RR The Hartside 200 DIY Perm (long)

I couldn't be bothered to drive so far to the start for The Hartside last year so was little disappointed to find it clashed with Spurn Head the 400km event of the West Yorks. SR series. So, I decided to design a DIY perm to replicate the route of The Hartside. Things worked out well and we could find controls at appropriate places to allow us to use the route ***. Four of us agreed to do it on June 10th.

We rendezvoused at Barton Truckstop on the A1(M), I didn't like the look of the parking, nor, the cost so I drive back to Richmond, parked there are cycled the 12km back to Barton to meet the other two who were riding a tandem,

Of we go on time at 9am, the tandem soon sped away from us but since it's a hilly ride I expected we'd be pretty much together in the hills, I knew they didn't climb very well. First control at Scorton after about 12km, the post office gave us a stamp then we turned to head west towards Richmond and Swaledale. It was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures of 28 degrees Celsius forecast, it was already quite warm. We caught the tandem in Richmond and exchanged places all the way up Swaledale, they nearly took a wrong turn to Stonesdale and Tan Hill but I kept them right. I'd not been beyond this point since my first coast to coast ride about 20 years ago, it is a beautiful route, I remember it being very tough but I am much stronger now. We climbed over Birkdale Common pretty much all together, I was going easy, not wishing to get too far ahead, perhaps the others were allowing me my head !! We had the wind behind us and made easy work of the hills. I remember the descent as a very, very fast one, it still is, another cyclist was walking up towards us as we flew past, I had my brakes on for most of the way but still my computer registered 79.8kph, with several blind summits it was difficult to see which way the road went until the last moment. Down to Nateby for control and lunch in Kirkby Stephen. We lingered here for an hour, chatting and taking it easy. It was very hot outside and I was glad to be out of the sun for the hottest part of the day.

The tandem pushed on while we made a quick supermarket stop for another drink, we caught them quite quickly, quicker than I though, we had the wind behind us still and the road could be described as choppy. The next control was Appleby, the traffic as we approached was horrendous. We learned that The Horsefair was on and as we passed the river say many horses in the water, some with riders some without. The town was amassed with horses and riders and spectators holding up the traffic. We carefully picked our way through and came to a very busy area and a closed road. The policemen told me that it was passable by bike but he advised us to walk, "you may have to get out of the way quickly" he said. We could see no alternative on the map. We soon understood why he tended the advice. The road was being use for trotting, charging more like. I don't know if these people were showing off or test driving the horses but they'd race up the road in both directions in a trotting cart. The pedestrians didn't see take much care either, we survived this section but it delayed us a fair amount. I have heard of accidents and other trouble at this gathering in the past, thankfully we were OK and didn't see any incidents. England's first World Cup game kicked off at 2pm and we were in a rural area so enjoyed the deserted roads. At Melmerby we stopped for water before the climb of Hartside. It went well, was hot but every so often had the breeze to cool and sometimes assist us. The drop to Alston was rough as the wind made it necessary to pedal for over half of it. Four o'clock, the football had finished and we were in Alston. It was still hot. We ground our way up Yad Moss, this is a funny climb, lots of small summits but no real steep parts. I was feeling rough, actually vomited once. I recovered quickly once we got over the top and started to cool. Again the descent was nasty, having to pedal most of it to make any kind of progress. The tandem over took us near the top and descended more quickly but they waited in Middleton-in-Teedale for us. They had lost their route*** and we agree to take the LEL route back to Barton, about 40km. Three of our quartet had completed LEL between us we worked it out with our maps. It was reasonably easy going from here, all of us were tired, the heat, wind and hills had taken their toll. It was nice to complete the ride a group, it was nice to spend the day with them too. We got our final control at Barton at 20:19 then pedaled the 12km back to the car in Richmond.
.

Loading