I'm just about to drive out to Middleton Top from Stockport to attempt the Pennine Bridleway Double. Been thinking about it for a while and mainly want to see if I can ride for 24hours (and hopefully complete the double in that time too).
[url= http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0KyuEqqLOF8NqTqd340xLsbDyS50ADixz ]My SPOT gps link[/url] should become 'live' once I have actually started the ride.
Good luck!
how far?
shit - 400miles?
cruzheckler - Member
shit - 400miles?
No... It's not that far Rob.. Goes from near you up to Bacup IIRC? Looks to be nearer 260 for the out and back..
http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/penninebridleway/text.asp?PageId=2
Going from Middleton Top, out to the Mary Townley Loop at Summit, around for a lap of the MTL, then back down to Middleton Top (well, those trails as a frying pan type loop, in whatever order, starting and finishing wherever it's most convenient) is the recognised "Pennine Bridleway Double" as pioneered by Steve Heading.
It's "only" 195miles but there's a staggering >30'000ft of climbing!
ah right 🙂
30k ft!! f'inell
Good luck by the way, hope you enjoy your ride (not that you'll read this 'till you finish.)
I'll be following throughout the day, I'd love to try this ride in the future as it passes through some great countryside and trails.
Let us know you get on.
I'm doing the PBW too...
...in sections!!
Respect! A good day for it 🙂
Hope it worked out!!
All the best - interested to see how you get on ! Be good to have a third member in the club !
Heading back to Stockport. Learnt a lot but got a lot to learn on this ultra endurance stuff.
The ride has been great just could not get my head around riding for any longer than i have done.
Highlights
Riding during sunrise
Riding through and then above the mist in chee dale.
Next problem is how do i get back to Middleton Top to pick up my van?
Going to turn the Spot off now thanks for watching.
Pity.
I think you will need to do a 24h race (with pitside support in case anything goes wrong). These races are great for testing if you can actually do a 24h. Then, once you're comfortable with them do a long distance ride like this. I'm top 20%-30% on a 24h race, no better and I only just managed this monster ride.
Good luck with getting back - it looks like either a massive road ride / train ride !
A
Been following since Rod sent us the link. Fair play for even trying, shame you couldn;t do more - but next time, eh?
I thought it was just riding in circles you couldn't do 😉
So how far did you ride and for how long ?
Good attempt anyway, whatever it was.
Better to have a go and fail than to not even try.
Regarding these Pennine Bridleway and South Downs Way doubles, my ideas about the 109 mile Avon Ring, other similar challenges and recent comments about GPS racing on STW, is there a website that lists the established routes and records peoples times for them ?
No - I've not seen an encompassing website of long distance challenge rides.
Rob Lee is re-invigorating his 7 Deadly Spins website at the mo I think which has a lot on ?
Just got home. Having some lunch then road biking to Matlock to get my van. Still going to be a pretty epic day!!
Good advice that Alan. At 5 hours I realised I could be riding for another 20 hours and it freaked me out!! Still going to end up being a 10 to 12 hour biking day on no sleep.
Rod linear out and back routes need to be added to the list of things I can't do........
We need to toughen you up... first step is to babysit Erin overnight (when it's 8 or 9 wakes per night like last week, the thought of riding a bike all day is easy 😉
list of things I can't do..........includes babysitting 😉
Sorry you couldn't make it, good to hear you had a good time. It's a pretty intimidating ride!
If it helps, I've heard of seven people attempting the South Downs Double this year and only two have made it successfully of the seven that I know of. It's great to hear of more and more people trying these things, but with people of the class of Ian Leitch smashing out amazing times and talking about "how fast" we tend to forget just how hard these rides are, particularly unassisted and that the main challenge is "I wonder if I can", not about breaking records, which is why most of us start in the first place.
Better luck next time?
I'm still wondering but think i need to attempt a bottom to top first and maybe return the following day.
Currently got my bike on the train to Buxton Leaving me with an approx 20mile ride at the other end. It's a lovely day so so still quite good fun. Going to sleep all day tomorrow though. Fastness did not even cross my mind!
I'm still wondering but think i need to attempt a bottom to top first and maybe return the following day.
I was just about to suggest the same 🙂
Bottom to Top is 'only' 98ish.
As an interim I did the MTL then headed down to MT. This is 120-130 and at that distance you certainly get similar tiredness feelings to the full ride so you'll get a flavour for how bad you'll feel after the whole thing.
Good point Rob about the Ian Leitch brigade - as interesting as it is to read about him / Josh Ibbett, they're not on this planet.
Bad luck - you missed out some great riding. An alternative (that I did a month ago) is to start halfway up the PBW (I started in Tintwhistle), then do the up, MTL and down. This was 100 miles, and is a real taster of the harder end of the PBW double. Even this was a full 12 hour day of non stop riding though.
Have another crack, but don't wait for the wetter weather as the north end will eat your brakes and gears when wet.
That [url= http://www.ride7ds.com/index.html ]7 Deadly Spins site[/url] is something like what I had in mind.
It's only a vague idea at the moment, but I was thinking of something where people could come up with an easily navigable route, like the SDW, Avon Ring or a Sustrans route as long as it's a minimum of 50 miles or 80km, then upload their GPS track as a challenge.
If I thought there would be enough interest and could work out how to do it, including a league table for each route, with my limited HTML skills, I might give it a go.
I think sites like GPSies already have the ability to search for that kind of thing based on readers uploads don't they ?
I just had a look at http://www.gpsies.com , never heard of it before.
It looks a bit similar to Garmin Connect. You can share routes on Endomondo too.
Not quite what I had in mind though.
I like this idea of GPS racing, I'm just trying to come up with a way to make it work if no one else has already done it.
I like this idea of GPS racing, I'm just trying to come up with a way to make it work if no one else has already done it.
Have you heard of [url= http://www.strava.com/ ]Strava[/url]?
Care needs to be taken. Not sure anyone should be promoting racing, specially at the super fast paces possible for 6-8hrs or even less, on busy public trails.
Take the SDW for instance, which is also a national park with rangers. A "double" is one thing, a huge challenge where to complete it is to succeed. However, racing to post the fastest SDW one way time is something most experienced riders can do (hell, hundreds of people do it every year in the charity rides that occur) and it'll create lots of people "racing" to get fast times and will cause all sorts of access/legal issues potentially, as well as giving mtb-ers a bad name.
My opinion is that this should be reserved for rides that are proper challenges, such as the Pennine Bridleway Double, not for rides most expect to finish without preparation and just wonder, idly, how fast they can go and set off, in a haze of red mist, head down racing the clock, which is a very different undertaking.
Yes, road routes, such as the Fred Whitton, are much shorter, but these are on public roads, not bridleways which are limited, busy and full of people out for a Sunday stroll, children, dogs and horses. Again, this is a race, not an endurance challenge where the journey is the challenge, not the clock.
Care needs to be taken. Not sure anyone should be promoting racing, specially at the super fast paces possible for 6-8hrs or even less, on busy public trails.
Take the SDW for instance, which is also a national park with rangers. A "double" is one thing, a huge challenge where to complete it is to succeed. However, racing to post the fastest SDW one way time is something most experienced riders can do (hell, hundreds of people do it every year in the charity rides that occur) and it'll create lots of people "racing" to get fast times and will cause all sorts of access/legal issues potentially, as well as giving mtb-ers a bad name.
My opinion is that this should be reserved for rides that are proper challenges, such as the Pennine Bridleway Double, not for rides most expect to finish without preparation and just wonder, idly, how fast they can go and set off, in a haze of red mist, head down racing the clock, which is a very different undertaking.
Yes, road routes, such as the Fred Whitton, are much shorter, but these are on public roads, not bridleways which are limited, busy and full of people out for a Sunday stroll, children, dogs and horses. Again, this is a race, not an endurance challenge where the journey is the challenge, not the clock.
Me, bike and van made it safely back. Still can't believe I went and attempted this on a mad thought in the middle of the night.
Lots to think about and plan before I try anything like this again. I can quite comfortably cycle for 12 hours having done this quite a few times on long 100mile+ days when touring the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route but today I couldn't get my head round having to cycle for so long so I mentally 'gave up' probably not helped by the lack of planning.
Still it's not a day I'm going to forget in a hurry. Earnt my beer 😀
You need to hate yourself more; push the pain and thoughts of reachable comfort away, enjoy that dark place and aim to destroy your physical body.
Then, Grass Hopper, you will succeed.
Or.... leave that to Rod and just excel at your short and fast stuff 🙂
Good point Rob, maybe sticking to routes that are a challenge in themselves without worrying about speed are the way to go.
I certainly wouldn't want to promote say, Malvern Hills end to end for time as it would cause far too much conflict with other users. Unless done at night, of course. 😉
I'm going to do some sort of all day off road epic sometime soon, even if it's just ride as far as I can up the Severn for 6 hours, then turn round and ride back home.
It would be good if there were a few more established, if unofficial, long distance challenges to have a go at.
SDW is a long way from home for me, something like the [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Union_Canal ]137 mile Grand Union Canal[/url] or part of the [url= http://www.ncr45mercianway.co.uk/ ]230 mile Mercian Way/Sustrans Route 45[/url] would be easier.
Yesterday has not put me off. Going to properly plan and prepare an attempt for next year.
In the meantime I've got the Kielder 100 to look forward to.
I definitely want to do it as it is something well outside my comfort zone and therefore very challenging.
[url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/wellbeing/8713266/BenFogle-the-Sahara-made-me-believe-inmyself.html ]It was this article[/url] that I read on Sunday that made me head out on Monday and try it without proper planning.
It would be good if there were a few more established, if unofficial, long distance challenges to have a go at.
There are [url= http://www.cyclingw2w.info/records.htm ]records listed for the Sustrans W2W route[/url] though a lot of that is on the road. [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_to_Sea_Cycle_Route ]Wikipedia lists a record for the Sustrans C2C route[/url].
D Faff - I finished 37th on Kielder (was not as fit last year) and I only just managed the PBWD. Perhaps aim for Top 35 in Kielder100 as an indication you may be do the double ?(as you do need "some" speed to do the PBWD)
Alan - thanks for the advice. I think I'm probably fast enough as I'm much better at shorter events than long events. I've raced against you lots of times without you probably realising it in the Dark and White events.
My endurance has always been my weak point but has improved a lot recently as I have done two mammoth off-road tours in the Rockies and the Himalayas in the last year and it was good enough for 3rd overall in the Polaris this year (my best result).
My biggest problem the other day was my head. I'm thinking of trying again but starting at Tintwhistle heading north up and around MT loop then heading south for the out and back to Middleton Top.
The logistics of this are much simpler as I live in Stockport and it also breaks it down into manageable chunks. It also gives me the opportunity at the half way point to see if I am on target to go sub 24.
Alan, do you think you could PM with the pace sheet you created as it would be a useful guide for me too.
Kielder 100 plans were not to bomb round and 'race' it but to aim to go an average speed of 10mph and therefore hopefully just sneak under 10 hours. I don't want to proper batter myself as I'm doing the National Mountain Bike Orienteering Champs up in the Lakes the following weekend.
Well done on your PBWD by the way it was your ride that convinced me that I might be able to do it too. When it was just Steve you worry that you would need to be 'super' fit to complete it 😯
double post - deleted
Ahhh. Know you by name but not yer face. We'll have to make a conscious effort at the next Dark n White!!
I really really fancy the XCC at Torver. Just gotta convince mrs b to let me head up. Torvers my fave and yes, you'd be worthy competition!
Will sort out my timings for u tomorrow. Good luck with kielder, it's awesome. Don't forget ...This ain't an easy challenge at all, it took me 3 years to even get it round my head that I could possibly do it! I think you'll be fine physically. May see you at Torver.
Thanks for the splits Alan.