Well as most of the stories
start with a conversation over a few beers, so does this account
of our Coast 2 Coast attempt. At first our plans included for
7 of us to do the ride, 1 being a support vehicle to carry all
our gear from stop to stop. Unfortunately after sobering up 2
people dropped out of the plans for various reasons and we were
left with just 5 and having to carry all our gear with us ! Nightmare
!
Not to be put off we all started planning our route. Whitehaven
to Tynemouth was the preferred route as the Sunderland end would
bring us past where most of us lived and the temptation would
be too great to stop at that point !
Training for the ride was by no means structured and consisted
of only 3 or 4 rides out and only 1 of them being of any length
(40 miles) for myself. Other riders were similar or in 1 particular
case had only ever been on his bike 3 or 4 times with a maximum
distance of 30 miles. Things were going to be interesting as we
were attempting to do the C2C over 3 days, which meant a minimum
of 45 miles per day (give or take a few miles).
On the night before we were off another rider dropped out due
to University commitments and we were left with just 4.
Riders - Dave, Higgs, Phil and Myself (John)
We set off from Washington Tyne and Wear at around 7.00am and
after picking Phil up on route arrived at Whitehaven at around
9.45am. First duty was to get the all important stamp from the
Cafe on the harbour. After receiving this and traditionally dipping
our wheels it was speedo reset and we were off!, The feeling of
being little kids again off on a big adventure ran over all of
us. The ride out of Whitehaven was quite Urban and slowly climbed
until getting on to the main offroad cycle track which was fairly
straight and flat. Four miles gone and an average speed of 6mph
achieved i was getting a little concerned. Phil was already struggling
with the pace that i thought was fairly gentle and slow.
Before we set off i was expecting to achieve 12 to 13mph average
on the flat. It was apparent that Phil's limited training was
going to cause a problem, that and the fact that he was nursing
a bad knee. I was concerned that our or at least Phils C2C attempt
may well be short if nothing else. We pushed on with many stops
that slowed our pace considerably. On average we stopped every
2 miles on the first day. Phil getting off and pushing for most
of the banks and keeping in the back of his mind that the 2nd
day we were going to the top of Hartside! I Managed to get up
to 39.6mph this day on the downhill from Whinlatter Pass, it is
advised however to be careful on this section however as some
of the turns can catch you out. We arrived at the B&B in Penruddock,
The Herdwick Inn to the relief of all of us as the 1st days riding
had been a lot harder than anyone had been expecting. The Herdwick
Inn was a very nice place to stay and the food was nice, a packed
lunch was also available for the next day which was handy. After
such an unexpectedly hard day we all turned in after just 1 pint
at 9pm.
We awoke early knowing we needed an early start as today would
be harder than yesterday and slower than expected pace dictated
that we would struggle to get to Rookhope before dark if we did
not set off early. After a lovely breakfast we set off with very
sore backsides from the day before. Today Phil had a different
attitude, although his knee was still giving him grief he pushed
and pushed and we were making amazing time and pace. So well in
fact that we were all stopping when we needed too rather than
having to wait for Phil to catch up. By mid day we were nearing
Hartside. We had previously decided to do the off road routes
as we all have Specialized MTB's that are very capable on the
rough stuff, the 1st day we did not have the time to do the Old
Coach Road route, but with making such good time we were set to
attempt the off road rout up to Hartside. Dave had been riding
down the bank before the start of the off road route where i had
stopped when he came to an abrupt stop, could not disengage his
SPD pedals and promptly fell to the floor! Never mind, curse those
pedals !!!
Dave was fine although this was the 2nd time today his pedals
had caused him to fall to the floor helplessly. We set off down
the off road path which was not too steep at 1st however did have
rolling hills which were difficult to pedal up, even with wider
knobbly tyres. The off road route met up with the road again and
me and dave decided to continue on the off road route to Hartside
and Higgs and Phil wanted to try the road route and we would meet
at the top. The Off road route started ok with fantastic views
and mountain edge riding, a small decent to a waterfall and a
little bridge then it was off the bike and pretty much push the
bike the rest of the way. The majority of the route was impossible
to ride from this point. We met up with Phil and Higgs at the
top who were about 5 to 10min behind and had said the road route
was not too bad.
We sat at Hartside Cafe for around 45 minutes and we over the
moon we had got there for 1pm. Very good progress and on schedule.
After a lovely cuppa and sandwiches we set off for the descent,
i managed 39.9mph, gutted not to get over 40mph which was my target
! Half way down Dave had a problem with his disk brake which must
have been some obstruction in the pads. After a quick fix we were
off again completing another few mile, again making good progress,
that is until Dave was complaining that his gears would not operate
correctly and stopped again to take a look, ushering us to continue
and he would catch up. After stopping on an adjacent hill Dave
shouted us
back, and i could not believe what i was seeing. The rear derailer
had sheered off the hanger 15 miles away from Rookhope and in
the middle of nowhere.... I was gutted as i could see no way to
fix the thing.
After much deliberation we decided to fix the chain in 1 gear
so at least we could make some progress. Unfortunately this was
futile as there was no derailer to keep the chain tensioned enough
and the chain kept on jumping off (even with chain links taken
out). It seemed we were doomed. Not wanting to complete the C2C
without Dave as it was his organising and passion that
kept us all going we all decided to call it a day and with a phone
call to Alston we were picked up in a mini bus and on our way
home. C2C attempt it tatters after completing the hardest 2 days
and the easiest day not complete. All in all nearly 80 miles completed.
We will all attempt the
C2C again next year with more training, although i think we would
have completed the route without any major problem should lady
luck had shined on us a little and Dave had not hit mechanical
problems. Overall we all enjoyed the C2C route with fantastic
scenery and
beautiful weather.
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