Salubrious hotel room!

Bikes prepared for action

Jol : where does this bit go?

Day 0 : getting ready in Hendaye, quick visit to bile shop and half a very wet bike ride!

Warm up ride in the foothills ...before the rain

Moment of truth...

Day 0 : Hendaye

First job today was to re-construct the bikes: tense moment as we opened the bike boxes and checked for damage. Fortunately all looked ok, and a quick ride round the Campanile car park was enough to confirm ...apart from my back wheel, which had gone slightly out of true. Probably not enough to be worried about, but one other guy (John) had already mentioned calling in at a bike shop on our test ride, so I decided to get this sorted out there too. Then I discovered that when I'd had my bike serviced recently back home, they'd replaced my cassette with a 12-25 instead of the 12-27 I had on it before ...depriving me of my granny gear ...which being a big bloke I need, especially on this trip! Cue grovelling to nice man in bike shop to true a wheel and whip the 12-27 cassette off a display bike as it was the last one in the shop! So here's a free plug for Cycles Goka in Irun!
We set off as a group of 6 for an afternoon spin to loosen up the legs after all the travelling, north along the coast road then heading inland and up some surprisingly steep little hills before a pleasant climb up the (relatively diddy) Col d'Ibardin (314 m). Refuelling then ensued at a cafe ...and then the rain started. Very wet & slippery descent, but once back on the coast road you got used to the warm spray of water from the wheel in front. Judging by the meteo, this is how it's going to be for the next few days. No danger of sunstroke, at least! Not sure how my cold will hold me up ...definitely felt less than 100% today although I was taking it deliberately easy.
A superb briefing by tour guide James in the hotel was followed by a veritable feast, stocking up on calories for the 160 km tomorrow. Then, attaching of official raid pyrenean event numbers onto bikes and dividing kit into van bag (for use during the day) and hotel bag for the evening.
I just want to get going now...

Day -1 : Arrival in Hendaye

Set off from rain-soaked Bristol airport to Toulouse, where we arrived without a hitch into warm sunshine. From a quick inspection of the bike boxes, they seemed to have survived pretty well apart from a few scrapes.
We were met by our tour rep, Alan, then joined by Simon who arrived on the Gatwick flight.
The transfer to Hendaye topic about 4hrs but seemed to pass quite quickly amid conversations about the route and cycling in general, as the Pyrenees loomed into view. Not quite the clear sunny view we'd hoped for, they were barely visible through a thick, muggy haze topped by thunder clouds. Alan then recounted how a MTB trip last week had to be rerouted due to snow ...so we could be in for some interesting weather.
After a refuelling stop involving pasta and a medicinal glass of red wine, we finally arrived in Hendaye and settled in to the Campanile. Plan for tomorrow is to re-assemble the bikes and take them for an easy spin to make sure everything's ok, before the other guys join us tomorrow afternoon ahead of the start on Tuesday.

Bikes boxed up and everything packed: setting off for the Pyrenees.

We're off!

Bikes boxed up and everything packed: setting off for the Pyrenees.

C2C Ride stats & route

Day	Start	End	Distance (miles)	Moving time	Av. speed (mph)	Elevation gain (m)	Route
1	Whitehaven	Greystoke	47.7	4:03:30	11.7	1079	Route
2	Greystoke	Waskerley	60.4	5:29:12	60.4	2135	Route
3	Waskerley	Tynemouth	34.8	3:06:56	10.9	318	Route

C2C : More photos

The start at Whitehaven

Ceremonial dipping of wheels

First view of Loweswater



Adrian climbing the Whinlatter

Top of the Whinlatter

Near Keswick

Boardwalk on Keswick railway path

Boot & Shoe pub, Greystoke

Day 2 : The Pennines looming closer on the horizon

 

Crossing into County Durham

The Waskerley Way

Old railway hardware near Consett

Crossing the Tyne

Tyne Bridge

Millenium footbridge ...opening!

Finally, the North Sea!

C2C Day 3 : Waskerley to Tynemouth

Well, we made it, and amazingly managed to stay dry the whole way, blown along by a tailwind. Today took us from Bee Cottage at Waskerley, through Consett and along the Derwent Valley track to Gateshead, before the final run-in along the quayside under the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle. Or at least that felt like the end, but actually it was another 8 or so miles down to Tynemouth. Here, Keith, the unsung hero of the trip met us with Adrian's car and, after a celebratory fish and chips, we headed back to Carlisle and back down south.
Overall, the C2C has been a fantastic route, well signposted and particularly well thought out by Sustrans, linking together some of England's finest scenery with some challenging but thoroughly enjoyable riding via routes you would not otherwise have thought of.
Stats, route info and more photos to follow...

Finished!

C2C Day 2: Greystoke to Waskerley

Day 2 started with a tasty and disablingly copious breakfast at the Brathen Guest house, Greystoke, followed by a handful of easy miles cruising towards Penrith. Once through the centre, the road kicked up to give a taste of the day ahead and before long we had an expansive view of the Pennine escarpment. So far, the rain was holding off but steely grey clouds were chasing us. Through Langwathby and Renwick, only one thing was on our minds: the climb of Hartside looming large on the skyline. Before long, we gained height on the minor road up from Renwick, joining the A-road from Penrith for a better surface and some satisfying hairpin bends before summiting Hartside and quickly piling into the cafe for a nice cuppa and an apricot slice.
The descent from Hartside top is always a good one, but the tailwind today made it pure cycling bliss, especially when followed by a jacket spud and cumberland sausage at the lovely pub in Garrigill.
The mood changed somewhat after lunch, with a real knee-cracker of a hill out of Garrigill, which seemed to go on for ever.
A screaming descent down to Nenthead started off the rest of the Pennine roller-coaster, with a series of fairly big climbs and descents linking Allenheads, Rookhope and then Stanhope. Here, a tactical tea and cake set us up for the final climb of the day up Crawleyside. The 2-mile climb mercifully ended with a turnoff to the right eastwards on to the Waskerley Way. This wasn't quite the relaxing spin to the finish we'd hoped for, with the gusting southerly wind nearly blowing us off the track several times. Finally we arrived at our destination for Day 2, Bee Cottage, where a warm shower and a hearty meal finished the day off nicely.

Into County Durham

Feeding time at Garrigill

Diesel fuel for cyclists. It tasted so good...

C2C Day 1 : Whitehaven to Greystoke

Arriving in Whitehaven, we picked up Keith, my father-in-law, who was to be our support crew. The weather was looking pretty unpleasant at this point so we quickly found a cafe and fuelled up on jacket spud and tea.
It brightened up over lunch and soon it was time to get the cycling kit on, get the bikes sorted and wait our turn among the surprisingly large crowd of other C2Cers having photos taken by the start sign. We dipped our back wheels in the Irish Sea, as is the tradition, waved goodbye to Keith and we were off.
The route took us away from the sea on an ex-railway track, which, with a decent tailwind behind us, made for a pleasant climb up past Cleator Moor, on a great tarmac surface. The Lakeland fells soon came into view after Lamplugh, with the route taking us along the shore of beautiful Loweswater. By now we were cruising along nicely in the sunshine.
Stopping a few times en route allowed the larger (organised?) groups of mountain bikers to pass us, but we soon got our revenge as the road kicked upwards towards the Whinlatter Pass, which was a breeze on the road bikes. We declined the forest track option at the top, instead keeping to the road for a nice twisting descent down to Braithwaite, pausing for a well-earned ice cream halfway down at a lay-by with a great view over Bassenthwaite Lake and Skiddaw.
We continued on to Keswick, busy as ever, where we joined the railway path at what must have been a really splendid station in its day. From here, we climbed gently but noticeably up the railway incline, over old rusting railway bridges and a surprisingly bumpy surface.
Leaving the Lakes behind us as we passed through Threlkeld, the views opened up and we enjoyed the ever-present tailwind to the village of Greystoke, our destination for the day. After a bit of faffing around trying to find our B&B, we discovered we'd got a complete self-catering cottage to ourselves, understatedly named "The Shed".  Keith had kindly dropped off our bags on his return from Whitehaven, and now met us with June for a meal in the Boot & Shoe. Some very welcome pints of Black Sheep washed down a tasty meal, although we could hardly hear ourselves think due to the rowdy remnants of a wake that were clearly the worse for wear, swaying into us as they vigorously celebrated the life of their late friend!

Top of Hartside

At base of Hartside ...the Pennines begin!

Whinlatter Pass done, reward time :-)

C2C day 1 ...the easy bit.

Bike 1 - Train 0

As I suspected might happen, the train from Tilehurst into Reading was delayed by more than the time I had to change at Reading. So I stopped writing the last post and got back on the bike, running the gauntlet of Oxford Rd traffic with a large rucsac, but making it to Reading just on time to get the last bike slot on the train. As we pulled away, the train from Tilehurst arrived. Integrated transport would be great, wouldn't it?

Warm-up weekend: C2C

So the training's mostly done and it's time for the warm-up event, for me at least: the Sea-to-Sea (C2C). I'm doing this with my brother, Adrian, and we're riding coast to coast from Whitehaven in Cumbria, over the Pennines and through Newcastle to Tynemouth. Forecast doesn't look that good, but after the week I've had, I don't care!
First leg of the journey is by train to Stoke-on-Trent to meet Adrian, however they told me there were no seats left when I booked, so it's lucky I have a big rucsac to sit on!