Oxford -> That Nodnol. Route Advice.

[TheLurker]

Someone I know is planning to ride Oxford/London this year. I have been asked for advice.  I know nothing. You lot (the collective/hive mind) know lots.

The intended route is  https://cycle.travel/map/journey/15715

Anyone able to comment on the suggested route or know of a better one?

The individual is (or was) a regular cyclist, but mostly short (couple or 5 mile) journey stuff in and around Oxford so any routes that minimize the number of steep climbs would be most useful as would low traffic routes with plenty of cafe/pub stops because it'll be a daytime ride rather than a FNRT.

Ta.
Lurk.

[Cudzoziemiec]

In terms of minimising the number of steep climbs, that route appears to go past Whiteleaf Cross, which is a very steep climb. I'll leave it to those with greater local knowledge to suggest a less steep route.

[rogerzilla]

We do the shortest route, and damn the hills.

Oxford
Horspath
Wheatley
Worminghall
Ickford
Thame
Chinnor
Bledlow Ridge
Saunderton station
Smalldean Lane
Walter's Ash
Hughenden Valley
High Wycombe
Holtspur Top Lane
Beaconsfield
Seer Green
Jordans
Welders Lane
Chalfont St Peter
West Hyde
Harefield
Ruislip
Greenford 
Ealing
Acton
Shepherd's Bush
Bayswater

[TheLurker]

Thanks. I think.
I'll pass the info. on.

[Kim]

I wouldn't recommend going *up* Chinnor Hill in the daytime.  It's a bit of a bastard, and I can't imagine it being much fun when you've got impatient motorists passing you at speed, rather than only having to worry about the Hound of the Baskervilles and Sonic The Wowbadger.

I reckon you're going to get a nasty climb however you cross the Chilterns, and the best you can do is seek to minimise the amount of motor traffic you've got to contend with while doing so.

I also wouldn't recommend the road along the Chess Valley (in the OP's route), but that's because I was seriously injured by a drunk driver at the R@X onto Stony Lane when I was a child, and I've been avoiding it ever since.  It may be a perfectly normal rural B road.