Final Day - Part 2

The final slog

The lads left their designated start point (Lat 54º48’26”N /Long 2º17’22”W - link) at 9:23 on Sunday morning, following breakfast at the Cumberland Hotel in Alston. The weather was grim! Fog/wind and a fairly consistent light rain (you know the type – the one that soaks you fairly quickly), which quickly (within a few minutes) had turned to a fairly heavy driving rain. Not nice, at all!

There was a nice fast downhill section into Allenheads, which was quickly followed by a fairly grim and steep ascent up towards Currick, and the Northumbria/County Durham border.


The weather was even worse up there!

This was followed by another long downhill stretch past the Lintzgarth Arch into Rookhope Village.

The route from Rookhope Village was by two separate routes, on-road or off-road. The chaps decided on the latter, which was to take them across Stanhope Common and Edmondbyers Common, which is an area of moorland that is bisected by the B6278 Road form Stanhope to Consett. Unfortunately, due to a navigation faux-pas (not really helped by the fact that the Sustrans route map is not detailed enough at certain points), the on-road route was taken, which took the lads via Eastgate and Stanhope, up some seriously-steep road sections. At this point the weather was horrendous, with strong winds and constant heavy and driving rain.

At Parkhead, the route crosses th B6278 onto the “Waskerley Way” for the drop down into Consett. The weather at Parkhead was abysmal! The lads made a brief stop at the café at Parkhead, before setting off on the “Waskerley Way” proper. The route took the lads over the moor and down into Consett. It was on this section that Carl had a blow-out on his rear tyre. The lads stopped at this point to make some running repairs to Carl’s steed, and then met up with myself just to the west of Consett, at the car park at Rowley.


Here, a new tyre was also fitted, but this had caused quite a delay in the route.


After a brief stop for some lunch in Consett, the lads set off for the final 24 mile section into Sunderland.


This took the lads past various places, including Annfield Plain (not quite Anfield, but near enough for the Liverpool supporters amongst us), Stanley and No Place (did someone suggest a soundtrack of “Road to Nowhere”?).



Unfortunately. This part of the route was heavily littered with shards of glass, which led to two punctures for Pete in quick succession. Luckily, his tyres turned out not to be of the tubeless variety, and so running-repairs were possible.

As the route led the lads along the river into Sunderland, they went past the Penshaw Monument,


and on past the Stadium of Light, before leading them around the marina in Sunderland/Roker,

and to the official C2C Stamping Station, and the plaque indicating the end of the route.


Job Done!

The lads finally completed the C2C in Sunderland at approximately 18:15 on Sunday (17th August), having ridden the approximately 142 miles from Workington.


Obviously pleased at their achievement, the guys made their way to the beach between the two jetties to perform the traditional dipping of the front wheels in the North Sea.


Unfortunately, in a moment of madness, Rich decided to drive full-tilt into the surf, which swamped his bike, although I believe he really enjoyed it (looking at the expression on his face)



I'm sure I speak for all of the lads when I say we'd like to thank you for sponsoring & donating over £1100 (currently) via the Justgiving site


And on a personal note, I'd like to say a big "Well Done" to all 6 of the lads - A great achievement! I'm proud to have been associated with the whole event.

Jon

Final Day - Part 1

Final Day - Allenheads to Sunderland

The final day dawns with a smattering of rain at our B&B (The Cumberland Hotel) in Alston. The lads are looking forward to th run down into Sunderland via Allenheads and Consett. The mileage should be somewhere around the 60 mile mark.

Just to say thanks for the sponsorship pledged so far.... but please keep it coming, if at all possible.

No doubt there will be another one or two blog entries today, so watch this space.

A few media snippets from the ride

Dipping Wheels in the Irish Sea
Location : Workington





The traditional Dipping of the back wheels into the Irish Sea, was quite difficult, without getting wet! The wind and breakers were quite.... interesting, shall we say!

Making for the Start
Location : Workington



The official start point of the ride is the end of the jetty/pier at Workington.


The lads were itching to get away...



Maybe Steve was a little too eager! :-)

Today's the day

It's Started!

Today , the team started their epic 2008 C2C Ride. The start point was Workington (not Whitehaven, as previously reported). The weather was just about right - not sunny, not raining (much). The guys dipped their wheels in the Irish Sea, at approximately 10 am or so (about an hour behind schedule). Theye then made their way to the official start point, and had been going less than a minute before the first mishap!

Stevie Till, obviously thrilled to be starting the ride, decided he's pull a wheelie (or two) along the harbour wall.... unfortunately, wheelie number 2 wasn't particularly successful, with Steve clattering into the railings, and damaging himself and his bike (fortunately, not seriously). Luckily, all this was caught on video, which will be uploaded once a high speed/high bandwidth connection is available.

Watch this space for more updates soon!

Current position : Between Mungrisdale and Troutbeck (close to main A66 route).
Weather : Fine (for the moment).

The Day Before Tomorrow

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for clicking in. All of us are ready to go now. We're setting off in a few hours to go up to the start point near Whitehaven. We'll be starting the bike ride on Friday morning about 9am. We'll be posting pictures, videos and diaries a couple of times a day for the next few days so please have a look and enjoy. If you want to see a group of unfit men, struggling to battle against the rain and gravity then this is the site for you. See you later for more updates. Rich

The team are from left to right: Jonny, Carl, Pete, Steve, Doug, Jim and me (Rich)

not long (enough!) to go

With only a couple of weeks left to go, I had hoped to have done a few more miles training but there is still time to address that.. I think as long as I get a few mid 40 miles rides in before the start then I should be ok although I am struggling to find enough hills to really build the hill climbing muscles (I hate hills by the way - which does make me wonder why we are cycling across the lake disctrict hills and the pennines - a tour of Holland sounds much nicer)

We have stepped it up over the last couple of weeks and the riding has seen definate improvemnt as has my stamina in my twice weekly footy games (no mention of improving skill you will note!)

Doing a 34 mile ride in the heat of last Sunday really brought home the need for fluids and salts when riding - I drank over 2.5 litres and was still de-hydrated - so much so that we were forced to stop in a pub on the way home to take on valualble liquids and salt and vinegar crisps..

Also the effects of the blazing sun on an uncovered (thinning!) head didnt help.. Maybe I should wear a helmet like the rest of my saftely concious friends..

Carl (front gears, bottom braket (not a medical complaint) and brkaes) leads the way with most things broken on his bike with me (puncture), jim (rear light) and spor (front gears / brakes) all vying for second spot. Hopefully there wont be nay more mechanical issues to come- for the bikes or us!!

Sponsorship is coming in thick and fast which is really pleasing. I sent an email and facebook email out yesterday and the response has been brilliant so thanks to all who have taken the trouble to sponsor us.. It means alot.

Steve (or Ste or Till or what ever you know me by)

Upcoming Newspaper Article

Just to let everyone know that we had our photograph taken by a photographer for the Northwich Guardian. I'll post a link to the story when I get the info.

UPDATE - 05-AUG-2008

Unfortunately, the article isn't in the online version of the newspaper (i.e. it's not accessible from the internet), but it is in the current edition of the printed paper, that was published last week (30th July?)