Elan's bike

A new bike has been bought for the trip.  Thanks to Spa Cycles http://www.spacycles.co.uk/ for their custom tourer and the helpful advice when choosing components and accessories.  Thanks also to Paul Barnes at The Cycle Centre in Alcester, Warwickshire for some "tweaking".

For the technically minded, the frame is titanium with steel forks, Stronglight headset, Deda stem and handlebars, Tiagra 27 speed gearing, STI shifters, a chainset of 46/34/24 and a rear cassette of 11-34.  This produces a bottom gear of 19" which will hopefully be low enough for the ascents that we will encounter.   Rims are Rigida Sputnik; tyres are Schwalbe Marathons 700 x 32; the saddle is Brooks B17; pedals are Shimano M520; rear rack is Tubus Logo; rear panniers and front bar-bag are Ortlieb; cycle computer is Sigma Sport's BC1009.     Phew!

Note the relatively high handlebars compared with out and out road-bikes.  This is designed to take pressure off the back when spending hours in the saddle.

3 ferries and a bridge

In planning the approximate route,  a lot of good advice from others has been read.  These are other cyclists who have ridden the same route previously and who've advocated the use of certain ferries to avoid hassle.

After we've landed in Santander on our first day, just after noon, it's likely that we'll take a ferry across the harbour to Pedrena and so cut out the heavy Santander traffic that many people have warned about.  This will set us on our way towards Santona and a modest first day's cycle.  Ferry times and fares are on the internet at http://www.losreginas.com/i/servicio.htm

Santander-Pedrena ferry

On day 2, there's a short ferry crossing between Santona and Laredo which will kickstart the next leg and save an unnecessary circumnavigation of the estuary between the two towns - about 5 km.

Again, the internet reveals fares and costs at http://www.excursionesmaritimas.com/

Santona-Laredo ferry

Thereafter, the next proposed ferry crossing (below) is in France, between Le Verdon-sur-Mer and Royan.  This allows busy Bordeaux to be by-passed and allows the route to stay predominantly coastal.  Information on schedules and fares can be found at http://www.bernezac.com/passages_eau_royan_verdon.htm

Le Verdon-sur-Mer - Royan ferry

After Royan, the next major river crossing is the Loire near St Nazaire.  There has been a great deal of discussion in forums about the wisdom of cycling across the 3.5km long, 3 lane bridge.  Some say it's too busy and too dangerous, especially in windy conditions.  The alternative is a significant detour east to a ferry crossing at Le Pellerin or taking the no.17 bus across the bridge, which travels only at limited times each day and means having to book a day in advance.

There's no doubt that the bridge crossing is spectacular - it leaves an indelible impression from having driven over it many years earlier.

Most of the opinions read were given before modifications took place in 2010.  Prior to 2010, the cycle lane was 500mm wide and the speed limit was 90km/hr.  In 2010, the bike lane became 1.25m wide and the speed limit was reduced to 70km/hr.  There is still no physical barrier between cycles and road vehicles however.

Whether or not to cross the St Nazaire bridge is worthy of more detailed consideration nearer the time.  Perhaps, we should see what the weather is like and how we feel before deciding.

Trip planning

We've decided that our trip will be hotel and B&B based.  When you see the weather that we've experienced in May and early June in the UK, it's a no-brainer.  We don't look forward to cycling in wet weather and certainly neither of us relish putting up or taking down tents in the pouring rain and then lugging wet material around the countryside.

We've used  http://www.viamichelin.com/web/Routes  to give us distances between towns (selecting the "cycling" option) and an estimate of cycling times. By doing this for every day, we can see that our overall trip duration of 18 days including rest days looks reasonable based upon 40 to 50 miles a day.  There is little point in saying we'll be at town X at the end of a particular day as we will have good and bad days and may wish to shorten or lengthen our day's cycle.  Thus our daily start and finish points, obtained from viamichelin, will be noted as a broad game-plan from which we may well choose to vary our daily distances.

The general route will be Santander > Bilbao > San Sebastien > Hendaye > Bayonne > Arcachon > Soulac sur Mer > Royan > La Rochelle > St Nazaire > Vannes > Carhaix-Plouguer > Roscoff, with perhaps some detours inland along the way as the mood takes us.

We need wi-fi access en-route to keep in touch.  Elan will be using a Blackberry; Rob will have an i-phone and  notebook p.c.

We will rely initially on McDonalds restaurants and their free wi-fi.  Their websites,  www.mcdonalds.es for Spain and  www.mcdonalds.fr for France, enable restaurant addresses on our rough route to be found and noted beforehand.  There is an icon against every restaurant which has free wi-fi.

Once we have reached a McDonalds, the excellent hotel search site, www.booking.com, can be used to find and book a hotel for the night.  Not only is this website mobile-friendly, but it lists prices, room availability and hotel facilities including wi-fi and luggage storage.  The latter, we hope, may mean somewhere safe where the bikes can be stored overnight.

We will be taking a full set of maps with us.
For northern Spain, the Michelin Zoom Espagne maps are 1/150,000 or 1cm = 1.5km.  They are not contoured, but they do show spot levels (terrifying in places!)
For France, the Institut Geographique National (or IGN) Top 100 maps are 1/100,000 or 1cm = 1km.  These are contoured which is helpful.
On the French maps, each town that has a tourist office has a large letter i beside the name and this will be used to supplement or even replace booking.com.  The tourist offices always keep lists of hotels and B&B's (chambres d'hote).