September 1 - 3, 2006

The English Sea to Sea Ride

Day 2

Hartside

Surprisingly, the planned early start actually materialised. The Freedom/Alcatel group set off early, followed by a couple of Nestlé guys, while the last group (including me) pulled away at 8.30 – just as the first drops of rain started to fall….

 

It didn’t take long for the serious climbing to start, either. All of about two or three minutes, in fact.

 

This was the theme for the day – heavy rain, and stiff climbs. Oh, and whipping winds too.

 

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altitude, only to lose it again very quickly. This was tough, broken Pennine country, with a lot of steep sided valleys in amongst the high moorland. While it showed a desolate appeal, I’d be lying if I said it was as attractive a landscape as the Lakeland fells of day one,

especially when experienced in the foul weather in which we crossed it.

That first climb started within Penrith itself, a steep ½ mile up to the road running along Beacon Edge. That road runs along the edge of the hill, although the C2C route turns upwards again over Beacon Fell after half a mile or so. On stomachs full of bacon and beans this was tough, but it was nothing in comparison with the climbs to come. Anyone who felt that the height gained was an investment for the rest of the day was sorely mistaken, as no sooner had we crested the rise than we found ourselves plunging downwards, losing the height we had just worked hard to gain.

 

This was typical of day two. Many times we worked hard to gain several hundred metres’

High land, hard rain

The route from Penrith crosses the Vale of Eden up and down to Langwathby, before hitting the Pennines proper on the climb up to Hartside summit. This is the longest and highest climb of the trip, and while on the whole the gradient is fairly reasonable it was hard work in the by now heavy rain. Fortunately there is a café at the top where we caught up with the Freedom/Alcatel group. The café was busy, with various groups of cyclists queuing up to warm themselves and dry their sopping clothes by the fire burning in the large coal stove. There were a few motorcyclists in there too, sporting soggy leathers. Chatting to them, they seemed in

good spirits (as they would be, slurping tea and eating cake by the open fire), but they were talking of curtailing their ride and heading home.

 

With the drying clothes and bodies, and the regular boiling of kettles to serve tea to the constant queue of customers, the inside of the café was warm, humid and welcoming.

 

We waited a while for the last rider (Mike) to come in and warm up (a number of the cyclists had pushed their bikes up Hartside) before setting off again. The good feeling from the café didn’t last too long, as after a couple of miles the route drops away from the Hartside top and we knew there would be more climbing soon to come. Worse still, once we had dropped off the top we found ourselves working hard into a strong headwind blowing up the south Tyne valley. The road along the valley was generally level, but the wind made it hard work even in low gears.

 

Consequently, we stopped at the friendly pub in Garrowgill village for a refreshment and a break from the weather. We had fun seeing if we could extinguish the open coal fire by wringing out or sodden socks into it (seriously!) Fortunately for the pub’s other customers, while we were able to raise a number of hissing puffs of steam, the fire was strong enough to hold its own.