I fancy having a crack at a 24 hr road ride… Just to see what sort of mileage I could achieve.

A flat route would be nice but where ?

Any experiences of doing this. … Nice routes ( 50% is in the dark so I guess not that important. )

Cheers

I tend to hop over to France to do it 🙂 Better tarmac, fewer cars, more courteous drivers.

Once tried a 24hr UK ride by getting the sleeper to Penzance and riding back (slightly freaky weather foiled it) but even though it’s hardly mountainous it’s not terribly flat.

If you’re unsure of distance maybe try a few laps of a decent-sized loop, or ride out from home and head roughly along a main rail route?

Thought about trying a 400k Audax?

Ask on LFGSS – the current 24hr time trial world champ is on there loads.

Cheshire (apart from at the border with staffs) cambs and Suffolk are all very flat. A circumference of one of those?

I live in the Fens and would advise against dead flat. There is no downhill to rest on as there are no hedges nothing to break the wind so 24 hours of it would be hell. Gentle rolling hills is much easier. Or choose a 1 way route with the prevailing wind behind you (and hope the wind direction is normal that day).

Check out the 600km audax rides, the flat fens one Essex – Goole – Essex usually gets done in sub 24

YACF forum is a good resource

“Cheshire (apart from at the border with staffs) cambs and Suffolk are all very flat”

Cheshire (apart from at the border with Staffs, Derbyshire, Wales, Eastern Manchester and the parts of Cheshire that are decidedly NOT very flat. The Cheshire Plain is not all of Cheshire).

Suffolk is not pan flat. The North of the county towards the coast is flatter than the South you won’t be racking up big ascents though, maybe 2km over 24 hours if you pick the right route.
Pick the right weather conditions mind if you’re planning on doing this in the current winter. The ground is now saturated and any large amount of rain will cause flooding in the valleys and the wash-off from the fields leads to some interesting road conditions.
Give me a prod by email if you decide on Suffolk, I’ll come and keep you company for part of it and I have a mate who may be up for the whole thing.

Another suggestion of Suffolk especially East of the A12 it’s relativly quiet and riding at night can be really pleasant you can sometimes go for hours without without seeing a moving vehicle.
You could do some variation on the Dynamo route if London based.

As per Sandwich though, this time year the line between Tarmac and field can become blurred on the smaller roads.

My lad and friends did Cirencester to Paris in 24 hours a couple of months ago. You get a couple of hours of on the ferry though.

Actually thinking about it, I did Woodbridge to Wells and back down the coast last year that would work.

Dumfries and Galloway. Lots of quiet roads, hilly enough to be interesting without serious mountains and a few scattered villages and towns for essential refreshment.

Tenuous excuse to post some pics from last weekends ride….

The water on the last one was a couple of inch above the bottom bracket and hubs which made for interesting pedalling and a bb30 rebuild.