Cheri’s pennine rally
After a one day turnaround from a weekend of gravel racing myself and my riding partner Jan, rocked up at the Gamma transport division bike shop down an Edinburgh sidestreet to take part in the Rapha 500 Pennine rally. This is a self supported five day rally not race from Edinburgh to Manchester along the Pennine bridle way 512 km mostly off-road with 9900m of climbing.
There was a lot of hustle and bustle at the start with Over 80 riders all chatting kit over the most amazing coffee and excited for the adventure ahead. Our plans changed as we needed to be in Manchester by Friday lunchtime so we opted for travelling lighter, not carrying a sleeping system and getting digs so we could move faster. I must say when I saw the damage done by midgies to my fellow riders I wasn’t too sorry.
We headed out of Edinburgh along the canal and off towards the Pentland Hills. Riders were already losing various kit off their bikes flip-flops being the favourite. Within 30 minutes the calmness and simplicity of just riding your bike took hold, soaking everything in from the birdsong the views and noticing the detail in the surroundings.
After a quick refuel in Peebles we headed over the first significant climb Stob Law Pass, it was rocky and hard to keep momentum on the gravel bike, as always with climbing the views at the top made it all worthwhile. We headed off into Craik Forest and were told to trust the GPS! as we wandered through bracken and fallen trees, eventually we hit a fire road and after 84 miles and over 2000m of climbing we made our way to our digs.
Up and at um early we made the first checkpoint which was sponsored by snowpeak, there was coffee but also miso soup and noodles, I could only face the coffee so early after breakfast but i'm told they were delicious!
We headed into 60k of nothingness as the organiser called it! The Kielder forest was beautiful with relentless gravel, lunch stop was at Haltwhistle, the middle of britain! I doubt i will ever have a haggis bacon cheese and bean panini again but boy it was good. We cruised through the north Pennines towards Barnard Castle enjoying every moment, the sun was shining and life was simple, pedal, eat, sing, talk crap with your buddy.
I was the donkey on the trip and carried most of the weight and was there to fix the bikes if needed so i didn’t pay much attention to the map, Jan Is usually faultless when it comes to map reading but we underestimated the day by 25 miles, after thinking it was an easy run down from Tan Hill the highest pub in England the realisation that it was another hours riding into Swaledale made me feel like I should’ve had those noodles as a second breakfast. This was definitely the golden hour with amazing views and shadows in the valleys and to be honest I didn’t want the day to end, ‘thanks Jan’ all told we were out for 13 hours and covered 124 miles with 3000m of climbing.
The next morning within 1k we had a 25% climb onto Askrigg Common, sunny and silent on the tops it was magical, we dropped into Bainbridge then onto my favourite part of the trip, a 3 mile gravel climb up beggarmans road. Just when you thought you were at the top another sandy ribbon of road appeared. We hit a roman road and descended into Ribblehead it was hard to look up at the views while bombing down the track so i paused for a moment to take in the beauty of the Viaduct and the 3 peaks of Ingleborough, Wernside and Pen-y-ghent in the distance, i have massive respect for the cyclocrossers who take on these peaks!
Heading into the Forest of Bowland we were met with another monster pass over Salter Fell, over 10k of rocky track, if anyone’s flip flops were still hanging on they will be off now!
We refuelled at Gisburn and onto Weets Hill, familiar trails but feeling harder with tired legs. In my head i wanted to push on to Manchester but it was decided for us as we both had rear light failures and made quite slow progress in the last hour, stats for the day 82 miles 2500m climbing.
Waking on the last day of a trip always makes me feel like I don't want it to end, in just a few days you can really switch off and settle into the rhythm of a simpler way of life. Its funny how we all seem to smile and talk to each other on the hills but would walk past each other on a city street with our heads down.
After a breakfast of cookies with a pint of milk chaser we headed over the last pass, Rooley Moor, then to the inner sanctum of the M60. It was noisier, crowded, scruffier and i felt myself switch back to thoughts about work, and things i needed to do, while needing eyes in the back of my head with more trail and road traffic.
Back at the Rapha store in Manchester we were met by Liam Yates, an adventure racer, son of famous cyclist Sean Yates and absolute nice guy, he rode the whole thing in 28.5 hours! He was so keen to hear about our journey and was waiting around to see everyone in.
The route was very well thought out with just enough tarmac before getting bored and just enough gravel before your arms fell off.
The gravel bike with 40mm tyres was perfect for the job. There really are some amazing places to ride and have an epic adventure in Britain, now where’s that map to start planning the next one.
Words & Pictures: Cheri Mills
