The C2C cycle route was officially opened in 1994 and originally ran from Whitehaven to Sunderland a distance of about 140 miles, there are now slight variations to the start and finish but the basic idea remains the same. In 2005 The Walney to Wear (W2W) ride was opened which is a tougher alternative. I`ve done three C2C rides now, in 3 days, 2 days and 1 day and this page is their story.

The Coast to Coast 2 day solo crossing August 1996 

  I done this ride at very short notice, a 2 day strike had been called at the end of the week at work, so i booked a rail ticket praying that the strike wouldn’t be called off! I Travelled over to Whitehaven direct on the train with the bike and stopped at Lismore guest house the night before. I Left Whitehaven about 9.00am the next morning arriving at Alston about 7.00pm, (82 miles). The next morning i Left Alston about 9.00am arriving in Sunderland 4.00pm (70 miles).

The Coast to Coast 3 day family and friends crossing June 2010

In June a group of 8 family and friends got the train over to Whitehaven and stayed at the Lismore guesthouse , which i was surprised to find out was the same place i had used 14 years earlier. Because of our large group size we were unable to take our bikes with us on the train journey over to Whitehaven. To solve this problem Brian with Judith had earlier in the day transported all the bikes over to Whitehaven in his van and then drove back again to Sunderland, all in time to get the train back over to Whitehaven again – a good effort! We got an early start the next day and headed into Whiehaven Harbour to dip the wheels in the Irish Sea before off heading for Greystoke- about 50 miles away, passing through Loweswater, Whinlatter Forrest, Keswick and Threlkeld on the way. We stayed at a very comfortable farmhouse style b&b called Brathen and had our evening meal in the nearby pub “The Boot and Shoe”.

The next morning we set off in brilliant sunshine for Allenheads only 40 miles away but had several tough climbs along the way including Hartside Pass and the climb just after Garrigill on the way to Nenthead and also the steep pull out of Nenthead before the final long swoop down into Allenheads. We stopped that night at the Allenheads Inn and had our meal there. The next morning we set off on the 45 mile ride to Sunderland, we barely had time to digest our breakfast before being faced with the steep climb out of Allenheads on the road to Rookhope, it was at Rookhope that our group unintentionally split up, some took the off-road section up the old railway incline to later join the Waskerley way, while me and Angus missed the turn off and made our way down to Stanhope on the left hand fork just after Rookhope, this was a lovely quiet road but long and steep and at Stanhope we were faced with the tough climb up Crawleyside Bank, it was here that Angus disgraced himself by mysteriously disappearing near the bottom of the climb and was then spotted at the top of the climb getting himself AND his bike out of the post van … we have the photos Angus!  We all eventually met up again at the Parkhead Station Cafe on the Waskerley Way and with all the climbs behind us it was a fast blast along the old railway paths past Consett and into Sunderland, however disaster nearly struck within sight of the finish when Judith crashed into one of the large wooden sculptures near the National Glass Museum, fortunately she and the bike were both ok.

The Coast to Coast in a Day June 2012

A great event organised by Open Cycling and involved cycling from Seascale on the Irish Sea coast to Whitby on the North Sea coast in a single day, a distance of 150 miles. To get round the logistics of starting on one side of the country and finishing on the other the organisers had a central meeting point for the riders at Penrith Rugby Club early Friday evening. Here we boxed our bikes up in cardboard boxes and they were then transported in a truck to the start at Seascale, the riders followed in a coach. We camped at Seascale that night and very early on Saturday morning we set off riding and when we eventually reached Whitby much later that day we boxed up the bikes and our tents were there ready to camp again. Then on Sunday morning a coach took us all back to our cars at Penrith.

On the coach ride over to Seascale i got chatting to the guy sitting next to me called Mark and we agreed to ride together and see how it went and we actually ended up doing the whole ride together, i more or less sat on his back wheel all the way though as he was a lot quicker than me and i ended up doing a reasonable time as a result. It’s a great route passing through three National Parks on the way. Firstly the Lake District including the tough climbs up Hardknot and Wrynose passes and a ferry crossing of Lake Windermere, then onto the Yorkshire Dales mainly along the valleys and finally the undulating North York Moors before dropping down to Whitby 10 hours and 48 minutes after leaving Seascale. The organisers of this event have come up with another similar event which looks even tougher and called it  Wales in a Day