Author Topic: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on  (Read 34723 times)

Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #200 on: 10 July, 2020, 07:03:05 pm »
Exit of the Cherwell Valley services at around 7am. I'd stopped for breakfast and a snooze on an overnight 300km DIY. I got as far as the roundabout and chickened out. Exited via the woodland path from the back of the lorry park onto some relatively quiet B roads.
I stopped in at Cherwell Valley in the early afternoon of Upper Thames.

Tbh, I didn't find it too bad, but then again, I've plenty of experience with Big Scary Roundabouts. Vehicles aren't moving hugely fast around there, so it is possible to get into the correct lane.

Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #201 on: 11 July, 2020, 12:29:36 pm »
The first few miles north from Perth on the A9.  I've done this on both my LEJoGs and both times I was in fear of my life.  Worse than any other country (Italy, India, Morocco, etc) due to the speed, close proximity and general aggressiveness of drivers.
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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #202 on: 12 July, 2020, 06:22:21 pm »
Quote
I stopped in at Cherwell Valley in the early afternoon of Upper Thames.[\quote]

Early afternoon is nice and quite, 7am is rally time to London.

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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #203 on: 18 July, 2020, 11:28:06 am »
The A34 from Chilton to Bury Down because its the only bit of tarmac that crosses the Downs between Goring and Wantage.  Or - some busy road in Italy on the Mille Miglia where (apparently) I was passed so close by a truck that if I'd not been on my drops the wing mirror would have taken my head out.
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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #204 on: 17 September, 2020, 02:14:26 pm »
Good luck with that, it's pretty much just the width of a car for most of it:-

https://goo.gl/maps/jv9QnshpiCqmQchS6

Bailout space over the railings involves a nice 30' drop too.

Probably for the best that this driver went no further:



https://twitter.com/MPSRTPC/status/1306574931191312384




quixoticgeek

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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #205 on: 17 September, 2020, 02:30:21 pm »
Someone OTP ended up on the M4 in Wales - on a 200k - due to this particularly nasty roundabout exit in Port Talbot:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5981732,-3.7857771,3a,75y,339.09h,71.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_rD9HYHGCCSDrkD-dGIynA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

You have to take the exit and immediately fork right, or you're on the M4 slip road. IIRC the route sheet was "Follow A48" for several miles.

Surely the GPX was a lot clearer than that, and the line on the GPS shows you forking right immediately?

J
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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #206 on: 17 September, 2020, 03:11:10 pm »
Someone OTP ended up on the M4 in Wales - on a 200k - due to this particularly nasty roundabout exit in Port Talbot:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5981732,-3.7857771,3a,75y,339.09h,71.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_rD9HYHGCCSDrkD-dGIynA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

You have to take the exit and immediately fork right, or you're on the M4 slip road. IIRC the route sheet was "Follow A48" for several miles.

Surely the GPX was a lot clearer than that, and the line on the GPS shows you forking right immediately?

J
Perhaps it was, but shouldn't the roundabout be negotiable without either?
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Davef

Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #207 on: 17 September, 2020, 04:28:51 pm »

Surely the GPX was a lot clearer than that, and the line on the GPS shows you forking right immediately?

J
Completely forking right.

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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #208 on: 17 September, 2020, 07:23:59 pm »
Someone OTP ended up on the M4 in Wales - on a 200k - due to this particularly nasty roundabout exit in Port Talbot:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5981732,-3.7857771,3a,75y,339.09h,71.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_rD9HYHGCCSDrkD-dGIynA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

You have to take the exit and immediately fork right, or you're on the M4 slip road. IIRC the route sheet was "Follow A48" for several miles.

Surely the GPX was a lot clearer than that, and the line on the GPS shows you forking right immediately?

I can certainly imagine looking at the GPS on approach to the roundabout, working out which exit you need, concentrating on the roundabout, and then not checking the GPS again until after you've realised you're on a motorway sliproad, stopped on the verge and back-tracked to the junction on foot.

All you need is enough traffic up your arse to make you want to keep the speed up...

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #209 on: 17 September, 2020, 09:10:31 pm »
J2 of the M32 has vague similarities in that, heading either north or south off the roundabout, there's a road which splits into two, one part being slip road, the other urban street. The difference is that the motorway slip road is the right-hand split in both cases.
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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #210 on: 17 September, 2020, 09:24:25 pm »
The first few miles north from Perth on the A9.  I've done this on both my LEJoGs and both times I was in fear of my life.  Worse than any other country (Italy, India, Morocco, etc) due to the speed, close proximity and general aggressiveness of drivers.

Late to this thread, but unless you are attempting a LEJOG record attempt or something, there is no reason to be on the actual A9 there; there are much moar better ways to go North from Perth.

simonp

Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #211 on: 20 September, 2020, 10:01:16 am »
Someone OTP ended up on the M4 in Wales - on a 200k - due to this particularly nasty roundabout exit in Port Talbot:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5981732,-3.7857771,3a,75y,339.09h,71.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_rD9HYHGCCSDrkD-dGIynA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

You have to take the exit and immediately fork right, or you're on the M4 slip road. IIRC the route sheet was "Follow A48" for several miles.

Surely the GPX was a lot clearer than that, and the line on the GPS shows you forking right immediately?

J

GPX?

This was 10 or so years ago. I had a GPS. Pretty sure the rider who took the wrong turn did not.

CrazyEnglishTriathlete

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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #212 on: 26 October, 2020, 09:02:34 pm »
Roads where traffic isn't the hazard:

The D211A from Auris to La Garde d'Huez, overlooking (very literally) Le Bourg D'Oisans

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@45.0466894,6.0638913,3a,75y,298.51h,80.64t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s3AbBkDfaGrxkptTjFoQyIQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D3AbBkDfaGrxkptTjFoQyIQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D36.22322%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

I wonder what proportion of cyclists labouring up L'Alpe d'Huez know this is here.  That parapet is just high enough to launch you skywards before you drop into space.

And then, for afters, there's the road up to the Col de Saulude on the other side...

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@45.0345227,6.0418083,3a,75y,89.41h,85.36t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sqzf5CEkv9AIOoeovhEAZKg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dqzf5CEkv9AIOoeovhEAZKg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D204.54327%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Which also has three unlit hand-cut tunnels.  On that frame you can see the line of the D211A running along the top of the cliffs on the other side of the valley. 

With a climb of L'Alpe d'Huez and lunch at Les Deux Alpes (via the Col de Sarenne) we had a mere 3800m ascent in 108km.
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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #213 on: 26 October, 2020, 09:34:49 pm »
That is a scary road.  I didn't have lights because I wasn't expecting unlit tunnels, if remember correctly at least one of them was long and curved enough to be completely dark in the middle.  Totally disorientating so I had to dismount and walk carefully, putting my arm out to avoid hitting the side of the tunnel.

And that's without that sheer drop down to the valley.  Well worth doing though, just remember to take a headlight.
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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #214 on: 26 October, 2020, 09:54:37 pm »
Mrs P didn't like those tunnels the first time we went to Bd'O.

Mr Larrington

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Re: The most terrifying road you've ever cycled on
« Reply #215 on: 27 October, 2020, 01:20:13 am »
Found one set of tunnels near the Verdon Gorge which had been pressed into service as a nice cool shady snoozing spot by the local bingly-bongly goats.
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