No matter how you dress it up there are rivers and watersheds to cross when travelling on roads from one end of the country to the other. Even if you kept to the coast there are hills and certainly couldn’t be done in 21 days. There is no escape from hills and the big question is how much of a detour in miles is worth it to save a couple of hundred feet of climbing?
Hi Paul- yes I know that- I've done endless variants on the route and I know I'll have to do lots of steep little climbs in Cornwall, long climbs in Devon, some undulations through the midlands, go over Shap, climb the southern Scottish hills, navigate the bumps in Fife, climb to Aviemore, negotiate more Bumps on the Black Isle and look forward to the Berridale Braes. Before I get to JOG I know I'll have to go up that annoying little hill to the south.... My point is that for me- with any gear ratio, it doesn't seem like fun to add more to this list (adding in Cheddar Gorge (what's wrong with the Strwberry Line?) going through the Peak District, taking a detour to go through the Forest of Bowland, going through Braemar via the Carnwell and then on to the Lecht...etc etc. Beautiful, I've no doubt, but maybe for another time - at the moment it seems to me that 39486 ft of climbing and 920 miles is probably enough in one go (see gps below).
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/26663225I'm not sure why it's felt that going lower and lower with the gearing answers my problem- the point is that it's not fun.....