What do you think are the 'Classic Routes' for bike touring?

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004, Per L=F6wdin wrote:
Interesting thread.
=20
That has to be qualified. Classic routes, routes one should do once in a
life time ...

Where is Jobst Brandt? He can list the classic routes in the Alps better
than anyone.=20

Jobst knows only those routes he does once every summer.
=20
Sergio
Pisa

Here's a few of my classics:

1 Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. I favor the
counter-clockwise direction.

2 Icefield Parkway, Jasper to Lake Louise, Alberta Rocky Mountains.
extend the route from Lake Louise to Radium BC

3 Jotunheimen in Norway. There is an annual organized randoneur or
motionslopp-type ride ( http://www.jotunheimenrundt.com/ ) in these
mountains, but here is a suggested pass-bagging route:
Aurland-Hornshytta (1330m)- Laerdal, ferry to Sogndal (Kaupanger), ferry
to Urnes, Skjolden-Sognefjell (1450m)-Lom, RV-51 to Valdresflya (1390m)
to Fagerness (take a "rest" day and walk over Besseggen!) Maybe you can
add Rallarvegen or the Bygdin to Vinstra bicycle route to this.

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/

(gianni) wrote in message . com...
Hello riders www.cylingtheworld.org the new website dedicated
exclusively to bike tourists would like to hear what you consider to
be 'Classic Routes' for cyclist around the world in order to compile a
comprehensive selection in its tours section by including your
suggestions. What should be included in your opinion? Any links to
relevant routes will also be appreciated.
Thanks

Banff to Jasper on the Icefields Parkway, Alberta, Canada.
The Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive in the Eastern US.


Andy

"Per Löwdin" wrote in message ...


Anywhere in the Balearic Islands

That has to be qualified.

I have to confess at this point that I only saw Majorca and once
outside of the city I didn't see a single road that wasn't magnificent
and quite sparsely traveled. Since there was a boat from Ibiza that
got you way down south on Spain's Mediterannean coastline I would
certainly take it if I was going to or coming from Grenada. I think
that I came to appreciate the more mundane placea I rode through as
much as anyone but I'll take thirteen hours in a boat to three days
riding through an unimpressive area in oppressive heat, especially in
mid-summer. (As long as the boat doesn't have a casino on it, I
returned from Nova Scotia penniless.)

I can certainly understand the sentiment of restricting this
discussion to epic point to point rides but that's not just how
islands work in my experience (except for Cape Breton and you don't
need a boat to get there.) And some of my favorite recollections come
from taking boats on and off of islands. So when I talk about the
amorphous destinations like the Balearics or the cart paths in France
what I'm really saying is that I had been touring four months a year
for five years at that point, passing through a lot of these choice
destinations and I was still blown away when I got there.

As for Puget Sound etc., I never set foot on any of the San Juans,
just rode halfway up Vancouver Island, went back and forth to
Vancouver City on different boats and then left the region via Powell
River-Sawitch-Whistler-Lilouet which is absolutely one of the classic
rides if you can accept that a lot of the most striking scenery will
come while you are standing on the deck of a ship. This is pretty much
where the contiguous pavement ends on the North American Pacific
Coastline with glaciers coming down close to sea level. The cool part
was that once you learned to let all the motor traffic off the boat
ahead of you, you usually had the road to yourself for the next three
hours.

I was fortunate enough to ride almost all of the Sea of Cortez ferries
when they were incredibly cheap and subsidized and while I never rode
it I saw it coming into port from the top of the mountain and the
ferry that comes into Digby, Nova Scotia makes a very striking
landfall.

In retrospect I might want to strike Durango-Mazatlan although I would
certainly recommend it to anyone needing to get from Texas/New Mexico
to the Baja. There's really only about thirty miles in it that are
unbelievable with a serious knife edge section that you just don't see
the likes of on Trail Ridge followed by a spectacular screaming
descent from 8000 feet to sea level and I was perhaps overemphasizing
the fact that it's the only road through that Mountain Range for 800
miles north and south.

And I have no doubt whatsoever that a previous poster's several
Patagonian listings are worthy as is the Avenue of the Volcanoes in
Ecuador. But the coast of Michoacan ranks up there with anything
anywhere, it sees very little commercial traffic and the best thing
that happened to me was getting there the year after the road was
completed.

Sergio SERVADIO writes:

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004, Per Löwdin wrote:
Interesting thread.

That has to be qualified. Classic routes, routes one should do once
in a life time ...

Where is Jobst Brandt? He can list the classic routes in the Alps
better than anyone.

Jobst knows only those routes he does once every summer.

Which in 40+ years has probably been just about all of them, including
a lot of non-road rides over the remains of Roman military roads,
roads that have been replaced by more modern routes, etc.

I'd vote for the "Route des Grades Alpes" as a classic must-do ride;
there are also the classic brevet routes in the Alps and the Pyrenees,
hard rides over many of the most important and scenic mountains. I
don't know if the Diagonales qualify as "classic, must-do routes,"
though.

Per Lowdin writes:

Where is Jobst Brandt? He can list the classic routes in the Alps
better than anyone. A few that has to be included:

Passo Stelvio,
Col Du Galibier,
Route Napoleon,
Passo Sella (preferably, to be classic, one should do a complete
circuit of the Sella Massif), Pordoi, Sella, Gardena, and Compolongo.
Furka Pass (watershed between the Rhone and Rhein).

http://tinyurl.com/adls

There are a few stories at this site about these roads. I'll be there
in July.

Jobst Brandt

Kathmandu to Leh to Manali to Kathmandu for a loop. But until Kashmir
settles down you can do a loop west of there, say Manali to Leh and then
back via one of the other roads.

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 wrote:
There are a few stories at this site about these roads. I'll be there
in July.

How about a rendez-vous, Jobst?

Sergio
Pisa

Kathmandu to Leh to Manali to Kathmandu for a loop.

Adventurous, sure, but hardly a classic route, as far as I know it is not
biked at all due to a couple of snags: i) the border between Tibet and
Ladakh has been closed since the Sino-Indian war 1962, ii) western Tibet has
been off limits for foreigners even after 1985. A few have come through from
Xing Kiang, but those who have done it have had various problems due to the
Chinese occupation of Tibet. Fines, forced to turn back at some points, etc.
So, it can hardly be regarded as a classic route. A route has to be cycled
by quite a few people to make it classic. Without the politics of the area,
if the road and the border were open, Kathmandu - Leh would certainly soon
become a classic.

Two other routes that (however) would classify are the Karakoram Highway and
the Lhasa Kathmandu road.

There is plenty of interesting and useful info on riding in Tibet on Janne
Corax site http://www3.utsidan.se/corax-e/index.htm

But until Kashmir
settles down you can do a loop west of there, say Manali to Leh and then
back via one of the other roads.

Presently, there are only two roads from the Gangetic Plains, via Manali and
via Srinagar. The Manali - Leh road is often biked. In the past there were
quite a few cyclists on the Srinagar - Leh road, we saw quite a few when we
were trekking in Zanskar and Ladakh in the eighties, but since 1989 it has
not been regarded as safe due to the insurgency in the Kashmir valley. It
may be safe again now. That kind of varies from day to day. In any case
there is a lot more traffic on that road, as most trucks to the area go that
way. Not too much fun to meet 150 trucks.

Per
http://lowdin.nu

And I have no doubt whatsoever that a previous poster's several
Patagonian listings are worthy as is the Avenue of the Volcanoes in
Ecuador. But the coast of Michoacan ranks up there with anything
anywhere, it sees very little commercial traffic and the best thing
that happened to me was getting there the year after the road was
completed.

What year did you ride the Michoacan coast? I have the impression
that the traffic level is quite high these days.
In 2002 I biked in the interior of Michoacan, and it ranks pretty
high up there for combining impressive mountain scenery, lovely
colonial towns, and an amazing "new" (1943) volcano that arose out of
a corn field. The route included Morelia, Patzcuaro, Uruapan, &
Paricutin.