The Fred whitton – bottle, bag or both? Any other advice?

I am riding it on monday and my fantastic bike only has one set of bottle bosses on it, so I can only cage one on the frame, I can cage two on my saddle (with a tacx bottle mounting thing) but they have a habit of flying out and hitting the person behind me in the face. It would also involve carrying LOTS of foot in my jersey pockets.

Alternatively I could bag it, 2L in the bag and a bottle on the frame with electrolytes in. Would make it easier to carry shit tonnes of food and I could still gel up in the outer jersey pockets.

There are 3 of us doing it semi-supported, as in there is a chance for a feed station with some people we know but only potentially.

Also any other advice? We are starting from keswick seen as that is where we are based.

I’d take a bag with extra clothing.
The final section to Keswick along the A66 won’t be nice.

Surely there’s a pub open somewhere along the route that could provide some suitable carbohydrate-rich energy drink?

assume you have a saddlebag for tools and tube and your jersey has three pockets, central pocket for rain cape, left pocket for gels and bars, right pocket for gels and bars. there are shops on the route to buy more food and drink (dont forget the touristy places like honister slate mine etc) and a few petrol stations on route too.

The final section to Keswick along the A66 won’t be nice.

You don’t need to go along the A66, you can take this road for most of it then go through Threlkeld, out the other side, cross the A66 again and use this road finishing past Castlerigg Stone Circle back into Keswick.

Re the carrying thing – probably easier to use a small Camelbak plus a bottle. You can get by without if you’ve got feed stations but without that at least you’ll have the peace of mind of having everything with you, it’s more comfortable over long distance than having it all shoved into pockets.

Never mind the fashionistas, it’s your ride! Even on the event itself you often see people with rucksacks/camelbaks.

I do not have a saddle bag, it wouldnt fit with my bottle mounts. Between us we have tools though.

Crazy legs – sound advice, especially the time we intend to be riding along it!

something like this? Halfords will be your friend on a Sunday

its been absolutely hammering it down here in west Cumbria so pretty much all the streams could refill your bottles. that is what we do. there are plenty of shops, cafes and pubs on the route though. just what time are you starting? traffic is a bit mad from the north to west from 6.30am to about 9am.

Looking at leaving by 8 really to make sure we get the light on our side.

Please don’t ever ride a road bike when wearing a rucksack. Yes, it may be practical, but that doesn’t make it right. 🙂

you will be fine with the traffic then

That’s good advice from Crazy Legs up there. I’ve ridden ‘that’ section of the A66 a few times now, and would rate it as scarier than descending Wrynose in the wet.

Enjoy it.

They’ve just patched some of the worst pot holes around Lamplugh, for the TdeB next Monday – still some crappy tarmac around though.

+1 to extra clothing, it’s called Cold Fell for a reason.

Please, please take care on the descents of the passes, in particular approaching the wall on left side of the road descending from honister to buttermere on a tightening right hander, which catches a lot of people (including today).

Cheers, enjoy yourselves, take plenty of clothes, it’s very autumnal at the moment. If that means a bag, so be it.

Given your start point, you could probably ride the first three passes with one bottle, then fill up at Whinlatter Visitor Centre. Then there’s a big long drag over Cold Fell but opportunities for water at Calder Bridge, then Eskdale. After Hardknott and Wrynose you hit Ambleside and you’re in civilisation…

After Hardknott and Wrynose you hit Ambleside and you’re in civilisation…

You’ll be able to stock up on Gore-Tex jackets in more than 100 different colours… truly the town that became one giant gear shop…

Not much for supplies from Glenridding to Keswick.
After Cold Fell, there’s not much at Calder Bridge, but shop, cafe, loo etc in Gosforth.

Jed Max and Chapman from Loughborough and Buxton just Strava mugged me over Irton pike section of the route last night. Well done if that was one of you OP. I only made the section up last night too after 6 months off the bike after a crash.

I would be max, jed would be my mate, I have no idea who chapman is. Our third rider ended up blowing up a ultemo aqua tyre 40/50 miles in.

Camel back was the way forward without a doubt, couldnt carry enough water otherwise, only had to stop once for food and water. The other times were because our triathlete friend crashed on a corner, the other was because he shredded a tyre and we patched it up with empty energy gel packets and spare tubes.