Читать книгу The Lancashire Cycleway. The tour and 17 day rides онлайн

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Using any computer or tracking app will soon give you a sense of the average speed you can expect to achieve on a bike. This is a great help in planning your rides, as estimating times for cycling is notoriously more difficult than for walking. Walking speeds vary much less and there are many formulae and rules of thumb enabling you to work out how long a walk may take: Naismith’s Rule is the best-known, if not necessarily the best.

Cycling speeds vary for many reasons; fitness, aerodynamics, the load you’re packing, and so on. Hills will slow you down, but cyclists have much more chance than walkers of taking some time back on the descent – at least when there’s a reasonable surface and it’s not too twisty. For example, the descent from Merrybent to Slaidburn at the end of Stage 2 is a good one; the descent from Marl Hill on Day Ride 7 is not (at least until they fix the road surfaces).

Still, even if your name is Chris Froome, average speed in the hills will be less than on the flat. If you’re a bit more ordinary than Froomey, the time taken to cover a given distance may increase by up to 50% for the hillier stages; perhaps even more if you’re heavily laden.