Day
6 - Wednesday – Gretna to Kirkby Stephen
The
shortest distance so far at only 101km planned distance, so no time pressure
whatsoesver other than getting back to my parents house where I’d left my car
and where I was staying overnight before heading back home on Thursday.
This one was back loaded with the hills, but nothing too
steep or prolonged this time, the major hills of the Lake District and the
Yorkshire Dales being to the East and West of the route, but it’s almost
impossible to avoid anything at all in that region. One thing I did want to do though was avoid
the main Tebay-Kirkby Stephen route, both a fast road with heavy traffic, but
also with an almighty steep hill on it, just on the edge of town.
Another good breakfast (no idea what effect this will be
having on my waistline, but I’m hopefully riding it all off each day) and a
great morning to start, getting on the road just after 9 am again despite
telling myself I would be happy to start around ten – I guess I just don’t do
lazy in the morning. A bit breezy with
the wind being south-westerly, not quite in a helpful direction but hopefully
not a hindrance either.
The nice flat start was great, and well signposted out of
town, with the very odd experience of riding on a road I pointed out to my dad
on the way up. The minor road carrying
NCN 7 runs next to the main North-South highway the M6, so I was riding in the
opposite direction with just the concrete barrier separating me from heavy
traffic at 70mph plus.
Lots of twisty lanes doing the last bit around the Solway
Firth, with a car on its side in a ditch being a good reminder of why these
country lanes can be so dangerous. All
good to Carlisle, which I hadn’t realised was quite so close to the
border. Good roads and surfaces to this
point, and the only oddity of routing I came across on this section. If you’re reading from outside the UK,
remember we drive on the left, so to be routed off the road, through a narrow
alley onto a residential street might seem a good idea for separation from
traffic. Apart from the end of this dumping you at a junction where you now
need to turn right across 4 lanes of traffic or negotiate a mixed use path. Luckily the traffic was light coming up
against me and I was able to filter easily into the direction I needed to go.
It was all flat to Carlisle, where the rolling hills started
immediately with the route out of town on the drag up past the castle. This is where I started departing from the
planned route. The next town was
Dalston, and the Garmin sat. nav simply lost its mind on the exit, directing be
about twi miles up a gradient to a small village with a green triangle where it
asked me to do a 180 and head back the way I came. At this point I decided to ignore it, and, as
I was familiar with the area just follow the roadsigns for Penrith which I knew
was my next major routing point. A nice
easy rolling road, with a bit of an uphill into town, but a nice descent to
follow. I managed to pick up my route
again here (I thought!) to get a nice easy crossing underneath the A66, another
major east-west road I’d not want to be on the carriageway of.
I live in a very rural area, and see quite a few strange
things going on, but this was definitely my first stop for llamas.
We pause for Llamas
This next section should have been a fairly easy run back
into my destination through some small villages I knew the names of but not the
detailed routing. The sat nav failed me
again however and I ended up in the village of Great Strickland, riding past the
pub and thinking I saw “open all day” sign, I thought I’d pop in for a little
isotonic refreshment and a packet of crisps for the salt. I’d misread that sign however, open all day
was Saturday and Sunday only, but the landlord was a very nice guy, let me buy
a beer and packet of crisps anyway and sat chatting with me in the pub
garden.
He’s recently diversified into providing accommodation for
cyclists on the coast to coast ride, and holidaying families, with some very
well appointed log cabins in the pub’s garden.
He told me that they used to be open all day until the local water
company decided that a new sewer was needed, took 14 months to install it and
the road closures just killed his business.
He had a long, hard look at the S40, it’s definitely a striking design
and very conversation provoking. I
thought I was way off route by now as well (looking back at the Garmin route
record, I was actually right where I should be) and asked for a bit of route
advice from a local. He basically
described my back up route, which I then decided to follow.
All good so far, nice quiet rolling roads, only interrupted
by frequent heavy showers and stops under trees to pull out the waterproof and
then stow it again when the rain had stopped – it was too warm to keep it on
all the time. My favourite road of the
day was the road out of Shap, to Orton across the fells, just me and the sheep,
the occasional cattle grid being interesting on the S40. A nice rolling road, passing back under the
M6 and into the lovely town of Orton, with a chocolatier who seemed to be doing
very good business, and apparently sells a lot of his production into the
expensive London hotels.
Remember I said about the A685, Tebay to Kirkby Stephen
route? One wrong turn. I was 50:50 in my mind left or right, went
right following one road sign instead of another, should have followed the
little bike symbol, but perhaps my Scottish experience was clouding my
thoughts. In any case after an amazing
descent down a narrow lane with stone walls either side – luckily nothing
coming the other way, I ended up on the dreaded A685. I looked at the maps later on with my dad and
the left hand fork was the correct route, and would have avoided nasty hills as
well. At this point I knew what was
coming, Ash Fell. The road here has a
crawler lane to allow cars to pass the slower traffic on the way up.
I got up the first purple section and the red section and
that was it. Here’s the view looking
down, taken on my way home from a layby at the top. My tired legs just couldn’t take any more
purple.
The view down Ash Fell, my landrover in the foreground
Wild Boar Fell – which features on an equally painful
running race
The downhill though, was spectacular, and cue how to almost
wipe out on an S40 at high speed.
Start with three days hilly riding, of about 420km in total,
so you are well and truly tired. Take one wrong turn 5 miles from the final
destination, putting you onto a road you know you don't want to be on. Get to
the 12% hill that you know you don't want to ride up (it has a crawler lane for
slow vehicles), get off and push for about 1km. Remount the bike for the other
side - which gets to something like a 15% downslope.
Hit something like 63km/h approaching a bend (with the brakes being feathered!)
and swap your leading foot.
Cue a massive swoop to the left towards a stone wall, catch that with a massive
correction to the right and finally get back to the middle of the road.
That was dammned close to my first ever CB accident and it could have been BAD.
No idea what was going through the mind of the driver who had been following me
down the hill. I cruised the rest of the
way into town. Back to my parents place
a good hot shower and a good evening meal out in the pub.
That was it. Done.
So on reflection what did I learn? Or a better question
perhaps, would I do it again?
Well I certainly wouldn’t do the same route again, where’s
the fun in that? But if I were to do another tour, with luggage, either camping
or another credit card tour what would I do different?
- Follow my own route, rather than depending on
the national routes as they seem to have something of a different agenda to
me. They’re a reasonable starting point,
but I’d prefer not to subscribe to the “keep away from traffic” mania
- Plan no more than about 100-110km per day on
consecutive days. I didn’t have any time
to stop and tourist which was a shame.
My agenda was driven by an external timeline in this case which led me
to load things up in a less than ideal fashion.
- My loaded touring pace (about 15kg luggage in
this case) is about a 22-23km/h (13-14mph), vs my day ride Audax speed of
25-27km/h, plan accordingly next time, see no 2 above.
- Really think hard on luggage, I wasn’t
excessively loaded, but did have a few items I could have left behind. Particularly indulgent was my new Olympus
EM10. There were a few clothing items I
could have left behind as well. My
mechanical get-you-home kit was unused, but there’s no way that’s being left
behind. My first aid kit got used, and
there was a t-shirt or two I could have left behind as could some of my
toiletries, staying at B&Bs rather than camping. One thing I did value though was the 4oz
running shoes for the evenings off the bike and the change of cycling gear
allowing me to wash one set while wearing the other.
- The S40 has some great capabilities, and can
probably do more than I can, but it’s not limitless. I wonder if I’d get over some of those
failure points on a day ride without luggage?
Perhaps a nice day ride next time based on a few days in one place.
- In a masochistic way, I actually quite like the
hills, or I can endure them for the thrill of the descent, so I’d certainly not
go looking for the flatlands. What about
gearing, I had 12-32 and 52/39/30, so a lowest 30/32 was available. I could have gone down to a 34 perhaps with
the current rear mech. I’m not sure it would have given me a lower speed before
getting off and walking, just a higher cadence at that stall speed.
- Food, as a type 1 diabetic, carrying snacks is
not an indulgence, it’s potentially life saving as a low blood glucose can be
serious, however with points 2 and 3 above, I could have cut down on what I
carried and used local facilities more.
Almost everything I carried was eaten, plus a few things I bought on the
way.
- The S40 is
very capable of group riding and holds its own well among the uprights,
so a repeat of the ROTFR is definitely a potential
And a week later, update on the front derailleur, seems all
it needed was a bit of lube on all the pivots and working in.
Overall, part of the intention of this trip in my own mind
was to decide whether I think the Cruzbike is really the way forwards in terms
of recumbents, for me. Having now ridden
the best part of 2,800km on it I’d say that’s a resounding yes. I don’t think the issues I had were any more
significant than I would have had on my roadbike, laden in the same way and
with similar gearing, other than the few traction issues. So it’s definitely a big thumbs up for the
Cruzbike
So next year, am I going back? I think so, with a plan developing already
involving the use of my car, ferries, day rides, more islands and more
distillery visits, this time with souvenirs.
For now though, it’s back to reality with my wife on holiday
for a week with our daughter and me taking care of our son, whilst juggling the
day job.
To whet your appetite, here’s the nascent plan in my mind so
far.
- Sunday – Drive up to Oban, about 9 hours or so
- Monday – mooch around Oban, do the distillery
tour, take the last ferry to Mull
-
Tuesday – Day ride on Mull
- Wednesday – shorter day ride on Mull, visit Mull
distillery
- Thursday – Take the early ferry back to Oban,
drive down to Campbeltown, visit the distillery, drive back up to Kennacraig,
late ferry to Islay
- Friday – Drive around Islay, possibly a day ride
to some areas I missed this tie, like the Oa Peninsula, and the Port Ellen
distilleries
- Saturday – Islay Half Marathon
- Sunday – Ride of the Falling Rain
- Monday - early ferry back to Kennacraig, and
drive back home
Total 612km in 6 days, with about 420km in the last three
days.
