Originally Posted by The Octopus

I recall hearing that the route and distance rules are a bit arcane -- something along the lines of, you only get credit for the shortest distance between controles, not for the distance of the route you actually take between controles. Can someone confirm or deny? If that's accurate, that means your route, to be a "good one" -- i.e., efficient -- will run in a fairly straight line (or be an out-and-back) and will have more controles than you're used to in a brevet. In my neck of the woods, it also means a lot of good back roads are effectively off limits, as the rules reward taking state and US highways that tend not to meander from point to point (like us cyclists like to do!).