BIG BEAR BIKES: Coast to Coast - 24th September 2011

Myself and Jimmy left Malton at 5:30 with our support crew (Ade & Sam) and headed west to Morecambe. We decided to drive the route we'd be riding to check out the hills, the section I was least looking forward to was between Skipton and Harrogate, looked like some killer climbs in this section. As we pulled into Lancaster the rain started.. We continued through Lancaster into Morecambe, we were here. We decided that it would be sensible to get geared up in Morrisons toilets, rather than stand outside in the rain. One we had got our stuff together we took the bikes off of the pickup and peddled towards the start point.

Morecambe - West Coast

As you can probably tell from the picture, the weather wasn't great, but after a quick picture and a quick chat to some other guys planning to do the route over 2 days (they thought we were crazy?) we set off. Heading through Morecambe and Lancaster and onto the A683, Before we knew it, we had reached Farleton where we dived off onto a smaller B road, which had plenty of ups and downs, and an unusual amount of HGV's tying to squeeze past us. The rain had stopped now, and we were starting to push on, before we knew it we'd been riding for an hour and managed nearly 19 miles. We joined onto the A65 Just before Clapham and hit a headwind which slowed us down quite significantly. Then soon after, the rain started again... By this point the map board on my handlebars was rattling rather a lot, and starting to really get on our nerves. As the clock ticked over to 2 hours riding we spotted the support crew (my dad & Sam) pulled up in Mearsbeck. We stopped to have a bite to eat and removed the map board.

We headed off towards the hills, again in the rain, we soon hit Gargrave, where the sun was shining, it felt good to be out on the bike in the Sun with the wind behind us, the sun stayed with us all the way to Skipton where it disappeared just as we hit the long draggy climb. 2 long miles of steep uphill, Our speed must have dropped to about 5 mph up that particular hill. We resisted the temptation to stop at the cafe at the top and pushed on towards Blubberhouses. The decent before Fewston reservoir was really enjoyable, tight twisty corners and no traffic heading westbound, we had the whole road to ourselves so we really used it. We were due to meet our support crew shortly and we were really hoping that they hadn't parked in the car park at the bottom of the steep climb, because food before a big climb is not good. They weren't in the car park, so we continued on up the hill to the lay-by where Dad and sam were sat. After a quick bite to eat and the removal of the leggings, we headed on to Harrogate, knowing that we'd done the majority of the climbing, and we were shocked that they weren't as bad as we had perviously thought...

We hit Kettlesing bottom which marked halfway, the sun was shining and the sky was clear, looking into the distance we could see Dalby Forest on the horizon, It was a massive kick knowing that we had crossed the halfway mark and we could almost see the end... We hit Harrogate doing 50mph (downhill of course) then we hit traffic, loads of traffic. We weaved our way through the traffic and out of harrogate onto the A59. We set off at speed pushing around 30 mph for the first 5 or 6 miles, but then we were slowed significantly by our necks, Jimmy had it worse than me, but our necks were absolutely killing, we soldiered on, we had to do nothing was going to stop us. A tractor passed us, which was a massive help, we were able to sit behind the tractor and use its slipstream to pull us along at a good speed for about 5 miles. York was getting closer by the minute. Sat in the Lay-by at Nether Poppleton, was our support team, and Cameron, who joined on from there. We sent Dad and Sam to Tescos for some pain killers and continued on until they caught us up.

We ploughed on, onto the A64 and made it to Thompsons before Dad & Sam caught us, we stopped off for some food, and pain killers. Then continued on the A64 drugged up and pain free, the A64 was fast until we hit Whitwell, which was a slow climb up the hill, well for me and Jimmy anyway, Cam's fresh legs meant he flew up the hill. The top of the hill marked 100 miles. Which meant only 30 to go..

Tramping on down the A64

It didn't feel like we'd been going long before we stopped again for the last checkpoint in Malton, Sam Joined on here, and it was a great feeling knowing that Scarborough was only 25 miles away, we'd be there in the next 2 hours, after a quick banana we headed through Malton and out onto the A169.

Leaving Malton

Sam ready to join the ride - Standing with the Support Vehicle

The miles were soon dropping off, and before we knew it, we were climbing up the two hills into the back of scarborough, a MTB'er passed us up the hill and asked where'd we'd come from, he didn't believe us when we said we'd set off from Morecambe at ten to 9 that morning, he disappeared off up the hill and left us to battle on, Cam had also disappeared off with his fresh legs. We re-grouped and headed to the sea front. We'd made it. We decided that it would be a laugh to ride along the sand, and we got plenty of strange looks from everyone on the beach, well it's not every day that you see someone in full lycra riding along the beach on a road bike.. It was an amazing feeling finally reaching the end of our Journey from the West coast.

We met up with everyone who had come to meet us at the end, and headed back to the beach for some photos and we had a little competition - who could ride the furthest in the dry sand. Jimmy and I made it to the wet sand, but cameron ended up rolling around in the sand...