Loop, out and back, or point to point?

Most riders default to one route shape without ever deciding to. They are a loop rider, or they always ride out and back, and the choice was made years ago by habit rather than reasoning.

It is worth reconsidering, because the shape of a route changes what the ride is good for — and for one particular kind of session, the usual favourite is clearly the wrong choice.

The three shapes

The wind argument, which riders usually get backwards

The instinct is to ride out with the wind behind you, because the first hour is lovely. This is the wrong way round, and it is the single most common route-planning mistake there is.

Go out into the headwind. You are fresh, the effort feels manageable, and you are riding away from home at a sensible speed rather than being blown 40 km out in an hour. Then turn and let the wind push you home while you are tired. A rider who does it the other way spends the last hour of a long ride grinding into a wind at 18 km/h with nothing left — which is how a pleasant plan becomes a miserable afternoon.

This is the out-and-back's strongest argument and the loop's weakness: on a loop you take the wind as it comes. On a genuinely windy day, out-and-back into the wind first is not a compromise, it is the better plan. Wind forecast for cyclists covers how to work out which direction that is before you leave.

For intervals, out and back wins easily

A structured session needs a stretch of road you can ride hard without junctions, and it needs to be repeatable. Out and back gives you both: find one good 4 km drag, and you can do six efforts on the same road knowing exactly what each one costs.

A loop scatters your intervals across whatever terrain happens to arrive, which makes comparing rep three with rep six meaningless. If you are doing over-unders or 30/30s outdoors, the shape of the route matters as much as the road surface.

Choosing, in one line each

• Structured session: out and back on one known road.
• Windy day: out and back, into the wind first.
• Uncertain form, or coming back from illness: out and back, so you can turn early without stranding yourself.
• Exploring somewhere new: out and back, unless you know the area well enough to trust a loop.
• A long day with good weather and a known area: loop, obviously.
• Somewhere with trains: point to point, and check the last train before you book the day.
• Winter, dark, or ice: short repeated loops close to home — the argument made in riding at night.

Building them

Loops are much harder to plan well than out-and-backs, because a loop has to be good in one direction the whole way round — and the road that was a lovely descent at kilometre 30 is a main road you would rather not climb at kilometre 70.

Moveee's Route Engine builds loops of a target distance from where you are, favouring quiet roads and decent surfaces, which removes most of the tedium of trying to close a circle on a map. How to build the perfect cycling route covers the craft, and finding good roads somewhere new is the version for when you are away from home.