[snappyandrew]

As masters racing seems to be up in the air this year I’ve given myself a plan of cycling down from London to near Carcassonne in August..I’ll meet the family here and we’ll get back together by train. I’m planning to stay in hotels, not camp. I haven’t  really got a clue on how to plan it and wondered if anyone had any ideas on how to work out a route.  I’ll be taking a road bike with minimal luggage. 

Any thoughts about routes/tips/realistic distance a day gratefully received

Topic

[Dnnnnnn]

https://road.cc/content/blog

https://road.cc/content/blog/cycling-london-barcelona-better-lejog-280273

https://forum.cyclinguk.org (try “Carcassone” in the search box)

http://www.warmshowers.org

[efail]

I’ve cycled quite a few miles

I’ve cycled quite a few miles in France, many of them before I found out that all French cemeteries have a tap, and almost every village has a cemetery. So, if you are stuck for a drink… There’s garages where you can stock up. We also wait until mid afternoon before booking a hotel/b&b. Never failed us. We’ve even had a someone offer to come and pick us up when it ws getting dark. Things sometimes go wrong but I have always found the locals very helpful. Love cycling in France

[Sriracha]

It can get bloody hot in the
It can get bloody hot in the south! Take the largest capacity water bottles you can. Don’t bother with insulated ones, they still warm up anyway and only hold less water. And a small water spritzer can be a godsend.

A handlebar bag that clips on/off using the Klickfix system is great for stuff you want to keep at hand on and off the bike; camera, phone, wallet, spritzer etc. You won’t want anything in your pockets, it’d just get destroyed by sweat.

An all-day sunscreen saves hassle. I’ve used Riemann P20 factor 30/50. Not pleasant and it will tinge white clothes greenish, but it goes on once a day and I never burned. Just never apply above the eyes – hours later it will find its way in and sting like hell! Also Calypso seems to work. But mostly I wear loose and airy long sleeved sunshirt with a fold up collar.

Useful stuff here:
https://www.freewheelingfrance.com/

[Chris Hayes]

Damn, I’ve just wasted an

Damn, I’ve just wasted an hour looking at maps and I’m not even going! France is big – but It’s a straight choice between the flat but potentially windy coastal route and the arduous but beautiful Massif through heading for Albi and Castres.  

I’d take an overnight ferry to a Normandy port, or even Brittany – but you can take your bike on Eurotunnel (and cycle along the Normany coast, which is as beautiful and dramatic as our own Seven Sisters, but the French don’t shout about it). 

Also, D roads are pretty straight in France, so if you find yourself with a headwind it might be with you all day. And sometimes for days on end.  Not suggesting that you time your ride to go with the wind, but it can be energy sapping – even on the Charente flats.

I suspect that the Canal du Midi paths will be very busy in the Summer – unless you get up very early.  It’s a while since I’ve ridden it and I did it in early Spring, but it wasn’t really suited to road bikes either (or touring bikes in my case). 

 

Kindle books that’ll give you some perspective on your ride.  Jonathan Sumption’s 100 Years War….so you can track the Bastides?  Or the Albigensian Crusade…

You can be pretty imaginative with the places you stay. I’d avoid the cheap hotel stops and plan ahead with a copy of Sawdays.  My wife and I stayed on our own in the Chateau de Crazannes….not even a night porter….amazing https://www.jpmoser.com/chateaucrazannes.html 

 

[CXR94Di2]

Ive cycled a bit in France. 

Ive cycled a bit in France.  One bit of advice stay off the main A roads, these are used alot by truckers and locals.  They wont go on the private motorways. 

Now the good bit, France being so big you can cycle almost exclusively on country lanes and not see hardly a car all day.  I stayed in guest houses on my cycling which were out of towns.

Take plenty of time , dont do mega miles per day-enjoy the scenery, smooth roads and cafe stops.  Remember France has a long 2 hour dead time after lunch, similar to Spain and Monday lots of places close all afternoon

[David9694]

Remembering that frozen water

Remembering that frozen water has a greater volume than liquid form, so don’t end up with splits.

[don simon fbpe]

If you can, put the water

If you can, put the water bottles into a freezer the night before.

[snappyandrew]

All of this is top advice,

All of this is top advice, thanks. 

Would love to hear any more pearls of wisdom 

[iandusud]

Good advice except the bit

Good advice except the bit about avoiding D (Départental) roads, which are the equivalent of UK B roads. The ones to avoid are the RN (Routes Nationales) which are the equivalent of UK A roads. 

[RoadieRoadie]

I rode from North to South of

I rode from North to South of France a few years ago with a seatpost bag & a handlebar bag on a PX pro carbon. I just took a credit card, 2 Lycra’s, flip flops, toothbrush, rain jacket & spare jersey, which made for fairly fast riding as not too heavy / draggy. Most cities in France have excellent Formule 1 or B n B hotels usually located in industrial / shopping zones on the outskirts & should cost around £30 pn with continental all you can eat brekkie for another five or six euros, you. Both have good websites with maps for planning I washed out my clothes each night & also found okish restaurants to be around the corner. ‘Buffalo Grill’ as I recall. Think I averaged around 130 / 150kms per day & took 8 days in total. The French love of all things cycling will be noticeable & doubtless you’ll get a couple of toots of support along the way. Remember it gets very very warm in the south in August 35-40 + degrees which could knock on to your ride plans. It’s also very hilly in centre / south – Massif Central etc so carefully consider your route in view of heat. Carcassonne is a beaut of a place to end up in & lies near to the southern end of the canal du midi. So a possible route would be down west coast (cooler) through Brittany, Poitou Charente / Dordogne régions where you can pick up the canal du Garonne / MIDI for a hundred or so kms? There are tonnes of other routes of course & a question of what floats your boat. Most roads are brilliantly surfaced & make you realise how bad ours really are – you can usually find a workaround cycle friendly route & fairly direct road links from OS type maps, avoid the ‘D’ Departmental routes as these are the free (non autoroute) but busy & fast traffic routes.  It’s a great plan & wonderful country to ride a bike in & wish you the best of luck. 

[andystow]

Steve K wrote:

Steve K wrote:

But I’d say maybe 150km a day?

It’s doable, but very few cycle tourists do so much distance day after day. More like 100-125 km.

Also, why is it okay to say mileage, but not kilometreage?

Anyhow, there are several good tools with various levels of useablility.

https://www.komoot.com/plan/@51.4608524,-0.1153564,10z?sport=touringbicycle

https://cycle.travel/map     (a nice feature of this one is that once you have a route, you can click on a point along it then click to see Google Street View.)

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/new

When in doubt, I use Strava’s global heatmap to see how much other cyclists, usually locals, are riding on a road.

https://www.strava.com/heatmap#9.29/-0.17634/51.35051/blue/ride

 

 

[Steve K]

I’m sure there will be others
I’m sure there will be others on here with far more experience and useful advice than me, but for what it’s worth, some thoughts from me based on my own planning of multi-day trips (all in this country, though).

How far in a day is really down to whether you want to push things or dawdle a bit – and how much time you’ve got to make the journey. But I’d say maybe 150km a day?

My journey planning method (as I say, for in England and Wales) was to use Google maps to show me a route for the whole journey; then work from that roughly where I’d want to stay each night; then find accommodation for each night (I wanted to know where I was staying, rather than have to find somewhere at the end of a long day in the saddle); and then use a dedicated cycle route planner to plan each day’s journey (I used Strava).

I hope that’s some help, though as I say I’m sure others on here will have better advice.

Oh, and good luck. Sounds like a great trip.

[Author]

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