First Cycle Tour/Way of the Roses-170miles/3 days (camping)

tim_wand

How did you go with the climb out of Settle to Airton and the one from Auborn (2 miles out of Grassington) upto Greenhow. Anyone clean it?

mattrixdesign2

tim wand wrote:

How did you go with the climb out of Settle to Airton and the one from Auborn (2 miles out of Grassington) upto Greenhow. Anyone clean it?

Anyone clean it?

I managed to ride up with out pushing if thats what you mean.

Settle was a monster, and its was the hottest day - but all ridden.

Burnsall to Pately Bridge (Day 2), was much easier going, but a long stretch.

PROFILE IS HERE: http://wayoftheroses.info/route/profile

I was with a seasoned Roadie, who commented of how steep it was - which surprised me, I guess being a mountain bikers I am used to steep hills?

tim_wand

Better man than me must admit pushed up the settle one . Only excuses are a 53/39 chainset (Although to be fair I ve got a long cage mech and 34 tooth rear casette) and quite a few beers and pies consumed in the Lion in Settle. (Again the temp was in the high 20's ) and I d not touched the bike for two weeks prior.

Still Well done . Now im going to have to go back and try again.

The Mechanic

Good info here. I am doing it on 24th June and camping along the way. I have booked a camp site in Cracoe (could be the same one Matrix used, any comments on the site). I deliberately chose a short first day becasue of the hills. Second night is in Acomb just outside York. It is York Cycle rally that weekend but decided not to stay there when I heard about the portable shower blocks and portaloos. Last night is near Rudston Pava just short of Brid then a easy ride into Brid in the morning for the train home. Driffield is my former home town so I know the Wolds section pretty well.

I will be riding my Steel Aravis audax/touring bike with front and rear panniers to spread the weight a bit. I have very low gears but I still expect to walk up one or two of the steepest bits. This is a tour for me, not a challenge so don't mind the odd 24 inch gear section. Might give the clapham tunnels a miss but will check out the surface when I get there. It sounds like fun.

mattrixdesign2

The Mechanic wrote:

Good info here. I am doing it on 24th June and camping along the way. I have booked a camp site in Cracoe (could be the same one Matrix used, any comments on the site). I deliberately chose a short first day becasue of the hills. Second night is in Acomb just outside York. It is York Cycle rally that weekend but decided not to stay there when I heard about the portable shower blocks and portaloos. Last night is near Rudston Pava just short of Brid then a easy ride into Brid in the morning for the train home. Driffield is my former home town so I know the Wolds section pretty well.

I will be riding my Steel Aravis audax/touring bike with front and rear panniers to spread the weight a bit. I have very low gears but I still expect to walk up one or two of the steepest bits. This is a tour for me, not a challenge so don't mind the odd 24 inch gear section. Might give the clapham tunnels a miss but will check out the surface when I get there. It sounds like fun.

Hi

First things, you are right to do a first short day, its is by far the hardest, less miles, big hills! We stayed in Cracoe, it was a pretty basic site on a farm, pub nr by, we didn't have to book... HOWEVER I would say press on a few miles more and stay at Burnsall, nicer sites, several pubs and cafe's to choose from.

Our other sites were:

York Touring Caravan Site, Greystones Farm, Towthorpe Moor Lane, Towthorpe, Nr Strensall, YORK, YO32 9ST
v.nice clean site, but a 6/8 mile diversion from the route.

Beaconhouse, Camping/Caravan CS Site, Croftshill, Flamborough, East Yorkshire, YO15 1AB
This was for the Bridlington finish, it is basically someones large garden with a few motorhomes caravans, but a great pub down the road call the Ship Inn.

FYI - be prepared for Bridlington, it is weird, we arrived to the sight of scruffy locals, and my mate got an egg thrown at him, some teenagers gave us some cheek, and some Chavs drove past me in a blacked out VW Golf shouting abuse :roll: Shame as the sea front is really nice.

If you have a 1/2 man tent, and do not need cooking facilities, I reckon you could get away with 2 rear panniers, we did no problem.

Enjoy, real nice route, peaceful, few cars etc.

teulk

Sorry to hijack this, when are you doing it ? 15 of us from work will be doing a modified version of it on the 4th june. We are going as far as York and heading off up to Middlesbrough to finish instead of Bridlington.
We have the advantage of having a support driver to carry our gear so not really limited to the types of bikes we can use. I will be taking my Specialized Secteur Elite 2011 and a mate of mine will be taking his Ribble. The rest i think will be a mishmash of Hybrids and Mountain bikes.