verily there shalt thee find scenery worth the pain.

follow the yellow/green roads, beware the big horrid blue ones,

seek advice from onion sellers for they knoweth the way

tourist hotspots are for cars and lazy peeps who like junk food and being ripped off. avoid. seek out the local lanes, there be more to see and life be better there.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

know thy max pedal per day mileage.

know where thy will lay thy head to rest each night

plot on map

link the dots with cycle friendly roads

accept things change

 

[Georgem123]

good tips thanks everyone