Showing posts with label Route. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Route. Show all posts

Thursday, 28 July 2011

Route Published!

Our provisional route has been published.

Click on the tab at the top of the page to view, or just click here.

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Checking in...

Posted by Stuart

Good to see all the prep from other members of the party.  Andy's off to Kos for a week tomorrow to continue his alcohol-based training regime.

I'm back on the bike after the marathon a couple of weeks ago.  Still not training too hard, but I'm getting hours in the saddle in, which is the main thing.

What else?  Not a lot really, just that having been in France for a week recently, riding across there is such a joy compared to the UK.  The weather helps of course, but a combination of considerate drivers and smooth road surfaces (rather than having to play dodge-the-pothole) makes for really pleasurable riding - the Saturday and Sunday of our trip should be great.  Not sure I can say the same about our Monday morning ride into Paris however....

Talking of which, that's the last bit of the route I need to get sorted.  No time like the present.

Sunday, 15 May 2011

Route planning

A very quick blog to kick things off.  We're still over 3 months away from departing these shores, but it's never too soon to start, and indeed finish, the planning.

We got together as a foursome, as it were, last week, and I think all is going to be well.  We each have our challenges to overcome if it's going to be a totally harmonious experience, but with a bit of luck those are undulations rather than high peaks on the road ahead.  Mine?  So many....remember this is for pleasure rather than being a military exercise, get the navigation sorted properly, remember not to preface every sentence with "when I did Land's End to John O'Groats" (I'm boring myself with that), for starters.

As far as navigation is concerned, the route from central London to Dover has been bothering me.  My first thoughts were to go out through south-east London, and then hug the north Kent coast through Dartford, Chatham, Gillingham through to Faversham, then hit the back roads to get to Dover.  I didn't fancy the navigation over the last 25 miles though, and elements of the route to Faversham looked a bit dull, to be frank.  I think we've got a better one now though, heading south after Dartford to pick up the A20, then staying on that through parts of the North Downs to Maidstone, Ashford, and nearly all the way to Dover.  Andy has been kind enough to stick it through bikeroutetoaster (I need to get a lesson off him - I've failed dismally to make it work for me so far), and it looks ok.

Three months feels like a long time between now and departure, but before then we've got plenty else to occupy us.  Inter alia, there'll be a trip to France to watch the Tour de France for Neil and me, a new job for Neil, summer holidays, and bike buying for Dylan.  So the time will go quickly, and the more we can get sorted quickly, the better.  It looks like we'll be having a practice outing on Monday 27th June, organisation courtesy Andy, so there's an interim target.