A686 Penrith to Alston Road (Coast to Coast) - how tough??

rodgers73
rodgers73 Posts: 2,626
edited July 2011 in Road beginners
I'm off to do the coast to coast on Saturday and want to do it in a single day. The GPS profile shows this road as the hardest climb.

Does anyone know what its like in reality?? Am I in for a hard time?? :D

Comments

  • andysol
    andysol Posts: 125
    I think that will be Hartside, which is a long but steady climb. Then a long descent to Alston. After Alston theres Nentheads and later Crawlyeside which peaks at 20% maybe 25%.

    These are the major climbs.

    I found Nenthead hardest but not mind blowingly difficult. Just grind them out.

    Andy
    Evidently i mostly have a FCN of 1. I'm now a lady!
  • ian_s
    ian_s Posts: 183
    It depends which route you take. I found Hartside long and steady but not particularly tough - the descent the other side was splendid though! Whinlatter was similar but not as long (avoid the forest track descent - horrible loose scree - and take the road).

    In terms of absolute steepness Crawleyside Bank (just after Stanhope) must be the most extreme and that short vertical looking bit out of Nenthead not far behind. Crawleyside is avoidable by a bit of 'off road'.

    Just my opinion from how I felt at the time.

    Good luck and hope the weather holds.
  • leyburnrunner
    leyburnrunner Posts: 25
    i did the c2c (road) earlier this year on a mtb.
    hartside was just a long grind but we had a headwind so it wasn't much fun, whinlatter was ok but i found garrigill the hardest, the slopes at the bottom of the hill were 25% or so.

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