Bangor Trip

Cherry and Colin headed across in the boat on Friday. Not a bad journey across with the boat being pretty fast and comfortable in the Plus lounge.

Went to Mount Stewart for the first time. Surprised we hadn't ever been here before but didn't recognise it at all. Very nice and definitely worth trying to visit in different seasons.

Nice dinner out at the Old Inn in Crawfordsburn.

Colin was meant to be cycling 97 miles round Lough Neagh on Sunday but the weather forecast was for solid rain all day long and he wisely decided to wimp out of the event. Did a short ride from Bangor to Millisle in the late afternoon.

Cherry got the plane back home on Sunday afternoon and Colin got the boat on Monday.

Car Boot Sale

We hired a stall to get rid of some of our old stuff at the Bridgend Farm Car Boot Sale. It was actually inside on a table as the weather was bad and not a huge number of customers as it was both our first car boot sale and the first at this venue. Sold one or two things.

The Crossing Day 3

The very bad weather forecast for Day 3 turned out to be just bad weather. There was steady light rain but reasonably high temperatures which meant there was no chilling out in the cold. It felt a bit of a grind at times today with quite a lot of rough sections where I wasn't able to ride up or down - I'm a very nervous and cautious descender.

I finally made it into Scarborough around 3 pm feeling in pretty excellent shape - even my bottom wasn't suffering too much after all that time in the saddle.

A celebratory ice cream was on offer as was the obligatory medal to add to my collection.

Had a wee walk round town, a coffee, a walk round some gardens, fish and chips and then ready for the bus home at 7 pm. This got into Whitehaven just after 11 pm and I was back at the Premier Inn around 11.45 pm.

Event Stats:

Day 1 : 103.65 km ; 1932 m climb ; elapsed time of 8 hrs 55 mins
Day 2 : 59.91 km ; 693 m climb ; ride time of 3 hrs 58 mins ( should have been around 100 km)
Day 3 : 95.68 km ; 1688 m climb ; time of 7 hrs 47 mins

Overall an enjoyable three days. Lots of people seemed to have come back and done the event many times. It does seem very expensive (over £400) for what you get although it was all delivered very effectively. At times the route seemed designed for pain and challenge rather than pleasure. There are probably nicer routes to do the C2C. As an endurance challenge it certainly delivered. A range of different bikes on the course. I think roughly 50/50 between full sus and hardtail. No perfect solution as there was a constant mix between road and rough trail. On balance not really my preferred type of event as I really don't like the rough downhills on a MTB.

The Crossing Day 2

On the second morning the tent was soaking with dew and I hoped I could hang about long enough for the water to clear off. This wasn't happening so just had to pack it away which in the end turned out to be fine as it dried up pretty quickly after pitching in the evening.

I was feeling fine in the morning but the bike was not sounding at all good. A lovely early section on a glorious day as we entered the Yorkshire Dales.

Unfortunately the bike some came to a grinding halt. The little jockey wheel near the rear derailleur stopped moving. Another rider help do an on the road fix but the benefit of this was short lived and I soon needed to phone for help. The event organisers picked me up and after a lot of hanging about took me through to the Pit Stop where there was a mechanic on hand. There was also a bike shop on site which was just as well - the new part was purchased and I was ready to go again.

The second part of Day 2 had a fair bit of road riding and I sped along pretty quickly particularly with my relatively fresh legs. 

The camp site at Northallerton was at the Leisure Centre and surprisingly the facilities were probably worse than the farm. Pretty much on queue the weather changed at around 9.30 pm to heavy rain. The tent performed well and kept me dry and snug.

The Crossing Day 1

I drove down to Whitehaven on Thursday morning and arrived in good time to register for the event and enjoy a pleasant afternoon in the sunshine walking around the town. The town was looking very well in the good weather.

The night was spent at the nearby Premier Inn. It was a very early start on Friday to drive back into town and park about 10 minutes from the event start and walk down and dump my bag. The race briefing was at 6.45 am and the start at 7.00 am. At which point the heavens opened and we got a whole morning of pretty heavy rain. The journey to Keswick was fairly pleasant and would have had some quite nice views if we could have seen far.

The pit-stop with hot pies and sausage rolls was a pretty basic affair which didn't incur lingering even if there was a tiny amount of cover from the rain. After about 30 mins and the rain still falling heavily it seemed I might as well get moving as I wasn't warming up. Thankfully the rain stopped soon out of Keswick.

There was a fair bit of pushing up the steep rough hills and at one point there was a bit of carrying required. Some lovely high moorland sections in the latter part of the ride.

Got into Shap in reasonable shape around 5 pm I think and in the first bit of rain free weather pitched the tent and then showered and ate. The showers were excellent which was quite a surprise in an impromptu camp site on a farm. It is quite a while since I've slept in my little mountain marathon tent - not very comfortable !

Whitmuir Organic Farm

With Max back for the weekend we had a family outing to Whitmuir Organic Farm around 40 minutes south of Edinburgh.

A short walk up the hill past the pigs, cows and sheep. A visit to the small crafts barn. The fairy walk. Then lunch which was a little spoiled by them losing the order but compensated by some giants wedges of free cake.

After lunch a walk round the garden centre and some food purchases in the shop.