MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Hey all,
Pondering cycling the Dartmoor way (90ish miles) in a day on my trusty mountain bike. Anyone had any experience of this route in the early spring?
It’s a road route? Never done it but I live on the route and have ridden lots of it’s parts.
Spring is variable down here. It’d be a long day on a mtb with lots of climbing.
95 miles, 3500m ascent, 98% tarmac.
Have you done close to 80 or 90 miles riding on road before?
That should be doable so long as you've done long days in the saddle before.
Edit: I'd want a road or gravel bike, unless you have a hardtail or a light, fast rolling xc bike.
Trying to find interesting routes as part of training for a long distance event. Managed 75 miles on relatively flat, mostly off road, (muddy cycle route) so far.
Didn't realise it was mostly tarmac, so appreciate that input.
More info
https://www.sustrans.org.uk/find-other-routes/dartmoor-way
The second link is to a pdf which gives the vertical distance, confirms it's mainly roads.
there is one, short (1/2 mile ish) mild off road section between Mary Tavy and Peter Tavy, I often pass people on touring bikes looking a little confused.
and then there is a very short section of the granite way that is rougher surfaced than the rest.
other than that it's old railway lines and lanes for the most part.
Any 90 mile route on Dartmoor is going to be challenging. Great training, but don’t underestimate the relentless ups and downs. Often v windy/wet as well.
A few years ago, when I were a lad, we xpent a couple of weeks in the Canary Islands and another 4 weeks pedalling up through Spain, which is not exactly a flat country...
We then got the ferry from Santander to Plymouth. In order to save a fiver on the train fare back to London we cycled from Plymouth to Exeter across dartmoor. It was the hardest cycling of the whole trip! Up, down, up,down... Impossible to find a rhythm. Have fun!