Dalby Forest Training 8th March 2008

On Saturday morning Elliot, Adam and I set off from Leeds for Dalby Forest in the Yorkshire National Park to try their Red Route without the snow that we had encountered last month. That was after we'd had the compulsory bacon butty at the Forest cafe. On the website it interestingly states about the Red Route "Ensure you and your bike are ready for several hours of hard, technical riding" which was not far from the truth at all. The technical sections included board walks, rock paths bizzare bridges, bermed corners, bomb holes and steep switchbacks to name but a few that tested our brakes, full suspension or seat padding, our agility (or rather lack of it!) and concentration, to their full.

And then included in the middle of the forest is a circuit for those of us that might want to catch some 'air'!

But all in all an excellent 25 mile ride with some excellent skill testing sections.

Please do not forget to sponsor us by clicking on the JustGiving link on the left hand side and a big thank you to those of you who have sponsored us already.

Some route statistics:

Total Ascent: 2431.1 ft
Total Descent: 1998.0 ft
Maximum Elevation: 859.6 ft
Minimum Elevation: -137.8 ft

St Bees to Robin Hoods Bay recce

Preparation day: 19th May 2008
Our Coast to Coast mountain bike route of 210 miles is across some pretty arduous terrain and we can only best average between 40 to 50 miles a day so we need 5 places to stay, not including the preparation night at St Bees.


So Marc, Justin and I set out to recce the route and to find some places to stay, places that wouldn't resemble a sheep trough (we nearly booked one of those!) and cheaper than the Plaza and this is what we came up with. But once at St Bees we couldn't resist a ride across some of the spectacular coast line from St Bees to the Light House!
St Bees is famous as being a start point for Coast to Coast treckers but ones usually doing it on foot however with some temporary changes made you can see from the photo that this will also be our start point for the ride.



At St Bees we will be staying at Seacote Park for our preparation night of 19th May 08. More information on the park can be found at: http://www.seacote.com/

Click here for a weather update: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=1403



Day 1: 20th May 2008
Once we leave St Bees we have a long trek before our first overnight stop at Scarr Head Farm, Torver which is a hamlet very close to Coniston Water, famous for the Land Speed Record attempt by Donald Campbell and for the spectacular countryside which can be seen at:http://www.thelakedistrictwalker.com/valleys/south/torver.htm
Click here for a weather update: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=2451

Day 2: 21st May 2008
As we follow the trail heading East across the Lake District, up fell, past tarn and down hills across Cumbria, our next overnight stop will take us to the Pennine View Caravan and Camping Park in the picturesque town of Kirkby Steven. The following is an extract taken from their website:
Kirkby Stephen is a small town in the Upper Eden valley which was formerly in the old county of Westmorland, now Cumbria. This is an area of Cumbria much less well known than the Lake District, but equally appealing. A traditional market town of historic buildings, cobbled yards, quaint corners and interesting shops, it is surrounded by a landscape of pastoral rural scenery and wild uplands. Being remote from large towns and population centres, Kirkby Stephen has developed a strong and self-sufficient identity and a vibrant sense of community.
More details of the campsite can be found at: http://www.coasttocoastguides.co.uk/accommodation/pennine%20view/index.htm
Click here for a weather update: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=1392

Day 3: 22nd May 2008 On our 4th day we will leave the Lakes, cross the pennines (this is making my legs ache thinking about this!) and arrive in Brompton on Swale in the heart of the North Yorkshire countryside and at the gateway to the Yorkshire Dales. The camping and caravan park at Brompton on Swale set next to the river Swale is just a couple of miles from Richmond. More information can be found at: http://www.bromptoncaravanpark.co.uk/ Click here for a weather update: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=1683

Day 4: 23rd May 2008
This day takes us through the Yorkshire Moors towards our ultimate goal of reaching what will have seemed an impossible sight of the East coast, but before we get there we have one more overnight stop at a campsite/farm/toilet in a field with a gate on called Hollins Farm in Glaisdale.

Run by a little ol' lady this campsite really is what this challenge is all about; remote but
beautiful, arduous but rewarding. Sorry guys, there are definitely no jacuzzis at this site, but if we manage to arrive before 18:30 the local taxi will come and pick us up and take us to the only pub within a sensible radius where we can be fed. We have to be picked up before 18:30 as the taxi driver is the pub landlord and chef!

Click here for a weather update: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=3965

Day 5: 24th May
From Glaisdale we will be on our final leg (or should I say legs!) to end in the sea at Robin Hoods Bay. Children and sandcastles please be aware because I think by the time we arrive at Robin Hoods Bay after crossing the remainder of the Yorkshire Moors we won't be in much fit state to ride carefully. However the ride into Robin Hoods Bay will only be 26 miles long so anyone will be welcome to join in. Once our celebrations have died down on the beach (we expect to arrive early afternoon) we will head to our last stop, by vehicle I hasten to add, but this time with our families and friends to a beautiful family run caravan and camping site at Fylindales, just 4 miles from Robin Hoods Bay. It has good amenities and has been updated recently which cannot be seen from its website which does it no justice. This will be a fantastic time for us all to get together and look back over the previous week (providing we make it!) and celebrate the achievement and remember Ian, my brother who has been the inspiration for this challenge.

You are all welcome at any of the over night stop offs and in particular at Grouse Hill for the Bank Holiday weekend. Either come along for the day and visit some of the local sites or stay the weekend with most of us. If you want to stay at Grouse Hill you can either contact them direct and tell them you are part of the Minorplanet group or just email mark.walker@minorplanet.com and I will add you to the list.

Grouse Hill's website is: http://www.grouse-hill.co.uk/

Click here for a weather update: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=3965

Please do not forget to sponsor us by clicking on the JustGiving link on the left hand side and a big thank you to those of you who have sponsored us already.

Shrewsbury 3 peaks training - 25 Feb 08

On a cool and windy morning the Team met in a Co-oP car park after travelling down from Leeds and up from Bristol, got changed, prepared the bikes and ourselves for the Shrewsbury 3 peaks training session. The ride started with a ten minute road section before the inevitable upwards climb that wasn't too steep to start off with which was easily ride-able. A bit disconcerting though as we were passed by a mountain bike tandem! That was impressive but I don’t think my wife would entertain the idea! However the easily ride-able section soon materialised into an awesome muddy downhill section.

The only issue with this awesome muddy downhill was that we were going up and not down which wasn't encouraging as bike after bike went past us blasting down the trail and commenting on how mad we must be to go up and not down. What they didn't realise was that our trail didn't just involve the one fell which they were riding, but three!

During the whole route we were also tracked in realtime with the new Minorplanet 6000 which can be seen with a snapshot of the detailed report.

Please sponsor us by clicking on the JustGiving link on the left hand side

Once at the top it was clear that the howling wind was becoming a real issue and it was going to be against us for most of the day, wind blowing into your face makes cycling up hills and dales quite a difficult task, but the top did bring some quite rewarding sites.

It was easy to see why the area is very popular with walkers and cyclist with some quite steep but very picturesque heather covered fells. Anyway back to the training; the route which Marc had picked was without doubt the best route we have trained on yet. It was challenging in the vertical sense, it was challenging in the technical sense of having to negotiate goat tracks on the side of steep hills, extreme uphill sections and of course some quite extreme downhill sections that saw average speeds over the minute in excess of 30mph.

And 30mph isn't bad across fields when being challenged by kamikaze sheep, eh Adam??! All in all a very physically challenging but enjoyable day where we covered 30 miles of terrain that was as near as possible to what we are expecting on the challenge week. More of the same please Marc!

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30 miles around Harrogate (in the snow!)

Come rain, sleet or even snow, the training continues (well it does if you have a bike, Elliot is still waiting on delivery of his new steed as the old one has died)

As you can see from Peter's 30 miler around Harrogate.

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South West Training Sat 2nd Feb

Meanwhile, down South the weather was much less formidable as John, Marc and Justin set out for a ride through the Forest of Dean.

The decision was made to try and get some miles under our belt so we headed for the single track route.
Having been instructed to get some pictures we decided to head for a part of the forest that we knew would give us some good photo opportunities and make the ride look a bit more exciting and challenging than it actually was…no point in letting our snow challenged comrades ooop North know we’d taken the easy route!!
Marc and John got themselves to the top of a nice drop while Justin prepared himself for his David Bailey impression at the bottom.
Marc was first off…
Always ready with a stupid idea, Justin shouts ”Do the jump at the bottom!”
This would have been a great photo as so far none of us has had the bottle to go for this particular jump.
Marc hits the jump…
Justin misses it with the camera….and then hears a crunch from behind him as Marc’s bike hits the ground.
“oooh, that sounded like your frame going” says Justin as he turns round to find a dazed and confused Marc sitting on the floor…
Marc sticks his tongue out to reveal deep teeth marks across the top and bottom and a lot of blood. How he didn’t bite his tongue off remains a mystery as it transpired the crunch from Marc’s bike was his head hitting the handlebars.

Anyway, they’re a tough lot in the South West and they carried on undeterred by Marc’s injury. At least that was the plan….

Within a few miles Marc got very hot despite the low temperature and went very white, so we cut it short and headed back so Marc could get to A&E.

So only 10 or so miles completed by the Southern contingent this weekend, but at least we got to practice our first aid.

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Coast to Coast land profile

Now starting to wish we lived in Holland!

Dalby Forest training Saturday 2nd Feb

In the continuing effort to get our fitness levels up Adam and I (Mark) took to Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire on Saturday.
It's a fantastic place with some very impressive purpose laid out mountain bike trails, but as novices to the area we left the black route alone and followed the red route.

Soon after starting the red route it was clear that not many that morning had followed the black routes as the snow had completed covered the area. Along with the quite heavy snow the area had also lost all power so we were foolishly riding on empty stomachs, not being able to have breakfast at the trail cafe.


Anyway, the red trail proved to be extreemly challenging as it was, considering the added obstacle of snow and ice which had us both either over the handlebars or spining out of control on more than one occasion!

After about 4 and a half hours we called it a day and headed back for some well earned nourishment, but I don't think it will be the last time we have seen Dalby Forest.

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