Barnard Castle local knowledge anyone?

[Revellinho]

There are two B roads that link Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale, one to the N of the Tees, t'other to the S.  If I have stopped for a pie in B Castle on the way to Middleton, which road would you recommend?  I vaguely remember the northern one being a bit of a flog and the southern one being gentler.  Have I mis-remembered this?  The only times I have ridden these roads I have been wet/cold/tired/at night or all four of the above.

Looking at you Deano.

[Chris S]

I'm not Deano, but...

This from our Tandem Blog, on LEL:

"There are two roads between Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale, one to the south of the river as featured on the York Langholm York 600 (and indeed southbound on LEL), and one on the north side of the river. The north side is much much hillier than the south side – death by a thousand false summits I called it – it was a hell of a winch up there. The sun came out and boiled us in our waterproofs, so we had to stop to disrobe"

More here.

[wilkyboy]

On LEL didn't we ride the northern one northwards?  It has a stonking big hill out of BC before the stonking big (but not that hard) climb over Yad Moss.  In my befuddled, chilled and slightly psychotic state on returning over Yad Moss I followed the routesheet and used the southerly road back to BC and it seemed full of small humps, nothing bigger than 20m or so -- just before I caught up with Teethgrinder* and he then dropped me on the stinking climb up through BC itself.  That's what I recall.  YMMV.

Depending on which pie you chose, either would be suitable ... wouldn't it?


* Actually he passed me and I then caught up with him again at a red light on the bridge.

[Dave_C]

I have just looked at both on RideWithGPS and would choose the south side as it has a climb out of Bernard Castle with a small dip a few km in but looks like less climbing. The Road to the north looks like more climbing but appears flatter, so could be a main road?

[Deano]

Aye, I think you have it right. The road to the north over Folly Top is one big hill (then another littler one into Middleton) and usually very exposed to the wind, the southern road through Lartington, Mickleton etc is more benign a bit less hilly and much less exposed, though it's still a series of ups and downs as you cross all the rivers and becks flowing into the Tees. The first climb out of Startforth is a bit of a pig, too.

They're both b-roads, but the northern one is busier (as it's faster for cars - it only passes through one village rather than half a dozen).

The south road is the one to take. Mind you, according to Nigel Hall, it is in fact 200 yards longer than the northern route

[Revellinho]

Thanks all, what excellent help!  It's for this Saturday.  I'll take the low road, it's a long way back to South Lakes and there are enough hills as it is.

[Deano]

Ah, if you really want flat, you could follow the Tees Railway Path.

http://www.durham.gov.uk/media/4422/Railway-Path---Tees/pdf/RailwayPathTees.pdf

It's been fairly dry recently, shouldn't be too muddy..

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I know the inside of the school kitchen very well 

[Revellinho]

I know the inside of the school kitchen very well 

   thank you!

fond 2013 memories of that place, having ridden over Yad Moss in the wee small hours with a very diverse quartet... myself, a Brazilian, an Italian and an Uzbek.  We all stopped for a bit of a kip there.

[Lars]

Done the Northern one only on LEL Northwards. And the Southern one on LEL Southwards and 2x on The Old 240
Southwards. Remember the Northern one being more exposed to wind and more main-roady and not that nice.
The Southern one is nice coming down towards BC. And certainly think I'd prefer that going Northwards as well.

[CrinklyLion]

I know the inside of the school kitchen very well 

Indeed - we didn't get to look at much outside of it!  I think I made it as far as the petrol station, once...