Best road surfaces?

Does anybody have any thoughts on which countries have the best surfaced
roads? This is prompted by a holiday in Ireland which has some great flat
cycling roads and some super mountain passes with magnificent views, but
definitely not the best surfaced roads.

Mark

Mark Burch wrote:
Does anybody have any thoughts on which countries have the best surfaced
roads? This is prompted by a holiday in Ireland which has some great flat
cycling roads and some super mountain passes with magnificent views, but
definitely not the best surfaced roads.

Well, UK is pretty good, despite what most brits may have to say
about their own local areas. As indeed is most of northern Europe,
including Ireland.

Travel a bit further south and you'll find out the meaning of
bad road surfaces! You don't have to leave the (notionally)
developed world: as near as Italy there are many, many surfaces
that make the average UK farm track look like a motorway!

--
Nick Kew

Nick Kew wrote:

Well, UK is pretty good, despite what most brits may have to say
about their own local areas.

Oh stop, my sides are splitting (as was my a*se after riding 93 miles on
those roads this morning).

I'd vote for Germany or Austria.

"Mark Burch" wrote in message
...
Does anybody have any thoughts on which countries have the best surfaced
roads? This is prompted by a holiday in Ireland which has some great flat
cycling roads and some super mountain passes with magnificent views, but
definitely not the best surfaced roads.

Mark

Lived in Germany from '84 to '89 and visited 20+ countries.

Germany was fantastic for cycling, at least in the Swartswald (black forest)
area. Bike paths everywhere and cars just accept you being on "their road"
because most car drivers seem to bike too. Bikes on trains are a fact of
life and we did that a lot, sometimes biking outbound and taking a train
back.

France - in the area I biked near the Rhine & German border was pretty much
the same as Germany. Of course, you'll encounter some cobblestone streets in
towns.

Mark Burch wrote:
Does anybody have any thoughts on which countries have the best surfaced
roads? This is prompted by a holiday in Ireland which has some great flat
cycling roads and some super mountain passes with magnificent views, but
definitely not the best surfaced roads.

I'm just back from the west coast of Ireland and found the standard of
road surfaces to be on a par with the UK. There were one or two minor
roads which had been badly top dressed with stones large enough to be
uncomfortable on touring bike but most roads were fine.
Iain

C.J.Patten wrote:

Germany was fantastic for cycling, at least in the Swartswald (black forest)
area. Bike paths everywhere and cars just accept you being on "their road"
because most car drivers seem to bike too. Bikes on trains are a fact of
life and we did that a lot, sometimes biking outbound and taking a train
back.

France - in the area I biked near the Rhine & German border was pretty much
the same as Germany. Of course, you'll encounter some cobblestone streets in
towns.

Yep, and luvverly tramlines often dominating one side of the road,
with junctions that take you across them at a shallow angle.

Likewise Switzerland and Scandinavian countries have a lot of very
well-surfaced roads, but with downsides such as frequent tunnels
in Norway. As I said in my other post, northern Europe.

--
Nick Kew

"C.J.Patten" wrote:

Lived in Germany from '84 to '89 and visited 20+ countries.

Germany was fantastic for cycling, at least in the Swartswald (black
forest) area. Bike paths everywhere and cars just accept you being on
"their road" because most car drivers seem to bike too.....

You mean that if you choose to use the road instead of the cycle paths you
don't get yelled at with "get on the bl**dy cycle path!" (or whatever that
is in german...."erhalten Sie auf dem blutigen Zyklusweg" according to
Google ;-) )

On Sun, 05 Jun 2005 11:29:54 +0100 someone who may be Nick Kew
wrote this:-

Likewise Switzerland and Scandinavian countries have a lot of very
well-surfaced roads, but with downsides such as frequent tunnels
in Norway.

There is often the old road, though this will have sharper bends,
steeper gradients, better views and pass rather higher over the
hill.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

Mark Burch wrote:
Does anybody have any thoughts on which countries have the best
surfaced roads? This is prompted by a holiday in Ireland which has
some great flat cycling roads and some super mountain passes with
magnificent views, but definitely not the best surfaced roads.

We found Denmark to be most excellent in this regard, to the extent that
after two weeks away, we had almost forgotten what potholes were.

This state of mind lasted for all of fifty yards after disembarking from the
ferry. Bah!

--
Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
And then there was light and He thought it was good, so He threw the
receipt away.

Mark Burch wrote:
Does anybody have any thoughts on which countries have the best surfaced
roads? This is prompted by a holiday in Ireland which has some great flat
cycling roads and some super mountain passes with magnificent views, but
definitely not the best surfaced roads.

Mark

France ? Not that I've cycled in a lot of other countries but a short
(10 day) cycling holiday in Northern France (Boulougne to Paris) left
me very impressed. In Canada, some cities have a "pothole' contest to
find the largest pothole in the city. Some are huge. Thhis by the way
is partly due to our climate. Going from -30 C to +40 C can have a bad
influence on the road surface.

In France I never saw one although there was a warning sign in
Chantilly saying pothole (Well nid de poule actually) but I could not
find it.
Actually excellent road surfaces for the entire trip.

John Kane
Kingston ON