Coast to Coast

Well we made it!! We saw the sea on one side of the country and then saw it again on the other side! We made it in one piece too! I have no back brake left on my bike and had to take the final, very steep hill into Sandsend with extreme caution, but apart from that – all good!. I’m not sure that I can really put into words what an epic and brilliant experience it was. It was definitely one of the best things that I have ever done. It was so worth all those hard, muscle killing training rides in the snow, wind & rain (and all the tears at the top of particularly tough climbs when I thought I couldn’t do it anymore!!) I would so do it all again – like a shot! It was actually a bit of a come-down on the Monday morning when we no longer had to kit up & get on the bikes. We had been training and working towards this weekend for so long & it was such a fab three days that I was quite sorry when it was all over.

The first day (Friday) started early in the morning as we set off from Rob’s parents to Grange over Sands. When we arrived it wasn’t long before the heavy rain started, and that was pretty much the theme of the weekend. I have never ridden in such constant and torrential rain as we did on that day. We had to lift our bikes over trees knocked down by the weather, we rode through flooded roads and tracks. Near the end of the ride for that day, we passed over a bridge where the water from the river had flooded it, a van was coming towards us and created such a ‘wash’ that was very hard to pedal through. Five minutes after passing the road was closed as it was deemed too dangerous. It was a long, hard ride with lots of climb, but I really felt that the adverse weather had really bonded the group together. That evening we dried everything out on radiators in the youth hostel and went to the pub next door to get warm in front of the open fire! The next day was more miles (just under 60) but less climb and fortunately less rain! Rob’s parents brought the girls to see us at the lunch stop and it was a great boost to see them, and some other friends who came to offer us their support. The final day was a number of hard climbs, rocky hills, icy rain & muddy fields as we made our way over the North Yorkshire Moors and down the other side into Sandsend near Whitby.

The people that we met were absolutely fantastic, the banter and laughter really made the whole thing a wonderful and unforgettable experience. The Purple Mountain Crew and the guides were absolutely brilliant and we had nothing to worry about excepct to ride the ride. We spent the Sunday night in a spa hotel & had a lovely meal, speeches and dancing – the perfect finish to a totally awesome weekend! All the training definitely paid off and I found that I was able to enjoy the riding. We made lots of good friends and I really hope that I see them again for more riding! It’s great that I got to do it with Rob too, spending that time together was great & now we have that experience in common, if just one of us had done it, it would be hard to look back and reminisce about all the fun times! I would definitely do it again, show me where to sign up!!....