Day 1: Sunday 21st March 2010, Whitehaven to Gamblesby
Miles expected: 40
Miles completed: 63
Punctures: 2 (both H)
Broken frames: 1
Terror rating: quite high!
C2C challengers: Annie (the organiser), Debbie (my cousin), Quentin (Debbie’s husband), and of course myself. For the first day we were also joined by Annie’s son Charlie and Annie’s friend Sue (the proper keen cyclist).
Day 1 saw a group of ethusiastic (well maybe 1 enthusiastic, 1 terrified and the others somewhere in between) individuals ready to embark on the C2C challenge. Obviously we had all been training very hard for this 3-day cycle route totalling 135 miles – Debbie had done 20 miles in the past week, Quentin 10 miles, and I’d cycled to the pub and back on Friday. Annie I think had also clocked up a few miles. So all feeling confident and well prepared!
We arrived into sunny Whitehaven around 10.00am, dipped our tyres in the sea, took some obligatory photos and set off on the C2C bike path. Almost immediately, Sue discovered her bike was broken – the back fork had rusted through completely – nightmare!! It was quickly taped up and we were back under way. Then I had a puncture, so after a quick replacement inner tube, we broke a match (to complete the run of 3 things, superstitiously speaking) and tried again. We had completed 2.5 miles in around 30 minutes – excellent!!
We followed the path climbing up through Cleator Moor, Kirkland, Lamplugh, Loweswater and High Lorton (great views along the way), and past Derwent Water to Keswick for a lovely and soup and sandwich lunch at the Theatre Café. After an hour or so, we were back on the path heading towards Annie’s place at Greystoke, where she runs Quirky workshops and a cycle café – What a brilliant place to have a hot drink and a flapjack! We still had over an hour of light, so we pushed on towards Gamblesby, a mere 63 miles from the start.
