John’s Solo Cycle Ride
Sunderland – Whitehaven in Under 10 Hours
By John Gray

I had this brilliant idea…….instead of aimlessly cycling around like I normally had done in the past, why not have an aim and train for that particular aim. And there it was the C2C in less than 12 hours.

So, having sorted out this idea, it was time to plan, the date I picked was 1 month in advance – 16th October 2004, a Saturday. I don’t particularly like cycling on cycle paths, so decided on a road route trying to keep as close to the cycle route as possible but also on a main drag, so not to get totally lost. I would be cycling alone and the direction I would pick would be dependent on the wind direction on the day. The day actually determined I would be going Sunderland – Whitehaven.

With re-hydration and nutrition in mind, the big plan was to drink at least 300mls of fluid every half-hour and have at least 60grams of carbohydrates every hour. However, in reality, this plan didn’t work for two reasons -
- a. I couldn’t be bothered to stop every half-hour to have a drink.
- b. I think the fast cycling pace reduced my appetite.

So there it was, all I had to do now was form some sort of training regime to tackle this trip. The last time I had cycled this distance was about 4 years ago, for medical reasons I stopped cycling and became unfit up until the beginning of this year. With the short time till the ride I just started to build up my speed and distance by cycling 14 – 30 miles 4 or 5 times every week. I didn’t ride 3 days prior to the trip.

The night before the trip the decision was made to tackle the trip so the wind was in my favour, the weather forecast was overcast with rain and an 8mph NW wind. I informed my backup driver, my brother, Titch, who would meet me at Alston to replenish my water supply and give me morale support. He would then leap frog me all the way to Whitehaven.

At 0500hrs on 16th October 2004, with the weather overcast, not too cold, and the wind behind me I departed Sunderland on the A183, and then continued the steady climb into Stanley on the A693. At Stanley it started to rain, I got soaked by the time I entered Lanchester at 0600hrs. Leaving Lanchester (and the rain) on the B6296 to Satley and then onto Wolsingham and joining the A689 and arriving at Stanhope for Approximately 0700hrs was a great surprise for me, and remembered thinking that even if I started to walk at 4 miles an hour I would still arrive at Alston at the target time of 1000hrs.

In fact I arrived at Alston at 0900hrs, 1 hour ahead of schedule, so I decided to stop for 20 minutes and have a rest, phoned Titch and told him to meet me at the Penrith meeting point at about 1100hrs. Continuing my journey, I started the long steady climb up to Hartside on the A686 and then started the descent down to Melmerby. I stopped about half way down to put thicker gloves and an extra top on due to the bitter cold.


At about 1130hrs I met Titch at the Little Chef Services on the A66 just past the M6 Round-a-bout. Here we stopped for an hour, at which point I was toying on the idea of quitting. But after a good hearty breakfast and plenty of caffeine I was ready to depart on the A66 to Braithwaite, which I found quite difficult but got going eventually, it started to drizzle from leaving the Little Chef and didn’t really let up until entering Whitehaven. The steep 2 mile climb up Whinlatter was almost impossible and I cycled/Walked most of the way.

At the bottom I rejoined the A66 to find the wind direction had changed and was no longer in my favour, but at least it wasn’t a strong wind. It wasn’t long before I was on the A595 and entering Whitehaven. The finish time was 1458hrs. Giving a total Journey time of 9 hours and 58 minutes.

I did this journey on a Halfords Carerra Crossfire 1000, I carried all my own fluid and equipment. Titch came along to give me morale support and to give me a lift back to Sunderland. I had no punctures and the only thing that went wrong was one of the bolts holding the front mudguard on had loosened with the vibrations caused by the A66 road surface. This was quickly fixed with the tools I carried.

I was well prepared and carried 8 litres of water/glucose drink, 6 litres I ended up drinking (but I also had two pots of tea in the little chef. The food I carried included nutrition bars, banana’s, oranges and Jaffa cake biscuits, most I didn’t eat as mentioned earlier. I also carried spare clothing, tools, 2 spare inner tubes, and a puncture repair kit.

My computer clocked 119.7 miles, it stated an average speed of 14.2 mph, and the actual cycle time was 8 hours and 11 minutes. With which I was quite happy.

The day after, my right knee ached, I had a slight ache in both thighs, my head was splitting, which I put down to an electrolyte imbalance, as my urine didn’t indicate dehydration. By Sunday night I was ready to go out for a cycle ride yet again.

All in all I quite enjoyed it, the best part was not doing the journey in 10 hours but reaching the Lake District before lunch. The worst part was the climb before Alston.

The question is would I do it again, the answer is yes, in fact I have already set the month of May 2005 to do it, I am hoping (and have started training) to complete it in under 8 hours. The plan is to let the backup driver carry everything and me to have a camelback for fluid replenishment.