Day 1 – Whitehaven to Keswick (31 miles)
The hard part for me was planning the transport to the start and back from the end. I’d have loved to use public transport but considered it too risky. So we took two cars and a trailer and parked up at the secure parking provided by Jim Hewitson (see Travel Info section on the Related Links page)

Fiona, Andy, Martin, Claire, Steve & John looking naively smiley at the start

We set off about 1pm all excited but keen to outdo each other with tales about lack of training. Sure enough we were found out on the Whinlatter climb, which gave our muscles and joints a wake-up call. After cycling peacefully through the quiet countryside Fiona waited until we were right in front of the Whinlatter Visitor centre to dismount head-first over the handle-bars. Her explanation was that she “thought that was the rear brake lever”. Conversely we all managed the thunderous descent after that with no mishaps.

Home for the night was the Denton House bunkhouse where Lucy took good care of us for £10 per night – highly recommended. Beers that night flowed less freely than usual for our gang as the prospect of some proper hills the next day was in the back of our minds.
Average speed so far = 10.3 mph.

Day 2 – Keswick to Nenthead (49 miles)
With middle age starting to win the fight I decided that if I didn’t do the Old Coach Road today… I’d always find excuses in the future. The other 5 were more sensible, and in appalling rain we set-off in different directions agreeing to meet up in Greystoke. The old Coach Road is great, but I was a bit disappointed not to be able to ride more of the up-hill. Even sat in the saddle I just kept spinning my rear wheel, and once you stopped it was very hard to start again. Warning: Some considered doing this route on a hybrid… you really need knobbly tyres, low gears and ideally front suspension.

When we met up in Greystoke, we were all thoroughly wet and the local craft fair in Greystoke Church supplied us with fantastic home baking and lots of tea.

I was wet and tired by this point and this snack-stop was the highlight of the whole weekend for me. After several re-fills we forced ourselves outside once more to find beautiful weather again.. hooray!

The next stint took us to the Hartside climb. At the top of which I knew I’d underestimated the C2C, at least there was another café at the top. The weather had turned foul again and the last climb before Nenthead was sapping enthusiasm, our home tonight was the Miners Arms and I don’t think any of us wanted to cycle any further.

Our hosts dried our clothes for us and reserved us a table in their excellent restaurant.
Average speed today = 9.96mph

Day 3 – Nenthead to Sunderland (53 miles)
Everyone was looking forward to today being predominantly downhill, but the first ride of the day was to the highest point which was a nice wake up call. The downhills were fast and fun though. We stupidly thought we’d done our last climb out of Rookhope but we were on the road route via Stanhope. The 17% climb up Crawleyside Bank out of Stanhope was totally unexpected comparable to the Hartside climb. The off-road route from Rookhope is apparently easier.

However, this is followed by the delightfully long downhill of Waskerley Way. A quick detour in Consett to try the C2C ale in the Grey Horse (wouldn’t like to try and ride after too many of them) and then we were on the last leg. The finish however seemed elusive as the old railway line around Stanley/Washington has so many anti-motorbike gates that it does slow you down and Fiona had a puncture 2 miles from the finish…

… but we made it.

Average speed today = 11.4mph

The Bike Bus picked us up at the Marina, drove us via Nenthead to collect our bags and dropped us off in Keswick. We decided to leave the cars until the next day as we were keen to have a good night out.

Overall mileage = 149.4
Average speed = 10.4mph
Maximum speed = 46.5mph (down into Stanhope – on knobbly tyres too!)

The car-parking, bunkhouses and transport were all found via the C2C-guide web site, and all were fantastically friendly and helpful. The 6 novices had a brilliant weekend and are now thinking about the next challenge. I’d previously read about the lack of a sculpture or clearly signed finish at the end and thought someone must have missed it as I have a photo of my wife there in 1998. However, there really wasn’t anything to mark the end (except of course the sea), and there were lots of other cyclists wondering if they’d finished.

Last words… If you’re thinking of doing it…. then do it, you’ll really enjoy it.