Other half is out all of Saturday so I have a pass to ride slightly further afield than I normally do. I’m thinking either Coed-y-Brenin or up to the Lakes; I’ve been to CYB before and liked it, never ridden in the Lakes before so it would need to be a route from a guide book (probably the vertebrate one) as I’ll be on my own with no GPS.

My normal riding is llandegla, Peak district, and Gisburn with an emphasis on the downs rather than the ups, and I usually do 25-35 km in a ride. What would people choose?

As a wild-card suggestion, what about Antur Stiniog? I loved BPW when I went, but while I was comfortable on the reds I was a little sketchy on the blacks. I’ve heard AS is rougher than BPW, so would it be worth considering? I know my bike can handle it, just not sure about the rider!

where do you live and how long are you prepared to drive for? can you drive there friday, stay over and start early?

Manchester. It’s about 2 to 2 1/2 hrs to either of them, so not much in it in terms of driving but don’t really want to do much more than 2 1/2 hrs. Don’t really fancy staying over the night before, but I’m usually up at 6.30 anyway so it’s probably 10ish by the time I get to the trails.

It’s gotta be the lakes then, everytime over a trail centre and espicially if you’ve never been before. Iiwy I’d mix it up, rather than do one big ride like Hellvellyn do 2 smaller ones. So perhaps the borrowdale bash then do the lonscale fell ride and then if you’re feeling fit you can push up skiddaw as the lonscale fell ride passes right along the bottom of the mountain. I’m up the lakes this weekend but will be setting off earlier than 10.

Yeah, was leaning that way myself and have wanted to do Borrowdale for a while. Guess I’ll probably make the final decision based on the weather – what’s Borrowdale like in the rain? After cleaning all the Peak district crap off my bike after the last bank holiday ride I don’t really fancy doing it again!

loads of rocks, it’ll be fine.

Borrowdale is fine in the wet, it’s not that gritty or muddy really, it’s a good ride out. You can park at Grange too if you fancy doing a shorter version that takes in all the best bits, or look at a map for cheeky options to avoid the road ride to and from keswick.

How about Snowdon?
Up Llanberis, down Rangers. No real navigation to contend with.

Stiniog is a great day out but very different from a typical ride as it’s multiple runs down as you know.

I wish I had your dilemma – currently laid up with bad back so unlikely to be riding anywhere this w/e 😥

Had thought about that, but isn’t there a voluntary ban on riding Snowdon during the summer or something? Or are those routes not affected?

That sucks about your back, I hate feeling like I’m wasting a day riding!

Sure the ban ends beginning of September – worth a check first.

JUST CHECKED – END OF SEPTEMBER.

Sorry – time for Plan B 😳

Lakes it is then!