Comments for The Epic Cycle Ride

Comment on 17th September by Helen's old Grandpa

Helen's old Grandpa — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:06:23 +0000

Route/mileage check;
We don’t know how their mileage split between these 2 days or where they stayed on the night of the 15th Sep.
From Shrewsbury, where they stayed on the night of the 14th Sep to Bristol is about 100 miles by the CTC recommended route but a bit less by the A49.
We shall have to wait until they are home to fill in this bit of the journey

Comment on 15th September by Helen's old Grandpa

Helen's old Grandpa — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:53:19 +0000

Mileage/route check for two extraordinary days.
13 Sep; total 96 miles made up as follows;
From Dalston via B5299 & B5305 back to the A6 just north of Penrith, 16 miles.
Over Shap on the A6 to Kendal, 26 miles
A65, A6070 & A6 to Carnforth, 28 miles
A6 to Lancaster, 12 miles
A6 to somewhere near Barton where I guess they camped, 14 miles
14 Sep; total 85 miles made up as follows;
Barton to Warrington on the A6, 34 miles
A49, B5476 & A528 to Shrewsbury, 51 miles

Comment on 17th September by Keith

Keith — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:00:53 +0000

Well done to you all. So sorry to hear of the knee problem. At last you have reached an area of decent BEER and CIDER!!!Enjoy!…..but sensibly DOH!!

Comment on 13th September by Helen's old Grandpa

Helen's old Grandpa — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 12:12:10 +0000

I think I owe Callan an apology for taking up so much space on his blog. I have enjoyed cycling in my day and am taking much vicarious pleasure in following the route and the fortunes of the five of you.
It seems that the Metcheck forecast for 11 Sep was correct unfortunately
To continue my route/mileage record;
11th Sep total 55m made up of;
Saltcoats via B714, A738 and A737 to Irvine, 14m
A71 and B7081 to Kilmarnock, 16m
A735 and A76 via Mauchline Cumnock and Kirkconnel to somewhere near Sanquhar, where I think they musy have camped, 25m
12th Sep total 80m made up of;
Sanquhar on the A76 to Dumfries,32m
A75 to Gretna, 26m
A6071 to Longtown, 6m
A7 to Carlisle 10m
A595 and B5299 to Dalston, 6m
I suspect that today, 13th Sep they will return to the A6 before Penrith, otherwise they will be into the hilly Lake District.
Between Penrith and Kendall they have to surmount the summit of Shap, which is around 100ft.
Lets hope they have good weather and a following wind for that.
Kind regards
Peter A

Comment on 10th September by Helen's old Grandpa

Helen's old Grandpa — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:54:31 +0000

Here is another update on my daily route/mileage check. They were at Barcaldine and I thought that they would make for Loch Lomond but they continued on the A828, cleverly avoiding the hills by taking the ferry.
Monday 8th Sep Total 38m made up of;
Barcaldine via A828 to Connel, 3m
A85 to Taynuilt, 7m
A85 to Stronmilchan, 13m
A819 to Inverary, 15m
Tuesday 9th Sep was their rest day
Wednesday 10th Sep Total 64m made up of;
Barcaldine to Ardbeg via A83 and A815, 24m
A815 to Dunoon/Gourock, 6m
A770 to A78, 6m
A78 to Skelmorlie, 7m
A78 to Largs, 6m
Largs to Saltcoats, 15m.
I guess that today, the 11th Sep, they are making for Kilmarnock and then taking the road to Dumfries. If they make it to there they will have done about 75 miles. I have had a look at Metcheck and the forecast for Kilmarnock, is that it will be raining and they will have a 10mph headwind to contend with.
So far they have done 366 miles; more than a third of the way; not bad on a wonky knee I say.
For 7 days they have averaged 52 miles per day.
The weather from Friday onward is forecast to improve.
Peter A

Comment on 10th September by Emma

Emma — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:08:40 +0000

tell them to ‘man up’
If they go through Oban, let me know!!!

Comment on 8th September: Doom and Gloom by Ben

Ben — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:07:32 +0000

Just to save you the effort of deliberatly pointing out you didnt say it, i did tell them they were crazy. im sad that i may (for the first and most likely only time) be right

Comment on 10pm by Helen's old Grandpa

Helen's old Grandpa — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:58:28 +0000

To continue my mileage check.
Sunday 7th Sep; Total 71m made up of
Ft Augustus to Ft William via A82, 31m
Ft William to Ballachulish via A82, 12m
Ballachulish to Barcaldine via A 828, 28m.
Tomorrow they have to get through some pretty high passes to reach the flatter land around Loch Lomond and the Clyde.
I have found the best way to follow them is to go to Google maps, type in the town where they are and then switch between the ‘Map’ and ‘Terrain’ tabs to see both roads and the passes through which they must go.
Kind regards
Peter A

Comment on 10pm by Claire

Claire — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:24:29 +0000

Peter; thank you for those, I can’t remember how many miles they were hoping to do per day! I’m afraid I don’t know their route either, mostly because I don’t think they themselves had planned it!

Comment on 10pm by Helen's old Grandpa

Helen's old Grandpa — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:48:25 +0000

I have been trying to follow progress on a map.
Their daily mileage seems to be like this;
Thursday 4th Sep; Total 58m made up of
Thurso to JoG via A386, 20m
JoG to Dunbeath via A99 & A9, 38m
Friday 5th Sep; Total 47m
Dunbeath to Dornoch via A9, 47m
Saturday 6th Sep; Total 79m made up of
Dornoch to Shoreton via A9, 30m
Shoreton to the A833 via A862, 17m
On the A833 to Drumnadrochit, 12m
Drumnadrochit to Ft Augustus via A82, 20m
Mileages are all map mileages and make no allowance for detours.
Route is assumed; I know no more than is given in the blog.
Many thanks to Claire for keeping us all informed
Kind regards
Peter A