France - Caen - Cannes

dixiesurf

Hi

I have given up road racing and thinking about riding from the North to the South of France. Has anybody on here completed it ? would like advice on routes etc, would prefer B&B's to sleep in. I have an old kona Explosive MTB that I have had resprayed and built up so like new, I would put skinny tyres on for the trip. What are good racks and panniers to buy ?? I intend dieting on bread, red wine and cheese
regards
John

briantrumpet

Have done it from St Malo to Die (that's about 140 miles short of your destination) but going the right sort of direction. Fabulous it was too. See blog link in signature if that's any help.

andrew@snowrace

I've cycled North to South both with the Boys and laterly with my wife. Go for the lightest kit possible and not too much of it. We camped finding most towns have a municipal camp site for a couple of euro with hot showers and most had cloths washing facilities. The only other advice I can give is if you don't have to don't set too many targets we cycled untill we'd had enough and then stopped no presure. Have a great trip

mercia_man

I've cycled north to south twice and south to north once. France is great for cycling. I normally camp, often at municipal sites, and occasionally stay at small hotels which are generally cheaper than a British B&B.

I have never followed a rigidly fixed route. If I want to amble along, enjoying the peaceful and beautiful French countryside, I use minor D roads - white on Michelin maps. For covering greater distances, I use bigger D roads - yellow. Even the bigger still D roads - red - are often acceptable if you want to get in the miles because traffic is much lighter than in Britain. Don't bother with the big routes nationales. They are fast and often busy.

Ortlieb and Carradice waterproof panniers are good options. Don't skimp by buying cheap panniers with weak mounting hooks and brackets. They will break -I know from experience. Good racks include Tubus, Blackburn, Tortec and SJS.

Your diet sounds perfect.

mercia_man

Just had a thought about two other points - recovery and avoiding saddle sores.

On a multi-day trip, you need to ration your energy. I try to finish my riding day by 4pm so I can rest, wash and dry my clothes and have a good meal. I will also occasionally have a shorter day's riding of perhaps three or four hours.

Riding day after day can cause pressure points on your bum and they can develop into little spots and then into boils. Nasty. I use chamois cream for riding and an antiseptic cream like Germolene or Savlon for after-ride soothing. I also find that having two different makes of shorts and alternating them helps. The slightly different shapes of the pad means you don't get pressure on exactly the same points each day.