how many days for 1000 km

tramotane
tramotane Posts: 46
edited June 2008 in Tour & expedition
I'm looking for some feedback on how long days! it might take me to ride 1000kms approx from Calais to nr Montpellier.

i'll be traveling as light as i can on a light weight road bike,currently i can ride 230 km in a day
10 hrs not including stops.

the route goes through the massif central i'm hoping to average 250km a day any done this
sort of distance for 4 days any advice.

many thanks

Comments

  • Gavin Gilbert
    Gavin Gilbert Posts: 4,019
    I have but it's been on structured rides like the Paris Brest Paris, and I'm aware of how much having

    a. a signed route
    b. food and assistance
    c, other riders around me to help me the bad patches

    really helped. Certainly when I've done very long solo rides off my own back it has been much harder.

    It's probably doable at 250km a day, but you'd probably enjoy more if you kicked back and allowed a maximum of 200km. It's France for God's sake - you need to take some time out for a decent feed :lol:
  • pneumatic
    pneumatic Posts: 1,989
    Massif Central will slow you down a lot. It goes up and down like a whore's drawers and will knock the stuffing out of you. Make up the miles in Northern France, where it is relatively flat and (I would suggest) stick a couple of extra days on the whole trip.

    Fast and Bulbous
    Peregrinations
    Eddingtons: 80 (Metric); 60 (Imperial)
  • raybo
    raybo Posts: 87
    I recently rode 1100 miles in France. Part of it was through the Massif Central. One day, I went over two 1,000 meter cols and several other smaller ones. They were all up and got quite steep at the top. It rained heavily for the last mile of both of them. By the end of the last one, I was so tired (I was fully loaded) that I had to walk up the last mile in driving rain pushing my bike. Is that part of the 250KMs you can do?

    Don't assume that the mileage you can do at home in optimal conditions is what you can do on tour, over unknown terrain, in a foreign country. I was lucky, in that I didn't experience any serious headwinds. Be sure to factor those in, as well.

    Most importantly, be sure to do the mileage you can *comfortably* do in a day. I found that on some of my longer rides (120 KMs), the last 10 miles often felt like a death march. Riding beyond what is comfortable is no way to have a great bike tour.

    Ray
  • vernonlevy
    vernonlevy Posts: 969
    I took a leisurely fortnight and totally avoided the Central Massif by cutting aross to the Rhone Soanne gap and then heading south. Pleanty of time then to savour the ooferings of cafes, patisseries and boulangeries with mid day siesta's to freshen up for the second half of the day.

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