Never Say Never Again is the title of the rather poor Sean Connery remake of his earlier James Bond film, Thunderball. I've been a Bond fan for as long as I can remember, my Tour de 007 DB5 collection being just the tip of the iceberg of the memorabilia I have collected over the years. I even have a rose in my garden called 'For Your Eyes Only'!
Following my recent trip north to Cumbria, "never say never .." took on another meaning, one concerning my other love; that of cycling. Contrary to my talk of 'never again' in my Tour de Fitness blog 'Why Bother With Sportives', I somehow found myself signing up for the inaugural Cross Boarder Sportive - The Raid, on the Sunday following the Tour of Britain, ahead of my return home to Devon. The Raid was a 50 mile route starting and finishing at Lanercost Priory, north of Brampton and crossing briefly into Scotland. The longer 80 mile route, called The Invasion, completed an additional 30 mile circuit further into Scotland following the first food stop.
I had tentatively signed up for the 50 miler so that, should I still be up north, I could be back in time for lunch. Also, as I have said many a time, having such a short attention span, I find much more than 60 miles a bit dull!
A short video of the first 30 miles
What made this ride far from dull, was the company I had for the first 30 miles. I was fortunate to join up with two local cyclists who earlier this year had ridden the London to Paris and had planned their arrival to coincide with the conclusion of the Tour de France .. what an experience! One of the guys was having a hard time with the Cumbrian hills, so it was far from a quick ride, but what pleased me most was how we each stuck and pulled together. At the 30 mile point, the first food stop, my road went south and theirs, they doing the 80 miler, headed back into Scotland. I was impressed with how the struggling guy pushing on although feeling I had at least the additional distance left in my legs, lunch back in Brampton beckoned, so I bid farewell and started out alone on the final leg of my ride.
For the next 20 miles, as per my more my usual sportive experience, I saw not one other rider until I was in sight of the finish line! While it was not a fast ride, I did complete in position 20/130 overall and 5/38 in my age category. This was a very informal well organised event. The roads were very quiet and for much of the route it even felt like a closed road event. Would I do it again? "Never say never .."!
I was up in the north, near Carlisle, last week visiting my folks where, coincidentally, the Tour of Britain made an appearance not once but twice!
My first experience of Tour was in 2009 when I saw from my office window, the riders stream past on their way from Hatherleigh to Yeovil. In this year, a now very familiar Team Sky rider, Ben Swift riding for Team Katusha, won the stage, the British Champion Kristian House riding for Rapha-Condor, now a regular pundit on ITV4, led the breakaway through Seaton and Edvald Boasson Hagen, riding for Barloworld, was the overall winner. It is hard to believe now, being 4 years before catching the cycling bug, that this event meant so little to me, it was only the mass of colour passing before my peripheral vision that made me take note!
Tour of Britain 2009 Stage 7 - Seaton
www.alexmoorehead.com
Kristian House - 2009 Stage 7 - Seaton
www.alexmoorehead.com
I was thrilled to be able to catch the Tour of Britain again in 2013 when it came through Sidmouth, something my long term readers will remember from my post on Day 200. Last year, I took a late holiday in Scotland and went Cycling on Mull during the Tour, so missed it coming through Exeter and across Dartmoor. This year, Devon have the Rugby World Cup and so declined to bid for the Tour again which meant the closest it was going to come to the South West would be Stoke! It was therefore the perfect combination of having time on my hands, due to my sabbatical and already having plans to visit my parents in Cumbria that gave me the opportunity last week to be a real ToB groupie!
It all kicked off on the Tuesday with Stage 3, Cockermouth to Floors Castle, and a 30 mile cycle over to see the sprint finish through Carlisle. I was one of the first to roll up so had a great view. I also attracted interest from the local press and received a full column write-up in the following day's newspaper!
2015 Stage 3 - Carlisle Sprint Finish
Stage 5, on Thursday, Prudhoe to Hartside Fell, came though Brampton along Hardian's Wall and concluded with a final climb of eight kilometres to the summit finish on Hartside Fell above Penrith in the Eden District. My plan was to catch the riders at both these locations, with Brampton being a short distance from my folks and by taking a more direct route up Hartside, riding with my old Rock 2 Roll CC mates, I would be able to beat the pro riders to the finish, they having to do a spin out to Ullswater first!
Tour of Britain Winner Edvald Boasson Hagen - Stage 5 - Brampton
Kristian House - Stage 5 - Hartside Fell
In the above picture of Kristian House, you'll have to believe me that Bradley Wiggins is in this group, behind and to the left. He must have seen me coming as in every one of my shots he is obscured by other riders or I just manage to get the back of his head!
It was an amazing day, great views, great weather and some great cycling. I've recently got back into my GoPro, so here too is a little video of the ride from Brampton up to Hartside Fell ..
... and this was the route.
Finally a couple more coincidences. The 2015 Tour celebrated the first double winner since it was relaunched in 2004, this was Edvald Boasson Hagen, the cyclist who last won it in 2009 when the event was first to appear in my 'peripheral vision'. The second co-incidence is that Kristian House was also riding on this Tour, just as he did back in 2009 .. as evidenced by my shot on Hartside and Alex Moorhead's photo from Seaton.
Postscript:
If interested, you can check out a few more photos from the Tour of Britain in my Flickr album.
Today is the start of week 3 of my Sabbatical and as planned, I'm still up north with my parents. What was not, however, planned was for my dad to be now battling with complications following a routine hip replacement! Those out there with family members requiring acute medical attention will know how much time is spent travelling, waiting and sat by loved one's beds, such that it is important to find a balanced routine to ensure some sense of normalance is preserved. For us, we seem to be settling on the evening run to the hospital, which means that this morning, with the weather behaving, I was able to saddle up for a ride.
I should, on reflection have gone further than I did, but my legs felt very heavy and drizzle had started to fill the air as I completed my planned circuit; the one I spoke about and should have done yesterday, 'In the Steps of Hadrian'. This is a really enjoyable circuit, reminiscent of my Honiton Golf Club run back home; a little less climbing overall but it still has a couple of hilly moments to keep things interesting. I head out of Brampton along The Swartle, a 5km faux plat climb out to Lanercost Priory. From here the road rises steeply, at first reaching 11% and then levelling out for a lumpy raised ride alongside Hadrian's Wall. Panoramic views from here are excellent. I see very few cyclists on this road but plenty of walkers, some laden with waterproofed back packs, others in tee-shirts having just stepped off their air-conditioned coaches.
As the wall disappears into the distance, the road makes a sharp turn to the left and drops away to meet up with the B6318. It is here that my route turns west, marking both the top of the circuit and the completion of the main climbs. From here the road gently undulates into the village of Walton, across the single traffic light controlled bridge over the River Irthing, before taking a gentle 3% climb back into Brampton. At 30 km this is near enough an hour circuit and perfect for a quick leg spin when time it tight, as it is for me at the moment. I'm sure it will be revisited again soon!
This week I have travelled 350 miles north to the Boarders, where the English county of Cumbria meets Scotland along a line drawn by the Roman emperor, Hadrian in 122 AD. The purpose of my visit is not to cycle, so I have not got in any where near the miles of last week's cycling fest, but I have brought my Tarmac with me so, where possible, I have and will continue to take advantage of every opportunity. The weather has, however, deteriorated as the days have passed such that Saturday's Rock & Roll CC ride couldn't run due to high winds, and even golfers playing in the Open Championship at St Andrews had to down clubs when 40mph gusts of wind suspended play!
Last Week's AVP Leaders' Table
I've managed a couple of rides this week, totalling 41 miles. Although 20 short of my weekly target, as last week I did over 3 weeks' distance, I can afford this time for 'recovery'. My last ride of the week was along the Wall, taking in the great views of the rolling countryside and amazing historical Roman sites of mile castles, forts and of course the wall itself.
Views from along the Wall ending with Hadrian himself
I normally like to do a full circuit, hating to retrace my own steps but without a map and with no sense of direction, I chose the simple route of cycling 10 miles and then making a u-turn to retrace my steps. I've seen since returning, that I could have continued all the way to Walton from where I know my homeward route, so weather and time permitting, I'll have a go at this next week.
63 days until the RideLondon and just 14 days until the Dartmoor Classic, the training continues. I am not sure, however, how much of this is 'training' and how much is just having fun on the bike! I'm sure training should be something planned and linked to a schedule, while I'm just grabbing any opportunity for a cycle. That aside, I'm sure even my unscheduled rides, up hills, down dales and across the moors, is good enough training for my humble couple of sportives.
May was a good month for opportunistic cycling and I'm hoping June will be similar. This week started strongly with me getting back into my pre breakfast rides. Thursday would have been my regular AVP evening saunter but an appointment with my 'stone consultant' brought forward my long weekend visit to see my parents up in Cumbria. As you will have seen my new Yeti now offers me the opportunity to take my cyciling wherever I travel and so this is just what happened.
I made good time over the 360 mile drive north such that I managed a very pleasant 12 mile spin around the Cumbrian lanes. I neglected to mention, however, that I somehow picked up a metatarsal injury earlier in the week and reached a peak of pain that warranted support strapping and anti inflammatory treatment to get me through the ride. It is amazing the wealth of self treatments available for sports injuries these days.
The true substitute for my Thursday evening club circuit was to be a ride out with the local Cumbrian cycling club, Rock to Roll Cycling, centred on the cycle shop of the same name. I met the owner, Rob, last year over a winter glove purchase and was now looking forward to catching up with him again and what better way, than over a 30 mile ride. I was, however, worried that my foot would let me down, so squeezed in another afternoon cycle, this time covering the southern area down and through Castle Carrock. It was so warm and beautiful that I pretty much forgot my foot as I covered those 15 miles quickly across smooth empty roads, quite different from my narrow bumpy Devon lanes. My melange of self treatments was working well and I felt good for the Saturday R2RC ride.
I met Rob at the cycle shop for 08:45. He's such a nice guy, I'd previously mentioned that my gears had been a little noisy of late and he popped the bike into his workshop, a few tweaks later it was as good as new. We were then joined by another 3 riders all decked out the black, yellow and white kit of the R2RC, they looked very professional. Rob had already worked out a route, a 30 mile ride east to Haltwistle, so on the dot of 09:00 we rode out with me the obvious visitor in my yellow AVP colours.
The going was easier than on my Devon circuits, the hills were much gentler and rarely required me to drop into the low gear to complete the climbs. I do think, however, that the route was weighted in this way as some of the down hill drops were quite steep, one of which got the better of me as I ended up being thrown into a bank of nettles and shredding my handle bar tape. While the rest of damage to the bike looks to be just cosmetic, I was still disappointed and annoyed to have been so badly caught out. As for myself, I'm not sure what hurts more, the nettle stings or my wounded pride.
The ride was otherwise highly ejoyable. The company of the other cyclists entertaining and the long quiet wide roads and beautiful rolling scenery made up for the lack of a coffee and cake stop .. although if this was a regular ride for me, I think I would have worked on that.
What struck me most about my first foray into Cumbrian cycling, is how two wheel friendly the roads and drivers seem to be. There are cycle routes a plenty and we even came across a mass of riders taking part in the Haydon Hundred, luckily coming in the opposite direction, and all of which offered a friendly wave or acknowledgement. To then top it all, back at the shop at the end of the ride, I was humbled when Rob produced two rolls of bar tape to replace that which I'd damaged, such a nice guy. I would have had a go at fitting it had the heavens not opened as soon as I'd given the bike a quick post ride clean; we were so lucky to have had such a dry ride.
