I decided to travel a bit more this year having been stuck on the same roads for a couple of years. I had done a lumpy 600 in Wales 2 weeks ago which gave me a decent amount of confidence but I knew this was a different animal.
I ended up with a fairly ropey nights sleep in a Premier Inn on the edge of Darlo so woke feeling a little jaded. This is a fairly common occurrence for me. It was a gentle ride to HQ and we were away pretty quickly with a few groups forming. I chatted to Hippy for a while as we settled in. Just before Middleton my Garmin bleeped to warn of climb 1 of 43 (!). We turned towards Lanchester and I was on my own admiring the scenery and picking up a troubling headwind. We had a pavement picnic outside the bakery in Lanchester before the leg to Alston which I misremembered as being less hilly. As mentioned upthread I had scheduled to average 20kph to get me to my overnight digs by midnight. I started to feel that this might have been a little ambitious. Dropping into Alston I noticed the return route on my screen and, whilst eating a sandwich outside the co-op, I seriously considered turning for home.
The sun was out and I removed some layers and decided to continue on what turned into a faster stretch with the wind behind us. I was mostly on my own again but chatted to a couple of Scottish riders on and off, but they were dropping me on the steeper bits. By Newcastleton it was quite warm but I was still on schedule provided I kept my stops brief. We had been warned about the drag out of the village which was steep at first but then long and steady. The tailwind made it not so bad but I can imaging it would be much harder the other way round. I hadn't been to Moffat since LEL 2013 and I was quite please when the Garmin told me the next climb was in 75 miles which made it after my night stop. Another sandwich based refuel in the square and away with a tailwind. This is where my spirits lifted and the riding was fast, the sun was out and the views splendid. Just after the info we turned East towards Carlisle into a bit of a headwind. Being so far North it stayed light until 10 and I only put my lights on for the last hour into Southwaite services, checking in at 23:00. Having researched ahead I had worked out what to buy in Costa and how to get into the Travelodge. I was asleep by 23:30.
Alarm set for 4:30 I was on the road at 5 heading through the Lake district on a lot of roads I hadn't done before. There were quite a few lumps but they were short and sharp (Red Bank I'm looking at you). At Newby Bridge it was sunny and started to feel warm and I briefly considered dressing down. Hippy arrive not long after having stayed in the same hotel. I chatted to davocon here as well. We had been warned about the next stretch but it was brutal. I had thoughts of getting home for 6pm but this looked like it was going out the window. The cold wind kept me slow all the way to Tebay where I decided to take a longer stop in the cafe rather than sitting outside the garage. I was a little worried as there were no other riders there at the time but I was eventually joined by another rider and davocon was tucking into lunch as I left.
After leaving Tebay the going seemed to get easier and I was making much better progress as we seemed to be in a valley sheltered from the wind. All went well until Hartside which I hadn't researched. The signs informed me it was a 1,900ft climb. I had been warned of bikers but there weren't many but a few petrolheads were testing their cars out. Whilst it was long it wasn't that steep and there was some shelter from the wind until the very top which was a little exposed. I had to pedal downhill for the first couple of miles from the top but it got quicker towards the bottom and I ended up on the same bench in Alston where I had been the previous day. I downed a milkshake and filled my food pod with jelly babies - it was close enough to the finish to be sugar fuelled. I hadn't climbed Yad Moss since the 2014 National 400 when we had been filmed by Damon from the back of his car. The memory of this brought on a few emotions.
What I had also forgotten was how long you are up top before the descent starts. There seemed to have been a recent accident which can't have been cleared up more than an hour earlier. Eventually the descent started and I started to pick some time up. A couple of little lumps after Middleton and the Garmin confirmed I had completed all 43 climbs (without walking) and then the legs seemed to really start to roll. The wind seemed to be slightly behind and the road slightly downhill so I was pushing a decent gear. I rolled in on target a few minutes before 6pm. I ended up having an excellent 3 course dinner and chatting for well over an hour. I have really missed a great finish control - let's hope we get to keep doing this for as long as possible.
This is an incredible ride and well worth the 500 mile round trip. I was home in time today to log on and do my planned half day WFH. Thanks to Deano for organising and the other finish helpers (sorry I didn't ask anyone's name).
Rob
