Had been in training for Kielder but with its cancellation I am looking for a different challenge for the year.

The Whitehaven to Robin Hoods bay looks like an epic ride but with a young family 3 days riding and a couple of days traveling is too much.

Would the ride be possible in 2 days? Both of us are pretty fit having been getting the miles in all year for kielder. Is the terrain decent enough to keep a decent pace going?

There’s a fair bit of walking to get over the off-road passes in the lakes, but me and a mate did it (almost) in two days. Missed out 30km or something in the middle. We also had to do a bit of route tweaking to make it more road on the first day. We were in fair shape, did LEJOG in eight days earlier in the year.

We did our own route rather than the standard one.

Bit of a write up here:
http://www.dislocatedmtb.com/2010/08/c2c-day-1-story-this-epic-needs-two.html
http://www.dislocatedmtb.com/2010/08/c2c-day-1-still.html
http://www.dislocatedmtb.com/2010/08/c2c-day-2-cloned-sheep-wars.html

Its a big ask will be dependant on weather I would have thought 3 days is a challenge which we did 2 years ago its a great ride if its the Woodcock c2c St bees to Robin hoods bay!
I,m doing this know Kielder has been cancelled!
http://www.selfsupporteduk.net/routes/Lakeland200.html

Pics from the coast to coast
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzrich/sets/72157624943948623/

Are we nearly there yet! by Richard Munro, on Flickr

Walna scar Rd by Richard Munro, on Flickr

would be do-able if you get perfect weather and mid summer so you can do 14/15 hour days. I did it in 3 days but 10 years ago. Have also done the C2C (road route) on a mountain bike in 11 hours. If you want to do the offroad route in 2 days, look at staying at Kirkby Stephen or Reeth as the overnight. It will have needed to be dry for 2 weeks to make the trails fast.

C

I think it’ll be tough – I’ve done non-stop Wales C2C and many ask me if they reckon 2 day is ok, and I reckon it would be harder in some respects with a 3-day being more viable. Maybe it’s just be me, but the individual days are going to be mighty tough and and if you get a mare of a first day, actually getting to your B&B and checking in could be a problem if you’re running really late.

I’d either bikepack it or just go non-stop I reckon… if you’ve trained well for Kielder, another 80-odd miles isn’t really going to much fuss if you pace and fuel right 😉

We did it over 5 days last year and found that really tough and we had perfect weather!It ended up being 210 miles with the longest day taking 14 hours and 57 miles.2 days is a big ask imho black sail,walna scar and garburn pass in day 1 😕

Have done the Tim Woodcock route twice, both in 4 days, about 50-55miles per day. Our next aim is to try for 3 days, and maybe bivi along the route somewhere. 2 days would be very challenging given some of the terrain, especially the Lakes up to about Shap. But if you decide to, best of luck 😀

me n some other well known bloke tried doing it non stop last year. Everything was going good until the week before where it rained for a week non stop. Suffice to say it was raining as we set off. I’ve honestly ( in hindsight) never been so close to being scared as i did that day. First climb was a bike on the back job. Down the other side you had to cross a waterfall, maybe 2ft deep at the crossing point but only depth enough for you and your bike. 200ft drop if we failed with the waterfall more like a torrent of water. Anyway, next obstacle would usually be easy but near chest height river with again the torrent pulling you 20ft down stream wasn’t exactly easy time. After this the sheer amount of walking was horrendous and we’re talking about 4 hours in total over the course of the ride. Next seamingly easy obstacle was riding over marshland which was so waterlogged even the bridges were under water ( very true ). Now as it was near getting dark, say 45 minutes until light goes away we had a simple task of crossing a river which has the wire rope to help you across. No no no, not that day. river had swollen by about 2-3ft deep so we had to find another crossing so 40 minutes rock climbing later we found a bridge. We headed up n over scar fell ( i think) and down into town which was pretty dark by then. Anyway, onwards and upwards we thought, the worst over. We biked and trekked until shap and continued going,over some farmland, up a vertical cliff ( really we did. In hindsight should of went the longer way round but we had lost so much time by now we could ill afford losing more).Final straw came going DOWN a waterlogged muddy descent averaging 5.6mph. Yes, mental. Anyway, something like 130 miles later and 22 hours in we called it quits. We were aiming for a 28 hour time at the time but reckoned the sheer amount of water and how wet it was cost us 7 hours in that first 22 hours alone and we would of lost another 3 hours by then end. We will try it again deffo but mid summer next time and will beat the 28 hour time ( we hope). One of the most demoralising adventures ever