Has anyone ridden from Fosdyke Bridge on the A17 to Minsterworth-on-Severn, taking the 'straight line' route? I have used a line between these two points as a 'border line' for another organisation of which I am a member; when I saw it plotted on the map it struck me that it would make a good Audax ride.
The challenge would be; not deviate by more than 'x' from the line. I wonder if someone can help with prior knowledge of such a ride?
Not in any way shape or form wishing to rain on anyone's parade, but my t'penny worth.
An interesting idea. Just out of interest I put Minsterworth and Gedney Drove End into MS Autoroute, picked shortest route - then hit Shift+F5. The route came out to 247km and didn't look very " shortest". And not very helpful in using the M69.
So I put Southam (Warks) in as a via. This brought it down to 234km. So my first doubts are over the definitive shortest route.
Having spent my early years living in Minsterworth, I would doubt why anyone would really want to use the A48 and then the A40 to Gloucester. OK it's not very far, but the A40 does have a "Bike killer" bus lane, then you get stuck on the ring road around Gloucester - horrible.
Once you get north of Cheltenham, the route's OK to Toddington, the bit out of Toddington rolls, is narrow (double white lines) quite busy. From Broadway to Southam the routes perfect for audax use. There's a lovely rise out of Willersey. After Southam, Things are a bit sketchey in the memory banks. But fairly benign in the rural stretches. I have done a bit of cycling at the far end, which was deceptively rolling (but most enjoyable) around the Grantham area, then flattening-out towards the east coast. I chose Gedney Drove End to finish at "The Wild Fowler On The Wash" PH.