Good 3 day cycle tour in England..?

[gussington]

Hi all,
I did the Coat 2 Coast last year (Whitehaven to Sunderland) in 3 days witha friend. I'm from London and he's from Sheffield. Am looking for another good 3 day tour to do, preferably with good sgn posting so that I can mostly just enjoy the cycling. I'll have maps and a gps, but the less I have to use it the better!

Anyone got any good ideas? I'd like somewhere that won't cost a fortune to get to from London - and if it's also not crazy from Sheffield I might persuade him to come again as well! I would probably like to travel up on the mornign of the first day and back on the last - so slightly closer helps with that too.

And - just to be fussy if it also had cheap(ish) accommodation that'd be lovely!

 

[HelenD123]

I was going to suggest the new Way of the Roses coast to coast route but don't know whether that's too far away to include the travel within the 3 days. It depends how far you want to go in a day. It starts in Morecambe and finishes in Bridlington.

The other thing you could do if you want signposting is to pick a Sustrans route and just do a section of it. There are maps on the Sustrans website. One option that sprung to mind was doing part of the North Sea Cycle route such as Kings Lynn to Norwich. Just choose something with convenient train links at either end.

 

[Brommyboy]

Living in London, why not start there? You have Sustrans 4 and Sustrans 1 beginning at Greenwich. NCR4 goes to Fishguard in Wales and NCR1 to Dover, where NCR2 starts along the south coast. Ride as far as you can and then train back to town.

 

[Jerry Atrik]

Why not try the Devon ctc and google Yarde Orchard for accomodation .

 

[ColinJ]

I've got some ideas from Sheffield. How far would you like to ride a day, do you enjoy big hills and would you mind catching a train back to Sheffield with your bikes at the end of the 3 days? In fact, if you caught the train up, you could just stay on the train back to London.

 

[billflat12]

The Trans Pennine C2C Trail

Southport to Hornsea would be a good 3 days

215 miles and signed all the way .


http://www.transpenninetrail.org.uk/

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Part of the Pennine Bridleway? The Hadrian's Wall C2C?

Great Glen or West Highland Way beckon (Iknow they are not in England but....)

 

[gussington]

Definitely up for some hills! Although I'm unfit and the hills hurt - I love riding down the other side! Was thinking approx 50 miles per day, but happy to do a few less if needed.

Near Sheffield could work, as at least it is cheap to get to.

 

[ColinJ]

Definitely up for some hills! Although I'm unfit and the hills hurt - I love riding down the other side! Was thinking approx 50 miles per day, but happy to do a few less if needed.

Near Sheffield could work, as at least it is cheap to get to.

I'll work out the details and post them later!

 

[gussington]

Thank you. Very much appreciated!

Will both be travelling on steel framed tourers, but both enjoy a little bumpy stuff every now and then as long as the bikes can handle it.

 

[Telemark]

East Coast/North Sea Cycle route "Coasts & Castles", get off the East Coast train at Alnmouth, follow NCN1 north to Berwick-upon-Tweed, then follow the NCN1 west to Norham and head south again, inland, through some fine Northumberland scenery, to a suitable train station.

For the NCN1 bit, a CCer (HJ) has done a nice write-up on his blog, with some photos taken by yours truly (we carried on north from Berwick on our 3rd day)

Hmmm ... I feel a date with a map coming up soon - I am getting itchy feet, too

T

 

[ColinJ]

I've been working on my idea for day 1 of your 3 day tour - a 50 mile ride from Sheffield to the YH at Mankinholes, near Hebden Bridge.

I don't know where in Sheffield you'd be, so I chose to start it on the B6077 from Malinbridge in NW Sheffield. It takes a very scenic and tough hilly route through to Holmfirth, Meltham, Slaithwaite, Scammonden, to Booth Wood on the A672 above Sowerby Bridge. That section comes to 34.5 miles.

I've plotted 2 options for a final 15 miles. The scenic route is more strenuous, going to Mytholmroyd over the hills. The alternative route which you could take if you were very tired and couldn't face the last few hills, would be to whizz down the A672/A58 to Sowerby Bridge and then ride along the Calder Valley Cycleway to Mytholmroyd. Both variations take the Cycleway through Hebden Bridge and on as far as the road which climbs steeply up to the YH - yes, there's a sting in the tail - sorry)!

The Cycleway is an alternative to the busy A646 which runs parallel to it up the Calder Valley. It is a mix of quiet roads, concessionary cycle paths and the Rochdale canal towpath. I sometimes ride parts of it on my racing bike, so I don't see why you couldn't ride touring bikes along it. There are a few spillways on the towpath which you'd probably want to walk through, and one place where you have to walk the bikes over the A646 where the canal goes through a tunnel under the road.

Let me know if you like the sound of that. If you do, I'll post maps and altitude profiles and get to work on days 2 and 3. If you don't, er, I won't bother!

I've ridden all but the first couple of miles of the route before and it is tough but rewarding.

 

[gussington]

That sounds fantastic Colin -would love to know where you might go from there!

Going from Sheffield would definitely work -and althougha trek for me to start wiht would be easy to talk my Sheffield based mate into! Mileage sounds great as well - decent challenge but not insurmountable. Might even look at keeping it just to 2 days, depending on how much time we could both get off - but would like to do 3 days if I get the chance.

 

[ColinJ]

That sounds fantastic Colin -would love to know where you might go from there!

Going from Sheffield would definitely work -and althougha trek for me to start wiht would be easy to talk my Sheffield based mate into! Mileage sounds great as well - decent challenge but not insurmountable. Might even look at keeping it just to 2 days, depending on how much time we could both get off - but would like to do 3 days if I get the chance.

I got a bit excited about it myself, so I've just plotted days 2 & 3!

Day 2: Mankinholes YH to Slaidburn YH with 3 variations later on according to how frisky you feel. (Slaidburn is in the Forest of Bowland AONB.)

All variations take the same route as far as Whalley.

Ride into Hebden Bridge for breakfast if you don't want to cook for yourself at Mankinholes YH. Then take one of my favourite local routes to Whalley - Slack, Widdop, Haggate, then a rapid descent through Brierfield (old mill town) over the M65 and back into the countryside again. Climb to the village of Fence and follow a lovely little lane along the top of the hill to Padiham Heights a.k.a. Black Hill. From there it is a steep descent to Sabden village. You can see the Nick o'Pendle climb towering above but I'll send you off to Whalley the easy way.

The most exciting of the 3 variations would be to ride round the big Fells in the distance and come back over the gorgeous Trough of Bowland which bisects them. That route would be Whalley, Mitton, Walker Fold, Chipping (good cafe there), Oakenclough, The Trough, Dunsop Bridge (good cafe there), Newton, Slaidburn YH (pub and cafe nearby). That would be a tough 59 mile day.

Options 2 & 3 both go to Waddington village from Mitton. Waddington has a good cyclists' cafe.

Variation 2: Climb Waddington Fell and do a fast descent to Newton, then it is a short ride to Slaidburn. That would be about a 39 mile day.

Variation 3: This one does less climbing then variation 2, but adds some easier miles up the Ribble Valley - Grindleton, Sawley, Holden, Stephen Moor, Slaidburn. A 44 mile day.


I'll tell you about day 3 tomorrow. It's a cracker!

 

[gussington]

Loving it mate! Gettign very excited now and reckon my mate is onboard too. Gave him the link this afternoon to have a good look.