C2C this weekend – any tips?

Heading off from Workington to Sunderland on Saturday, following the sustrans C2C route.

Any tips/cafe suggestions/places of interest along the way?

There's a couple of bike cafe's on teh route…one in Keswick (try the lentil soup) and one in Greystoke[/url]. The pub in Greystoke was run by **** idiots when we did it, so we walked a few miles in the other direction to get drunk.

We're aiming to do our first stop on somewhere after Keswick TBH, need to get about 40 miles in before stopping i reckon.

how many days (?) are you doing it in?

Guy I saw in Keswick the other weekend was doing it on a far too small Halfords special full bouncer with the forks on the wrong way. If he made it, you'll be fine! (Oh, and his pedal fell off at whinlatter).

Don't follow the signs off the Whinlatter road on the right before the summit (pointless detour), just carry on along the road to the visitor centre (good cafe and bike shop). I would also descend to Keswick on the road rather than the forest tracks from Whinlatter if you're on roady bikes.

If you can get to Penrith area on day 1 you've broken the back of it and you'll be fresh for Hartside the next morning.

The cafe at Whinlatter did a nice orange and carrot soup when I did it. As said previously ther was no shortage of Cafes and decent pubs.

Greystoke bike cafe is lovely, especially if weather's good and you can sit in the garden. We had our first coffee in Cockermouth (huge relief as Workington is a decent-coffee-desert) but you're probably made of sterner stuff.

It's not a hard ride, but the roads are quiet, the other riders friendly, and it was generally two of the happiest days I've had!

Enjoy.

you'll be fresh for Hartside

we took the stupid off road route up that stupid hill. The mars bar cake and hot chocolate in the cafe at the top made it worth while though.

We're doing it in one day on roady bikes – ish!

One flat-barred 700c hybrid (mine) with a 50/38 compact & SRAM mtb cassette, one old-style tourer with triple chainset, one full on road bike with stupidly tight cassette & 53/39 chainset & one hardtail mtb on slicks!

Gonna avoid the off-road bits around Whinlatter & Hartside, save them for next year and the off-road version!

Setting off from the lighthouse at Workington around 06:30am and hope to be in Sunderland around 8-8:30mp that evening.
Planning on a pub lunch stop around the 80 mile mark, just after the biggest hill on the route.

Your best bet for lunch I would think will be the cafe at the top of the Hartside climb, the big hill you're talking about about 80 miles in.

If you're doing it on a roadie, don't do the old coach road after Keswick (the off road bit). It's a good section, but the roadie we met on it was wishing he hadn't done it.

What are you planning to do at Rookhope? The off road trail up to the top is a fairly wide farm track type thing, and then there's a traverse across the moor, which was hard packed earth when we did it, but I imagine gets very muddy if it's been raining. There were plenty doing it on touring type bikes, but like I say, it was very dry. Not sure I would want to try that if it had been raining on your bikes.

Two of the lads are thinking of taking the off road option at Rookhope, i don't fancy it TBH on skinny almost-slicks & cleated shoes.
I'd rather ride the road detour than waddle through a muddy track in those shoes!

Old Coach Rd is not on the itinary, definitely one for the mtb version next yr.

Quite rough that Rookhope incline. We did it last year[/url](in a day) on 29ers with CX tyres on and did some of the rough stuff up Hartside and the Rookhope bit. All downhill from the top of there though.

Hartside Cafe for lunch but don't upset the bikers if there's a queue 😉

Enjoy it!

Take note, if you are doing it from Workington you go through Wythop Forest, not over Whinlatter. Which does involve a bit of off-road, it's only a short section and mostly downhill. You could go round past the Pheasant Inn and onto the A66 to bypass it, depends how fragile your bikes are really.
Hartside Cafe would make a good stop, theres another just as you get on the Waskerley Way as well.

Did the C2C in '05

I'd echo the above comments

Blog from the ride with loads of pics here: http://www.gravityengine.co.uk/coast2coast/

[/quote]We're doing it in one day on roady bikes – ish!

Fair play!

We did it in two a couple of times stopping in Alston. That was about my limit (first day from Workington to Alston was awful).

Looking to do it again this year 😆

I did it in a day a couple of years ago – long day but really worth it.

I was on a road bike and my riding partner was on a Salso HT with slicks. Weirdly, he was the only one to get punctures, just out of Whitehaven.

Everything was perfectly possible on the road bike – we took the road down from Whinlatter to Keswick (where second breakfast was taken) and (I) pushed up the Rookhope incline (after tea at the the Rookhope Inn).

We did have another friend join us for the final leg at the Rookhope Inn – that really helped inject a bit of pace, where I think we would have struggled. Well worth trying to get someone to volunter if possible – 40odd miles from there but one you are over the incline, you can see the sea…

There were a few "shady characters" hanging around the tracks as we were coming through Consett etc – no problems but did put me a little at unease!

Oh yes – the Hartside Café wasn't big on veggie stuff, I seem to rememeber…

Good Luck and enjoy!

Rachel

There were a few "shady characters" hanging around the tracks as we were coming through Consett etc – no problems but did put me a little at unease!

Canny lads no doubt 🙂