Coast and Castles Route

y33stu

Hi All,

I'm not sure where to post this as it maybe fits into 3 categories! I've just signed up to ride the 200 mile coast and castles route from Edinburgh to Newcastle next year. Its 200 miles. However we're doing it for charity, and want to do it in ONE day. We'll be doing it on road bikes, so has anyone done this route who can advise on road / track conditions? Also, i'm failry new to cycling, but can ride 70-80 milles ok, but 200 is a fair bit more! What sort of training shall I do in advance? We're looking to do the ride in May or July.

disquieting_museeuws

Some of the non-road parts are virtually unusable for a sporty road bike - if you want to get the 200 miles done in a day I would be avoiding them. The 'track' south of Berwick becomes just a field beside the cliffs, for example.

Leesykoi

Hi,

Was wondering who you signed up with ie mates or an organised group ? I'm from Newcastle and would fancy a crack at this and know some pals that would. We would be using sporty road bikes so conscious route choice would need to be appropriate.

Thks.

Lee.

Diogenes

Its a stunning route, especially the route from Dalkeith to Berwick. The Moorfoot hills (not steep) are some of the best riding I have done, quiet roads and fabulous scenery. I did the ride on my tourer with Panniers but one of our group did it on a Trek road bike and suffered ++ with the dreaded puncture fairy on the route from Berwick to Blyth.

Its a fairly flat route but if using a road bike I would look for an on road route down the coast. You will of course not see a lot of the castles and may suffer the ravages of cars.

We did the ride over 3 days which was a very nice pace with panniers, doing the lot in one day is achievable but also need to consider wind. The prevailing wind is South westerly so if its blowing you will be running into a headwind for the 2nd 100 miles.

D

y33stu

Was wondering who you signed up with ie mates or an organised group ? I'm from Newcastle and would fancy a crack at this and know some pals that would. We would be using sporty road bikes so conscious route choice would need to be appropriate.

I'm doing it as a charity ride. It'll be fully organised as i'm organising it with a GB triathlete. There will be support vans, massages at the end, and free food. We're fundraising for a boy from Northumberland with Cerebral Palsy.

We'll also be doing it on road bikes, so all roads will be carefully chosen (by me) to make sure they are suitable. We want to minimise the chance of breakages and punctures etc...

Let me know if its something you're keen on as I'll send you some info. We're looking for 24 riders in total, but we'll ask we stay in groups of 8 to share the workload - there will be a headwind so we want to keep our legs as fresh as we can!