Welcome to my Coast to Coast Web Page
Foot and Mouth disease looks as if it may be a thing of the past as it is over a month since the last outbreak in Britain. A cow was slaughtered on a farm near Rookhope when it showed signs of the disease but so far the tests have proven negative, tests are still ongoing as of Saturday 3rd November 2001. The only problem on the route on Wednesday 5th September was maintenance work around Consett and even then it wasn't a big problem.This page is a diary of a bike ride (C2C) from Workington to Sunderland (12 miles SE of Newcastle) via the Lake District. The ride will take place between Saturday 26th May 2001 and Monday 28th May 2001. The site will show the preparation or lack of it, and hopefully end up with the final bruises and sore rear end. Relevant photo's will be included when available and I'll include some links to my favorite sites.
At present I'm in semi-retirement from training due to the rotten weather over Christmas. Before that I was riding up to 40 miles a day on a weekend. I hope to get going again this week before I turn to jelly again. Until October 2000 I had not been on a bike for 12 - 15 years and not played any competitive sports for over 20 years (old sod). I've been looking around the internet for C2C sites to get some pointers of the required fitness level without success. I hope to update this whenever I train to give people in the future an idea of what to expect. If I train I'll log it here and also give some idea of just how wrecked I was during the ride.
The ride is just for a
challenge, up to now we will be taking 7 people but one or two are
bound to drop out. One of the lads makes Mamma Cass look like Twiggy
(whoops, I'm showing my age again). For the younger generation, he
makes an elephant look like a pencil. We are doing this for fun but
will also get sponsorship to try and help some charities out. When we
are finished we'll probably do a spot the difference between us and
seven baboons, that will be a hard competition to predict.
17th February
2001
I've just resumed training today after my Christmas break and
typically I got out of bed this morning and felt rotten. My right
Kidney felt as if it was trying to take over my body, it was as if it
was expanding like a balloon and trying to get out. Still, after being
out of the saddle for so long some kind of effort must be made. I've
been out on the cycle track (part of the C2C) and I felt worse by the
minute, after a short while I had to come home and hope that tomorrow
starts better, my computer tells me I've done 11.78 miles at an
average speed of 6.8 miles per hour. This is the lowest set of figures
ever and should easily be beaten the next time I get out, the sun is
now setting and the sky is bright red, a good sign for tomorrow if the
Kidneys settle down.
The planning for the ride is starting to take shape, 1 person has
dropped out and 2 more might do the same but the number of people
doing it has gone up by 1 as 3 more want to do it. We should be
booking our B and B's early next week.
25th February 2001
Another day and nothing done, as usual it snows, at least the week
ahead might be better although the forecast for early in the week is
more snow. It's not really the snow that is a problem it's when it
freezes over and turns to ice, two wheels are not ideal if you
skid
The C2C Guide. A good site with some accommodation information for most if not all major towns passed on route.
Route Mapping Courtesy of Sustrans. A good site with maps for various cycle routes, a lot of other handy information to get stuck into. Check out the links towards the bottom left of the C2C map page.
Holiday Lakeland Cycling. If you want everything arranged for you then this is the place to visit. Even if you want to make your own arrangements they have a good site.
Off road Adventures - Online. Another good site that is worth a visit, it has a reasonable account of the C2C.
Stanley Coaches. Do you need a mini-bus with a bike trailer, look here if you do.
