Critiques of routes for touring

[Annoying Twit]

Hi. Is it possible to get any critiques for my routes for touring?

I prefer to travel on small paved roads with little traffic. I ride a single speed which means that long steep hills are a problem. I'm OK with general hills and occasionally walk up short steep hills. But very long steep hills are a problem.

In case anyone can criticise my routes, here are some that I am planning for this year. Even if people cannot criticise the entire routes, localised advice would be greatly appreciated. E.g. I'm really not sure about my route from Tewkesbury to Gloucester.

Leicester to Oxford: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Stone ... 560986!3e1

Leicester to Gloucester: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Stone ... 642449!3e1

In both of the above cases, I plan to cycle one way then take a train back.

I'm planning a Leicester to Lincoln return cycle ride later in the year. I'll give the route here. But, since I did a one way to Lincoln on Saturday, I feel that this route is reasonably good and probably doesn't need modification. Though, advice would still be appreciated if anyone wishes to comment.

Leicester to Lincoln: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Stone ... 262085!3e1

[honesty]

The Leicester to Oxford route has you cycling along the A34 outside of Oxford. Don't do this. It's an awful dual carriage way that is always immensely busy.

For the Gloucester one it may be easier to head out through Leicester Forest East, then Kirbey Muxloe, Desford, Market Bosworth (or Sutton Cheney), then drop south. This also has the added advantage of not having to go anywhere near Nuneaton...

[beardy]

Try using this to plot your routes, it always gives amazingly good routes but possibly a bit too reticent to use main roads, you can tweek it when a bit of main road would make the rest of the route better.
http://cycle.travel/map

[Annoying Twit]

Thanks for the advice. I'll tweak the maps in the ways suggested (which sound very sensible suggestions to me) when I get home from work. I thought I had removed all A-roads except for crossing them; thanks very much for pointing out my mistake.

The Desford route also sounds good. I have gone up to Burton on Trent a few times to swim with the Midland Inland Swimmers group, and usually go through or at least Newton Uthank (spelling?) as I know the route well. I've once cycled to Market Bosworth, but that was many years ago.

I'll give the cycle travel map tool a go as well. I suspect that the cycle travel map tool is not as unwilling to use main roads as I am

These trips are months in the future, so I have time to work on the routes. I'm going on an organised 100km ride on the 14th of Feb, and will start pinning down dates for other rides after that.

EDIT: A34 (and A41) free Oxford route. (Apologies to my employer - though it only took a minute). https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Stone ... 560986!3e1

[MartinC]

Hi. I live in Bredon so I'm familiar with your route from Evesham to Gloucester. Basically you've got a sensible route there. To my shame I don't know what state the NCN path into Aston on Carrant is - I haven't explored it yet, keep meaning to but haven't got round to it yet so I can't advise on the surface or state of repair. If you don't actually want to go into Tewkesbury (no reason why not to it's easy to cycle through) then you can cut through Walton Cardiff on quiet byways to pick up your route to Tredington. To be honest using the A38 Tewkesbury to Gloucester isn't that unpleasant though you'd want to get off it and onto you route before the A40 roundabout. Enjoy.

[CliveyT]

My wife did Leicester to Abingdon (just south of Oxford) a few years back. I'll see if I can get her route (although as I recall there was a big hill somewhere).

Also have you considered taking the train out and then cycling home? Both trips you're suggesting are into the prevailing wind (not to say there won't be a north-easterly when you do the trip but it's less likely)

[Annoying Twit]

My wife did Leicester to Abingdon (just south of Oxford) a few years back. I'll see if I can get her route (although as I recall there was a big hill somewhere).

Also have you considered taking the train out and then cycling home? Both trips you're suggesting are into the prevailing wind (not to say there won't be a north-easterly when you do the trip but it's less likely)

I'm going to research the wind more. On my recent trip to Lincoln, I changed my plans from Lincoln --> Leicester to Leicester --> Lincoln mostly because of the wind. But also because I could start when I wanted to.

Going out by train and then coming back has advantages as I don't have to worry about missing my train back which would cost £££££. I've had a quick look and the earliest I can get to Gloucester on a Saturday is 8:20am. That's a late start, but I suppose that would be OK when the days are longer. Oxford I can get to at 8:14am, similar but as the distance to Oxford is less, I don't need so much daylight time.

'A' big hill is not a problem. My Lincoln route had the worst hills concentrated in one place. There were two short steep hills which I walked. The rest was OK to ride. It's many long steep hills that would be a problem. I had an experience once riding up the hill outside Spa Francorchamps station in Belgium. I don't want to do that again - and I had gears then.

[millimole]

When my daughter ran a pub near Oxford, I did the Oxford to Leicester run a few times - a typical route is here : http://ridewithgps.com/trips/4392318 or as an alternative http://ridewithgps.com/trips/4392336
Your route looks good, but note that Route 6 takes a completely baffling kink around Blaby that you can ignore (and is easy to see on your route map).
Leicester to Oxford by train? You're having a larf!!!

[Richard Fairhurst]

Hi. I live in Bredon so I'm familiar with your route from Evesham to Gloucester. Basically you've got a sensible route there. To my shame I don't know what state the NCN path into Aston on Carrant is - I haven't explored it yet, keep meaning to but haven't got round to it yet so I can't advise on the surface or state of repair.

It's rough - pretty much just a field edge, I'm afraid. Unfortunately the alternatives are the A46 (no thanks) or a two-mile diversion via Overbury. You can go the other way round Bredon Hill, but that's no shorter than Overbury, and the B4080 tends to attract speeders. If you're on a hybrid and it hasn't been raining I'd suggest the NCN route: if it's muddy, or you're on a road-bike, maybe go via Overbury.

[millimole]

Your route out of Leicester to Gloucester - I can see why you have chosen to head out down Route 6, but it adds a LOT of extra miles!
Consider going up Groby Road from your overnight stay onto New Parks Way (separate cycle path on one side / service road on the other side) to the A47 junction.
Then follow the A47 to Earl Shilton - yes it's a main A road, but once you are clear of Leicester Forest East it's not that bad. It is wide and has marked cycle lanes on both sides. You could divert off the A47 to your planned route to Thurlaston, but I'm not sure why you'd want to, except for the garden centre tea room. (Don't be tempted by the road called Beggars Lane - it's a ratrun, narrow and fast moving traffic)
There's a gert big hill on the old road into Earl Shilton.

[millimole]

Towards Lincoln out of Leicester I can't fault your choice of route. You do need to be aware that Anstey Road is very steep downhill and has a lot of school traffic on it; Blackbird Road is horrid for cycling on, but I'm at a loss to offer a sensible alternative from your starting location into the towpath near the Space Centre.(at the junction of Blackbird Rd with the A6, to go straight on you must be in the central lane, but it's badly signposted)
The towpath is in very good condition (Tarmac mostly) on that section you are using.

[Annoying Twit]

Thanks Millimole.

Towards Lincoln out of Leicester I can't fault your choice of route. You do need to be aware that Anstey Road is very steep downhill and has a lot of school traffic on it; Blackbird Road is horrid for cycling on, but I'm at a loss to offer a sensible alternative from your starting location into the towpath near the Space Centre.(at the junction of Blackbird Rd with the A6, to go straight on you must be in the central lane, but it's badly signposted)
The towpath is in very good condition (Tarmac mostly) on that section you are using.

The starting location is where I live. So, I'm used to Anstey Lane, and am past the downhill part of it. Though, there's shared use footpath which I usually use when going to Beaumont Leys Tescos for shopping. In terms of hills, I'm quite OK cycling up from Anstey to Beaumont Leys in terms of size of hill. But I really don't like that road as it's too big/busy for me, particularly as there's an M1 junction there.

Your route out of Leicester to Gloucester - I can see why you have chosen to head out down Route 6, but it adds a LOT of extra miles!
Consider going up Groby Road from your overnight stay onto New Parks Way (separate cycle path on one side / service road on the other side) to the A47 junction.
Then follow the A47 to Earl Shilton - yes it's a main A road, but once you are clear of Leicester Forest East it's not that bad. It is wide and has marked cycle lanes on both sides. You could divert off the A47 to your planned route to Thurlaston, but I'm not sure why you'd want to, except for the garden centre tea room. (Don't be tempted by the road called Beggars Lane - it's a ratrun, narrow and fast moving traffic)
There's a gert big hill on the old road into Earl Shilton.

Is the hill into Earl Shilton as bad as the one into Desford from Newton Unthank? I find that one quite a challenge and it will do my legs in for a bit. (Though, it's flat after that for quite a while if I recall correctly. I don't think I've ever been to Earl Shilton.

I'm trying to head north before heading south, as you and another poster recommended. It seems that I can head west and then drop down between Coventry and Birmingham avoiding both. Not that I"ve got anything against them as cities, but I would prefer not to cycle through them.

However, I'm struggling with google maps and keep running out of editing ability before I have the route correct. I think I'm going to have to split it into two or more maps and edit them independently. But, the route is starting to look quite promising. It goes through both Kenilworth and Stratford-upon-Avon.

I want my route to Gloucester to be at least 100 miles as it will be the first time I've managed that distance. If you know the route down the River Soar, then you may be amused to hear that when I went to Lincoln, I circled King Lear's Lake three times to add in an extra 4.5K to make the total distance > 100km.

Hi. I live in Bredon so I'm familiar with your route from Evesham to Gloucester. Basically you've got a sensible route there. To my shame I don't know what state the NCN path into Aston on Carrant is - I haven't explored it yet, keep meaning to but haven't got round to it yet so I can't advise on the surface or state of repair.

It's rough - pretty much just a field edge, I'm afraid. Unfortunately the alternatives are the A46 (no thanks) or a two-mile diversion via Overbury. You can go the other way round Bredon Hill, but that's no shorter than Overbury, and the B4080 tends to attract speeders. If you're on a hybrid and it hasn't been raining I'd suggest the NCN route: if it's muddy, or you're on a road-bike, maybe go via Overbury.

Thanks Richard and Martin. This is similar to a problem I had going to Lincoln. Going from Harby up towards Bottesford, my google maps route had me going along the canal towpath for 4.3miles. It was grass, wet, and muddy. I decided to take the B-road instead. As it turned out: nice road with moderate traffic.

I have looked at routes through Overbury, so I'll go back and look at that again, and avoid the B4080. I had a go, but it kept jumping onto A-roads. I have a theory that even if the A-roads aren't that big, that people's navigation tools tend to send people to the A-roads.

http://cycle.travel/map gives good routes, but very different ones.

[millimole]

That hill up into Desford past the Lancaster Arms is certainly a killer!
I'd say that the Earl Shilton hill is not as steep, but is longer - so about equal! The only ways of avoiding it are bypassing Earls Shilton entirely (going well north) or using the A47 bypass which has an excellent cyclepath along its entire length - it's a shallow, very long gradient, but doesn't reach the lofty heights of the village itself.
I certainly wouldn't ride in either Coventry or Birmingham for fun if I could help it either!
Have you considered using RideWithGPS.com to draw your routes on?

[MartinC]

.......................I have looked at routes through Overbury, so I'll go back and look at that again, and avoid the B4080...........

Richard is right about the B4080 - you do get the occasional speeder - but it is really a fairly quiet and pleasant road. I use it often ('cos I live on it!) so I'd certainly use it if it gives you the route you want. All the routes around Bredon Hill are well used by cyclists and local motorists are expecting them. The route around the north of the hill is a nice ride - a couple of short sharp climbs but some views to compensate.

[Annoying Twit]

Could someone (e.g. 'honesty') please advise about the suitability of leaving Oxford (heading towards Leicester) on the B4150, over the A40 and north towards Woodeaton and Islip?

The B4150 looks a bit big and busy (streetmap), but I'm having trouble finding a route out of Oxford without using the axis of evil (A34-A40-A44) at the north end of Oxford.

While I'm told I could take the canal to Kidington, I found a picture on google streetmap which seemed to indicate that the towpath is unpaved. I'm not sure about riding that.

Any opinions on the A4095 north of Kirklington would also be useful. While it's an A-road, it doesn't look too bad on streetmap. I'd be on it for about 3km.

I had to give up on my first route to Oxford as it was getting longer and longer. I have found a shorter 125km route, which doesn't seem too bad. And I'd only be on it for a kilometre or so. In terms of a planned build from 100km to 200km rides, 125km seems a useful step forward without being too much of a jump.

I don't want to waste anyone's time as this route will likely be refined further. But, this is what I have at present: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Oxfor ... 484838!3e1 It is very different from the first draft I posted.

List of villages passed through:

Oxford
Woodeaton
Islip
Bletchingdon
Kirtlington
Upper Heyford
Somerton
Charlton
Farthinghoe
Moreton Pinkney
Canons Ashby
Preston Capes
Newnham
Watford
Crick
Yelvertoft
Clay Coton
Stanford on Avon
Swinford
Walcote
Gilmorton
Ashby Magna
Willoughby Waterleys
Countesthorpe
Blaby
Leicester

PS: Thanks for the Gloucester tips. I'll be working more on that route as well. But Oxford will come first.