Coast to Coast bike ride
We went to a couple of pubs last night and then had Spanish Tapas in a little restaurant where we were served by the northern equivalent of Barbara Windsor wearing a flamenco dress. She advised us that the portions were much bigger than normal (i.e. Southern pansy style) tapas which we completely ignored on account of just having cycled 52 miles across the Lake District. Big mistake, as eating all the tapas portions (meatballs, chicken wings, blue cheese garlic mushrooms, seafood platter, croquettes and garlic bread plus 4 pints of lager between us) turned out to be more of a challenge that the actual cycling. In the end we had to leave a couple of meatballs, a piece of chicken and a bit of bread.
We all slept a lot better last night, I'm sure in part due to the lack of antisocial seagulls. Breakfast was good again and we were on the way at about 9am. We got off to a slow start because Claire's gears were playing up. I managed to improve them a bit but didn't achieve perfection for fear of making them worse. But at least her chain wasn't falling off any more. She was very happy to be able to use her big chainring again.
The first 15 miles or so looked on paper like they'd be a gradual uphill so we thought it would be a good warmup for the traverse of the Pennines. However, they were actually a series of steep hills followed by long descents, taking us lower than we were before we started going up the hill. We'd already turned the ascent of the Hartside Pass into a bit of a demon in our heads, and the "warm up" only served to make it worse.
We found ourselves cycling with a couple who'd been staying in the same B&B as us the previous night in Whitehaven, called Ray and Paula. We were pretty much keeping pace with each other, and by the time we started the ascent of Hartside we were making an effort to stay together. Hartside turned out to be nowhere near as difficult as our demons had suggested, being more of a long slog than a steep climb. Matt and I arrived at the top first and took a few photos, but when a massive pack of motorcyclists turned up we hot footed it to the cafe to get a table and get in the queue for drinks and cake.
We spent a while sitting at a picnic table outside, eating cake and chatting to Ray and Paula, and finally decided we'd better get going. The next section was pretty tough. We'd decided not to take the easy (flatter) option, and once that decision was made it was only a short leap to decide to take the "off road" option. It didn't sound too bad on paper. In reality it was probably the wrong decision for us, although the cycling through rivers was quite exciting. The long uphill sections with massive loose rocks which we had to push our bikes over were not so good. Nor was the long bone shaking steep descent. We eventually emerged in Nenthead hot, sweaty and dusty.
I had to sweet talk the pub into doing us some sandwiches as it was half past two (i.e. way past lunch time). While we were waiting for the sandwiches Claire and I nipped into North Pennine Cycles next door. The shop was full of part dismantled bikes and bike components and smelt of grease. I thought it was like heaven but Claire was disinterested, presumably expecting rows of shiny bikes and colourful cycling jerseys.
The owner - Dave - obviously knew more about bikes than anything in the world and it wasn't long before we'd asked him to have a look at Claire's gears. After about 2 seconds he poked the rear mech, tutted and said "well your indexing's all out". Then he pushed something and turned something else and all of a sudden everything was working properly at the back. Unfortunately the diagnosis for the front was a bent front mech. We asked how much it would be to replace, expecting £60 or more plus an extortionate amount for fitting, to be told that the replacement part was £37 and he'd fit it for £3 (!). He'd finished fitting it by the time we'd eaten our sandwiches, and had also adjusted the brakes. I only wish we lived nearer. Dave thought that Claire's saddle was rather high and was a little dubious about Claire being 6' tall. But when he gave the bike a test ride and could barely reach the pedals he seemed to accept it.
After that things got pretty tough. We were all suffering and our legs wouldn't work properly. There were more hills including a steep hill immediately after lunch, followed by a steep descent and then another steep ascent to the highest point on the route, where we were disappointed to find that there was no sign to mark our achievement. We were overtaken by two blokes doing the whole 140 mile coast to coast route in one day, which should have spurred us all on, but it only worked on Matt. Then my saddle mounted bottle holder started squeaking terribly on every slight bump, and that was it for me. I don't know how I made it to Stanhope without killing someone or throwing my bike into a ravine, but we and our bikes all got there in one piece eventually. The bottle holder has now been removed though for its own safely. The only other obstacles were a pheasant in attack mode protecting its chick (Claire), an indecisive and possibly suicidal sheep (me and Matt) and a cute hedgehog (mainly Claire, but this delayed everyone waiting for her).
I think tonight's B&B is the best so far. The owner (Dawn) was outside watering the pansies when we arrived, and we were told to wheel our bikes through the pristine hall and kitchen into the garden shed. Our rooms are excellent and we felt very welcome. After de- sweating in the shower we headed over to the pub over the road for drinks and dinner, which is where we are still, over 3 hours later.
We've just about managed our whale and chips (me and Matt - only just breaching the trade descriptions act) and toad in the hole (Claire - aka 3 toads in a pit). We've decided we can handle a couple more drinks than usual as we're not having breakfast until 9am tomorrow on account of only having to cycle 40 miles mainly downhill tomorrow.
Unfortunately tomorrow's ride starts with a very big and very steep hill to get us out of the Pennines before we get to enjoy freewheeling all the way to the pub in Sunderland. Hopefully the "full body aches" will have subsided by then.
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well, this deserves a comment of some kind, but being a woman of few words, it'll just have to be a grunt. *GRUNT*
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