Coast-to-Coast

blueangel

Having done my first 50 about a month ago, I decided I needed a bit of a challenge. Morecambe Bay to Harrogate on Saturday, and Harrogate to Scarborough on Sunday.

It was quite thrilling to freewheel down to the promenade on Scarborough beachfront and finally dip that front wheel in the water, but the abiding memory for me will be of the intense hills and the awesome descents.

Top tip: pack light.

The thighs are still aching.

Lucky Luke

Sounds good . Did you follow a specific route or just make your own up ?

blueangel

We made up the route ourselves, using bikely.com and Ordainance Survey maps. The route on the ground was not exactly the one we planned, as we missed a turning, but it took us through some monster climbs.

The climbs were monstrous for me at any rate, with my loaded panniers and 15kg bodyweight over my mate. The true horrors were the climb out of Settle up the aptly named High Hill Lane, the climb up the gorge to Black Hill between Hebden and Pately Bridge, and Garrowby Hill. The descents into Pately Bridge from Greenhow Hill and, later, Staxton Hill down to Scarborough are quite famous. There's nothing like a bit of adrenaline to make the journey shorter. Except speed, and these were both 40+mph slaloms. We made good time.

Toughest physical thing I've ever done.

Here are links to the route we did:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/mo ... -harrogate
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/ha ... carborough

The routes are bare of descriptions as yet, as we have only just returned.

Anyone ridden these roads?