C2C Introduction

In January of 2012, I decided I was going to attempt the C2C Cycle Challenge.

Initially I was going to do it myself and as a personal challenge but decided to do it for a charity - and soon after decided to invite a friend along. In the end there were 3 of us - myself (Billy Riley), Andy McIntyre and Davey Blackmore. There was meant to be a fourth member (Grant Boardman) but he had asthma and was advised not to make the journey.

This blog will hopefully give an insight into what to expect along with (hopefully) some useful information. It will not be incredibly detailed as I have a short term memory issue - but I'll try and recall as many events and information on the trip as I can.

I'll be updating this shortly. We did it in 3 days so there will be 3 parts. We did the trip from Whitehaven to Tynemouth. It's generally regarded that the wind will be in your favour (West to East).

Some general info before I crack on writing about the days individually.

Type of Bike
First, I did it on a road bike. I have a Cube Peleton Cmpt. I bought this bike from a local sports shop in Colchester called 53-12. They are advertised as Triathlon as they sell running gear, swimming gear and cycling gear. They are a very helpful and friendly bunch and if you need some kit for your sport - I'm sure they'd help.

You can find 53-12 website here http://www.53-12.com/

It's a great road bike. Before I bought this bike, I was in two minds on whether to get a road bike or a hybrid. However, in the end it was an easy decision - ALL my daily riding (and I mean 100%) is done on the road. So a road bike it was.

Now, I had concerns about the trip with this bike and looked around the internet. I found one blog on the C2C site here http://www.c2c-guide.co.uk/road-v-hybrid/ which basically said - yeah, road bikes can do it. Both the friends who came with me had hard tail mountain bikes. I have to say, there was only one extremely uncomfortable section, and that was the route out of Keswick. Most of the rest of the journey was absolutely fine and indeed very comfortable...and you can get some fantastic speed on the downhill sections on tarmac. Coming off Hartside, I was doing over 40mph.

Also, I purchased some self sealing inner tubes and some Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres. Although they were 25-622 (28x1 700x25c), they only just fitted my bike with very little clearance with the frame. So before getting them, check to see if they'll fit with your local store. I didn't get a puncture so cannot rate the inner tubes. I guess on a road bike and not getting a puncture may tell a positive story about the tyres. I passed by many many people repairing punctures.

Also regarding road bikes - obviously I have no idea on what route all the different people we saw took, but there were plenty of people on road bikes. I'd have to say 50/50 in the people we passed.

Special Equipment I Used
Required or otherwise, this is the equipment I took

C2C Cycle Route Map. A very valuable piece of kit for first timers at least. Not quite as accurate as perhaps it should be (for example the Whinlatter Pass shows the start of the climb and the end of the climb as being less than a mile when in fact Whinlatter climb (according to The Ultimate C2C Guide book) is 3.7 miles. The map shows the very steep part as less than a mile though - and perhaps that's the case - though we found it all very draining! The whole climb (which I would rate as steep and very steep) is apparently 3.7 miles.

The Ultimate C2C Guide. A great little book detailing the route and with fairly detailed maps and info. Also lots of information about places to stay, attractions, bike shops/facilities. This book is split into 5 days which makes the trip easily manageable.

The C2C Android App. This was a fantastic app - and whilst my pals laughed at how often I looked down at it and called them back, they can't deny it saved us a VERY costly mistake out of Braithwaite where we were heading towards Cockermouth (watch it at Braithwaite - there's NO SIGN telling you to turn right down a small road before the pub!) as opposed to Keswick and then later on stopped us heading to Appleby instead of Langwathby. I had read some of the reviews of the app where people suggested it crashed often. Basically I download and cached the locations on our route before going and it never crashed once on me.

I would say it could've been somewhat less confusing at times - you'll get to junctions on it and it's not entirely apparent which way you are menat to go. This is mainly because the app is showing the whole of the National Cycle Network on a map - so there are places where another route will connect with yours.

The app could do with being refined - more info on upcoming hills, the ability to download and cache ONLY the route you want (C2C should ONLY show me the C2C routes). But the app is free and like I said, it saved our arses a few times. Caching the route is a slight pain for two reasons...if you want to go to detail level 6 (very detailed street view) then you can only do relatively small sections at a time...and also they take quite some time to download.

To download and cache the route zoom in and then select the option to cache visible area...this will only be enabled if you have zoomed in enough (made a shorter visible area). If the area you are viewing is too large, you either have to change the detail level of the map (from 6 to 5 say) or zoom in a bit more until you have a manageable area. Like I said, the app is a little awkward, but still very useful.

Get it - but make sure you cache the route before you go!

Portable Battery. I bought this to charge my phone as I travelled - so I could use the C2C navigation app mentioned above and google maps occasionally. It was great. I basically plugged my phone into this and it kept my phone charged all day. When it had ran out, my phone still had a considerable amount of charge left to get me to the end.

Tigra Bike Console. I got mine from CycleWiz and it was fantastic. Because I planned on using my mapping software, I needed something that would allow me to touch the screen but keep it waterproof. I have to say, my Galaxy SII was as sensitive to touch as it was outside this unit - and it was VERY waterproof. Our second day it did nothing but rain and there was no water inside the unit! Beware though - you will likely need to use fingerless gloves.

Well worth the money if you plan to use your phone on the move.

General Equipment
Apart from the special stuff I purchased, the obvious things to take are a puncture repair kit, the correct allen keys/spanner mix for your bike, a pump and a water bottle. I took two water bottles as we were doing 50 miles a day.

One last thing - before you do the ride - don't forget as we did that if you are booked into a hotel in Newcastle that you will have to cycle the last 9 miles back into Newcastle. When we realised this, we were rather deflated...we just needed a shower and a beer!

I think that's all on the general information front.

I'd just like to add a massive thank you to everyone who had donated to St Helena's Hospice on my Just Giving page.

On top of that, I'd like to thank my partners in crime on the journey - Andy McIntyre and Davey Blackmore. They kept spirits up (especially a very difficult second day) and made the journey a journey to remember. Great trip lads.