Ive arrived in Whitehaven on time after an uneventful but rainy train journey. The west side of the country looks a bit bleak here, Maryport Aspatria and Workington to name a few towns that seem to have suffered most in the loss of industries over the decades. It was quite nice to see the Irish Sea as we travelled right on the shoreline for some time. I thought I could see Isle of Man through the mist, certainly it was land out at sea, don't think it could have been the other side of the Solway Firth as we were too far down Cumbria. Out for some green salad and then Pasta tonight in Casa Roma. Billy no mates on a table for one! Must eat.
I slept well and enjoyed a nice breakfast of porridge followed by scrambled egg. Just enough to keep me on the move until lunchtime. I had a lazy start and left just after 9am. Immediately there was a climb into Alston town centre and its quaint cobblestones. It would have been a bustling market town when its lead and coal mines were open but now there is scarce employment. Everyone is working in a shop or on a farm it seems. Plenty of early climbs towards Nenthead were not too unpleasant in sunshine and a very strong 25mph wind generally assisting from the west. Some glorious downhillers followed, the first three hours being taken up by climbing for an eternity at 5mph then doing 40mph on the downers for about 2 minutes, knowing you'd only have to climb back up. By Rookhope there was an off road 9ml "shortcut" to Parkhead but after 500 yards I had to give up on it and return to the roads as it was just impassible because of a very poor surface of mud ...
On Friday, I take the short 12 mile cycle to Central Station and catch the 15:13 train to Carlisle then onto a connection to Whitehaven to begin a tough weekend of training for the new cycle season. Solo of course, I must like my own company after all these years. It will be C2C No. 5 for me I think, I remember the very first, which was the longest ride I'd done at that time about 11 years ago, when I was just getting back into cycling. I still have a photo on the beach at Tynemouth (shown below) as I completed the 140 miles over three days with stops at Langwathby and Stanhope. I looked a bit younger and a lot lighter then. The weather recently has been very severe with gale force winds and torrential rain, this after a beautiful sunny February so I'm hoping it stays dry and if there are winds that they blow from the west. This year's intention is to complete in two days as work always infringes on having fun :-) Day one on Saturday should star...
Comments
Post a Comment