Mapping out and back loop rides

Last night, Dr Ian Walker asked this question via Twitter.

Ian Walker Tweet: Is there an online cycling route planner, like CycleStreets, but which does A-A circular routes?

Using Dr Walker’s home town of Bath, England as a starting point, I responded with an example from Google Maps that looked something like this.

Bath England circular bicycle route / Google Maps bicycle routing example

With Google Maps, you can add destinations you’d like to add, and even make your starting and ending point be the same place, like this:

Google Maps bike directions add destination example

Click on “Add Destination” then “Get Directions.” Once you do that, you can also drag the routes around to fine tune to include or avoid certain roads and paths, if you prefer. Here’s a British example giving a 36 mile circular route between Bath and Bristol.

I don’t know that area so I have no idea how realistic that route is, so I’ll generate a ride for an area I do know: Longmont -> Gunbarrel -> Erie -> Dacono -> Longmont. This gives a 40 mile loop through the flat part of Boulder County and western Weld County, Colorado.

One Comment

  1. OpenStreetMap can route for cars, bikes and feet, and in the UK the data is pretty good (it’s been around much longer than Google bike data). I use bikehike.co.uk and bikeroutetoaster.com to access it, where you can plot routes between however many points you want on a map.

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