the kind of thing that will plot a 100 mile road route from A to B, miss dual carriageways but won’t send me on a 10 mile detour just to miss 0.5 mile section of main road. Is there such a thing?

Far from perfect, but <see below> is best I’ve found for long routes. Does the Uk, not sure about anywhere else.

http://www.cyclestreets.net/

Thanks – the dotgov one won’t let you plan anything over 50km 🙄

you could try Bike Route Toaster but I’ve not used it for routes that long, allows you to change maps and is routable (SP)

Bike Route Toaster

Just use bikehike and design it yourself. I’ve done it on several 100 mile routes, it takes all of 5 minutes and you can choose which roads you take.

Viamichelin has a great cycle route option, am on phone so difficult to link to.

thanks, viamichelin looks just about what I am after

I’m using it to plot a route from Warwickshire to the Loire valley next summer! Am doing something special for Mrs Peppers 50th

I was just trying to plot a route to the ferry terminal @ portsmouth & then realised I can use it to check our planned route through the alps too 🙂

Exactly! Good luck!