Yeah! We've done the C2C!!

[Royalrider]

Hi,
A friend and I, both 53yr olds, bought ourselves a couple of decent bikes about a year ago, did a few training sessions around the hills of Derbyshire and hatched a plot to have a go at Whitehaven to Sunderland.

Well we have done it. Yes it was hard in parts but not necessarily the bits you read about. We opted for the road sections as I have a Van Nic Amazon and my mate a full carbon 'Cinelli Man Machine' with 23 c tyres.

Fortunately we had wives prepared to spend the days shopping and site seeing, meeting us at the designated B&B's for the evening meal and drinks and carrying our stuff so no problems there.

We did it over 4 days so not too much of a problem. Our road route came in at 148 miles.

Everyone talks about Winlatter Pass, which we did on day 1, and honestly not realising we had done it, while we were waiting for this monster to appear. Similarly with Hartside which was tough going but not unrideable.

Day 3 however from Garrigil up to Nenthead, down and up again to Allenhead and then the unrideable, for us anyway, Crawleyside from Stanhope to the Waskerley Way now that was a real swine. Maybe because we already had a couple of days fatigue in our legs but I know I couldn't have ridden all the way up Crawleyside even if it had been day1.

Anyway a real experience and well worth doing. The Nottingham 50mile on 21st June should be a breeze!!

 

[vernon]

Try Crawleyside in 10m visibility and a 40mph headwind then you'll know what suffereing is on the C2C...

I think the hills get steeper each year as my Easter attempt was the toughest of the four C2C crossings that I've made over the past six years.

Well done on your achievement. Did you come across any snow? I'm sure that I've read elsewhere that there's some in the Alston area.

 

[Royalrider]

No snow Vernon but plenty of wind and rain. It was difficult to stand and keep the camera, well mobile phone, steady on the top of Hartside.
We had the opposite weather when we did Crawleyside. It was a week last Thursday,very hot and sunny if you remember and the fact that visibility was perfect made it worse. We could see the gradient and distance going on and on.
We were generally lucky with the wind however as it was always pushing us along. If it had been a headwind that would have made life very interesting!
Talking of Alston I can highly recommend the indian restaurant in the back room of the Victoria Pub. The food was gorgeous, ample portions, and very friendly people.

 

[Cathryn]

Nice work, Royalrider!!! If you took the road option at Whinlatter, you did well - we did it in the other direction off road and I nearly cried it was so horrid!! It's a great route, I really enjoyed it when we did it.

What's next then????

 

[Muddyfox]

Fortunately we had wives prepared to spend the days shopping and site seeing, meeting us at the designated B&B's for the evening meal and drinks and carrying our stuff so no problems there.

The things our wives have to suffer for our Hobby's

Well done Royal Rider a great achievement

I'm planning to do the Devon c2c this summer

Simon

 

[Soltydog]

Talking of Alston I can highly recommend the indian restaurant in the back room of the Victoria Pub. The food was gorgeous, ample portions, and very friendly people.

Well done on completing this wonderful route
I stayed at the Victoria on my trip, but unfortunatley the indian wasn't open at that point