Didcot to the Plough

[TedTaylor]

Not trying to be critical at all but could I make a suggestion about the run in from Didcot because we found the M40 to be such a pain.

If I had not felt that that it would be nice to follow the Road Book for the final run in we could have carried straight over on the M40 to Bicester and the A41 to Aylesbury and down to the M25 at Hemel - just a few M25 junctions from the turn to the Plough.  

This is a route I know well from when I used to travel regularly to Brentford from the Forest of Dean and apart from the bit round Aylesbury and the 10 (!) roundabouts it is really quite pleasant - in fact the A41 from Aylesbury to the M25 in daylight is really a nice dual carriageway run.  Aylesbury could be sorted with a map in the road book.

I reckon this would allow a 30 minute reduction in the Road Book time for this section and have a good chance of achieving it unless there were serious problems on the A34.

Just a suggestion.

MUT

[Alex]

Ted there's regularly a long delay on the A34 /M40 roundabout.
I do see what your saying but I feel that could potentially be even worse.
The evening I returned form gaydon after the drivers meet that queue was miles long!

Alex

[cook1e]

We followed the roadbook from Didcot leaving at 17:45 well within the time window and it took 2 1/4 hours to get to the plough so we didn't arrive until 20:01 strictly late! Lots of crews that we saw at Didcot had already been at the Plough for ages so I guess they used a different route.What we need is for teams to advise how long it took and what route they followed so that the quickest one can be used as the offcial route next time. It's not Rocket science and it would really make a positive difference.

[Tim Hunt]

I don't see any advantage in joining the M25 nearer to the Potters Bar exit. on the last two Runs the M25 has not been any problem at all, we have been able to maintain 70mph or the posted temporary lower limit all the way from the M40 junction. I agree that the M40 was grim on Sunday but I don't think that Didcot, Wallingford, Chinnor, Wendover and A41 to M25 would have been any quicker. There is no good way from Didcot to the Plough. Maybe the answer is to start and finish the RBR  somewhere else.

Tim

[Alex]

We did the route from a couple of years ago......actually I think it was 2008.
Still got held up on m40 but we'd made decent time getting there so wasn't too bad.

[Keith]

Sam was all for using the Aylesbury A41 route which we've used before but I tried to be a smart arse and looked up the trafficengland.co.uk website on my phone which told me the M40 was OK.
I won't believe that again!
We ended up 28 mins late which was disappointing after being in the window for virtually all the controls.

Keith

[Keith]

Sam was all for using the Aylesbury A41 route which we've used before but I tried to be a smart arse and looked up the trafficengland.co.uk website on my phone which told me the M40 was OK.
I won't believe that again!
We ended up 28 mins late which was disappointing after being in the window for virtually all the controls.

Keith

[TedTaylor]

Alex wrote:

Ted there's regularly a long delay on the A34 /M40 roundabout.
I do see what your saying but I feel that could potentially be even worse.
The evening I returned form gaydon after the drivers meet that queue was miles long!

Alex

I am aware of these holdups at the A34/M40 junction which are worse at the moment because they are improving the junction which should remove them anyway.  All you would do is go straight over at this junction  using the faster left hand approach lane rather than turn right onto the M40 using the right hand lane which I would see tailed back anyway when I used this road a lot.

If you look at the map you will see that from this junction the A41 goes in an almost direct line to the M25 rather than round three sides of a box on the M40 and M25 to the same point.  Half of this road from Aylesbury to the M25 is excellent dual carriageway with the first part of single carriageway a nice easy drive - the only problem being Aylesbury which I quickly got the knack of.

When we came up on Friday we drove this very section of road in under an hour without pushing ourselves.
For seven years I had to drive on a monthly/bi monthly basis from the Forest of Dean to Brentwood and tried various options - M4/M25, A40/M40/M25 and A40/A34/A41/M25 and settled on the A40/A34/A41/M25 as the best route ............ which I use to drive on a Sunday evening.

Tim I am not suggesting Didcot, Wallingford, Chinnor, Wendover which would not be a good route having lived in the Stokenchurch/High Wycombe area some time ago.

I know I am a Newbe but have read negative comments in the past about the motorway drag back to the Plough from Oxford.  This route removes all but a short bit of that motorway drag and replaces it with a more direct and pleasant road.  If faced with this choice in future years I would definitely ignore the road book and take the shorter and more pleasant run back to the finish.

Not trying to stir up an argument or criticise the hard work but into the route by the orgnaisers, just trying to make a constructive suggestion.

MUT

[CRAJ]

tim_hunt wrote:

Maybe the answer is to start and finish the RBR  somewhere else.

Tim

I know the history behind using the Plough, but getting back to it and leaving it on the Friday night are not getting any easier. My vote would be to get as far away as possible from the M25.

Colin.

[Stuart Wilson]

CRAJ wrote:

I know the history behind using the Plough, but getting back to it and leaving it on the Friday night are not getting any easier. My vote would be to get as far away as possible from the M25.

Colin.

I'm pretty sure my local would be happy to host us, is Northumberland to far away to start and finish?  8) 8)

After being held up on the M40 in 2012 we had decided this year to take another route, but we didn't get that far this time. But to be fair that is the only section of the route that appears to cause a problem, which is not bad out of over 2000 miles.

[FloydP]

It seems the m40 got worse the later it got, we left didcot at 5:09 went up the a329 to the m40 which was stop start but we got to the plough at 6:56 so an hour and three quarters which seems to be a bit quicker than a lot of people managed. I wonder if the event was brought forward a bit so the finish time was earlier that way we might beat some of the traffic might help with the a10 roundabout on the way out of the plough to.
Floyd.

[Hogie]

The M40/M25 is the obvious route and a high average speed can be maintained.
However just like 2010 the M40 was playing silly bu99ers.
We got off at the John Lewis/Cressex juntion and joined the A40. Then took the Rickmansworth road through Denham up to to the M25 Junction at Maple Cross.
This worked well but 50/60 is the best you can do.

We made the Plough with 5 minutes to spare (any more would have been a waste)

Roger

[CRAJ]

FloydP wrote:

It seems the m40 got worse the later it got, we left didcot at 5:09 went up the a329 to the m40 which was stop start but we got to the plough at 6:56 so an hour and three quarters which seems to be a bit quicker than a lot of people managed. I wonder if the event was brought forward a bit so the finish time was earlier that way we might beat some of the traffic might help with the a10 roundabout on the way out of the plough to.
Floyd.

Starting earlier than 6 on the Friday would have my vote.
But this would I'm guessing have a knock on effect with timings for other stops, especially JOG where we would be arriving the same amount earlier for breakfast.

Colin

[richard w]

We heard about the M40 problems while we were at Didcot, so Enzo had a look on his phone which said that it was ok after J4. We ended up taking the A4130 round Wallingford to Henley, then the A4155 to Marlow, up the A404 and joined the M40 at J4. It wasn't too bad a route and didn't feel too slow.

Richard

[Steve P]

We were stationery on the M40 so pulled off at High Wycombe,headed for Aylesbury-Berkhampstead and then a couple of miles to pick up the A41 11 miles from the M25.Non stop all the way and got to the Plough at 7.20.
Steve

[thescrapman]

CRAJ wrote:

Starting earlier than 6 on the Friday would have my vote.
But this would I'm guessing have a knock on effect with timings for other stops, especially JOG where we would be arriving the same amount earlier for breakfast.

Colin

You could start at say 2pm, and go into East Anglia, and out again, planning arrival at Blythe at usual time, then knock off some of the Sunday route, to get an eta at the Plough at about 3pm Sunday.

I reckon you could easily get to the most easterly point of the UK without any issues.

Also get in some cracking roads across The Brecks and the Fens.

Just a thought

[Davemate]

It would seem that a lot of folk have tried various routes from didcot back to the plough. It would also seem that at all the routes have been good some times and bad other.

[Roger Keys]

Its just luck on a sunday evening going into london. We ran into the back of the queue between junction 5 and 4, so came of at 4 and just picked up the A404 and stayed on it until it meets the M25 at Ricky. Worked welland arrived at earliest arrival time.

Back in the day, we never came anywhere near didcot and came up the M3. So less miles, but the M3 is not much use either!

[CRAJ]

thescrapman wrote:

You could start at say 2pm, and go into East Anglia, and out again, planning arrival at Blythe at usual time, then knock off some of the Sunday route, to get an eta at the Plough at about 3pm Sunday.

I reckon you could easily get to the most easterly point of the UK without any issues.

Also get in some cracking roads across The Brecks and the Fens.

Just a thought

And a very good thought Colin, gets my vote.

[cook1e]

I cant see how Colin's route would get us back to the Plough any earlier on the Sunday if we hit Blythe at the same time as normal the rest of the run will be on the same timings as now ?

[FloydP]

I think the time would be gained by "knocking of some of the Sunday route" as Colin says in his post.

[CRAJ]

FloydP wrote:

I think the time would be gained by "knocking of some of the Sunday route" as Colin says in his post.

Which you would need to do to keep the 2000miles in 48hrs.

Colin

[FloydP]

I imagine the lost mileage on Sunday would be made up with the extra mileage in East anglia that Colin proposed.

[Rutty]

Just a suggestion and at the risk of being branded a heretic could the start/finished not move north say to the Milton Keynes or Northampton areas so avoiding the M25 and M40 altogether.

Mark

[Steve P]

I thought it would be nice to do the run the other way round,Lands Ends first..

Ducks for cover..
S