Devon circumnavigation - 341 miles!

briantrumpet

Devon is the biggest English county of the lot, has some of the most beautiful and spectacular coastline and scenery, and plenty of hills. So how about this for a challenge:

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=292712

More or less as complete a circumnavigation of Devon as is possible. 341 miles, 33,000ft of climbing. (Climbing from OS data - Bikeroutetoaster/Googlemaps undercalculates by a significant margin thanks to poor elevation resolution.)

I reckon this is a 'comfortable' four days' cycling. Probably a project for a couple of friends and me for next Summer now.

Suffice to say, I think anyone undertaking this would have to have their climbing legs on.

Nick1978

that looks quality. may give that a go!

briantrumpet

Nick1978 wrote:

that looks quality. may give that a go!

I'm trying to see if Devon County Council might be interested in doing something with the route - I reckon it would be a brilliant week's holiday for a group taking it gently, and if DCC signposted it, there were a list of bike-friendly B&Bs en route, and someone set up to carry luggage from stop to stop, I reckon it would be a mini rival to LEJOG (and without the boring flat bits) - it's well over a third of that distance, and your car would be there when you finished the journey.

As far as doing it next Summer with one of my friends .... he said "let's make it three days". The pub lunches had better be hearty. Here's the profile, going anticlockwise:

Slack

Glad you included the road at Slapton, being the flattest one mile in Devon!

However, it cannot be a true tour of Devon unless you include Princetown - you could do this leg via Plympton, Yelverton...and from Princetown, drop down to Tavistock (down Pork Hill where 50mph is attainable).

briantrumpet

Slack wrote:

Glad you included the road at Slapton, being the flattest one mile in Devon!

However, it cannot be a true tour of Devon unless you include Princetown - you could do this leg via Plympton, Yelverton...and from Princetown, drop down to Tavistock (down Pork Hill where 50mph is attainable).

Nope, not going to budge, as this isn't a tour of Devon, but a circumnavigation - if Princetown were on the edge of Devon it would be on the route. It's not. The Devon Coast to Coast is the route for that detour, if you want the joys of a Pork Hill descent (and I'll grant you it's a nice one - I did it last week.)

Anyway, isn't 33,000ft of climbing enough for you?

Pumpkin Positive

briantrumpet wrote:

Slack wrote:

Glad you included the road at Slapton, being the flattest one mile in Devon!

However, it cannot be a true tour of Devon unless you include Princetown - you could do this leg via Plympton, Yelverton...and from Princetown, drop down to Tavistock (down Pork Hill where 50mph is attainable).

Nope, not going to budge, as this isn't a tour of Devon, but a circumnavigation - if Princetown were on the edge of Devon it would be on the route. It's not. The Devon Coast to Coast is the route for that detour, if you want the joys of a Pork Hill descent (and I'll grant you it's a nice one - I did it last week.)

Anyway, isn't 33,000ft of climbing enough for you?

50mph is acheivable with a tiny detour off the 'official' route to take in the hill that runs down past the Naval College in Dartmouth. It's in a 30mph zone so I couldn't possibly condone this sort of behaviour and will deny ever having done it myself if the need arises!

Looks like a great route and will go on my 'to do list' - thanks for posting!

bam49

looks great - and never that far from home .. I reckon you will have to shave your legs for it though

FCE2007

North Devon is my favourite place in the WORLD.
Ilfracombe to Woolacombe is superb with the climb out of Lee being epic (imo).

Enjoy.

briantrumpet

bam49 wrote:

looks great - and never that far from home .. I reckon you will have to shave your legs for it though

But how else will I collect my North Devon insect specimens?

Still no word from Devon County Council re my idea ... I'll chase later this week. Maybe the whole department is off on a cycling holiday.

briantrumpet

briantrumpet wrote:

Still no word from Devon County Council re my idea ... I'll chase later this week. Maybe the whole department is off on a cycling holiday.

I've now had very good replies from the county councillor responsible for cycling stuff in Devon - although they've got lots of things they have done/are doing at the moment including such things as a new £3.75m cycle and footbridge over the M5 near Exeter, and the rather more modest £500,000 bridge over the river Clyst at Topsham, I've been put in touch with the county council staff responsible for promoting such things, so fingers crossed for further developments...

In the meantime, I'm very much looking forward to the Devon stage of the Tour of Britain in a couple of weeks' time ... (but not doing my route).