the Fridays Tour 2014

[ianmac62]

I've done a bit more work and ... now roughly this.....
http://goo.gl/maps/125Vw

They all look terrific but Calle to Sort looks amazing!

 

[lilolee]

I thnk the whole thing looks amazing

 

[mmmmartin]

RideWithGPS says it has 8,900 metres of climbing and is 656k in all. So if we do it in six days it would be like riding up Ditchling Beacon (which is 200m of climbing) seven times a day. Or, to put it another way, like riding one Ditchling Beacon per hour, every hour of the trip. Every day for six days.

I have revisited this. RidewithGPS is now on The Naughty Step. I am unsure if the numbers quoted above are correct. I was working out a different route (for a personal audax) in Spain, from Segovia to Santander, and then turned to Dell's planned route. RidewithGPS produced some very questionable figures for height gain, amd the elevation of climbs. For instance, it shows huge height gains for the first section but none at all for the second section. So my quoted figure for height gain is very suspect. If anyone can suggest a website that is more reliable we can obtain a more accurate idea of the hilliness of the route. Having looked at some Google Streetview sections, I suspect it is a relatively benign route.

 

[StuAff]

I have revisited this. RidewithGPS is now on The Naughty Step. I am unsure if the numbers quoted above are correct. I was working out a different route (for a personal audax) in Spain, from Segovia to Santander, and then turned to Dell's planned route. RidewithGPS produced some very questionable figures for height gain, amd the elevation of climbs. For instance, it shows huge height gains for the first section but none at all for the second section. So my quoted figure for height gain is very suspect. If anyone can suggest a website that is more reliable we can obtain a more accurate idea of the hilliness of the route. Having looked at some Google Streetview sections, I suspect it is a relatively benign route.

Try Bikehike.

 

[srw]

Bikehike is mostly useful for the UK. I use mapmyride.com - although the interface has been buggered about with hugely over the years (and not in a good way). It has the advantage that it assesses each major climb separately and assigns it a hill rating from 5 to HC - that's been pretty reliable when I've used it before. All the websites will use the same fundamental underlying data from google, but they will presumably have proprietary methods for turning that data into a height calculation.

 

[dellzeqq]

all those height programmes are nonsense. The figures for our jaunt in Normandy would have been miniscule, and given no indication of how tiring they were. It's about road surface and complexity.

 

[StuAff]

Nonsense is putting it a bit strong, though certainly the margins of error are a bit large.
http://app.strava.com/activities/62184939 4000ft sounds about right for this one......

 

[StuartG]

TBH, I'm not sure what this adds to the sum of human knowledge but I thought some details might help.

Well this is moving the ride from "Not on your Nelly" to finding some other excuse sinces I feel the inevitable sucking sound within my head of "why should the others have all the fun"?

Short of being dis-barred by DZ I shall start rummaging my man-drawer for my long lost collection of pesetas ...

 

[User482]

Finally, Day 4 seems to have a lot of climbing – 4,597 metres thereof. But the steepest and highest section where the route goes over a high ridge is a long, steady angle. Not the short sharp stuff with which we were plagued in Normandy.

.

I'd treat the ridewithgps data with caution. In my experience the elevations can be wild over or under estimates. For example, La Marmotte is a recorded 5,000m climbing whereas the website has it as over 7,000m!

 

[redfalo]

And a glance at Google Streetview shows excellent tarmac, which again sits with my experience of the south of Spain in January. The government has spent a lot of money on roads.

I'm a bit surprised you did not mention your theory of where the money ultimately comes from.

 

[dellzeqq]

well, the bad news is.....

the weather in northern Spain is unpredictable. I've crossed from west to east in April and every day was biketastic. I've crossed in July and came close to falling off the bike with hypothermia. Susie and I encountered temperatures of 85deg in October. The key is the start time. The lack of vegetation and the very thin covering of soil means that it gets pretty cold at night. My plan has always to spring early starts on people if the temperature is going to go through the roof.

By the way - the five days are days 2 to 6. The first day isn't susceptible to google maps, for reasons that are too complicated to go in to.

 

[dellzeqq]

having looked at the GPS files I really doubt the gradients that ridewithGPS comes up with. Those roads twist and turn to keep with the contours. I've come across one hill in all of Northern Spain that could be described as steep - and that was about as steep as Turners Hill.

The tricky thing at this stage is that the N-260 is being upgraded. Wnere it is upgraded they put in tunnels, which I don't much fancy (although I have ridden through some tunnels). The old N260 diverts round the tunnels, but Google Maps may be out of date, and we may get there and have to make it up as we go along.

 

[ianmac62]

I'm a bit surprised you did not mention your theory of where the money ultimately comes from.

It gets even better: Spanish mountains with German roads!

 

[redfalo]

The tricky thing at this stage is that the N-260 is being upgraded. Wnere it is upgraded they put in tunnels, which I don't much fancy (although I have ridden through some tunnels). The old N260 diverts round the tunnels, but Google Maps may be out of date, and we may get there and have to make it up as we go along.

I would expext that they keep the old roads open for cyclists. That's at least how they deal with it in Norway, and on La Gomera.

 

[dellzeqq]

I

I would expext that they keep the old roads open for cyclists. That's at least how they deal with it in Norway, and on La Gomera.

in the main, yes - but sometimes they're cut by the new road, and sometimes the old road is turned in to a farm road. That's why there's no substitute for having a look, and making enquiries about future works.