I hope this isn't too irrelevant for you guys, but I need to pick a route for having a crack at the world record for circumnavigation by bicycle. I need to be precise, with a detailed plan for the entire route, so I'm wondering if there's some mapping software out there which might help. I'm aware of TTQV - does anyone know if it would do the job, or if there's anything else I should consider? I need to measure a quick, easy route. It has to have 18,000 miles of roads in it, with the same start/finish point. It has to pass through 2 antipodal points. No backtracking. Mileage on boats or planes doesn't count. So what I thought I might do is rack up all the required miles in 'easy' countries by zigzagging, allowing me to fly over all the difficult countries. So I could start in London, then zigzag my way to Istanbul by going down to South West France, up to Denmark, down to Northern Italy, and up to Latvia. Maybe this sounds crazy but bear with me! From Istanbul I could miss Asia and fly straight to Australia. Then I cycle across it, fly to New Zealand and cycle across that. Then I fly to Vancouver and do some major zigzagging across the US - perhaps as much as 10,000 miles - then fly back to London.

I don't know if anyone's still with me, but I want to pick minor surfaced roads and plan every mile of the entire route before I go. Suggestions for making this task easy would be very welcome - surely technology can help! Or maybe I should just buy a load of maps and get my calculator out?