Peterborough to Dundee for my 30th

mikpem

On August 1st next year (2015) I turn 30 so I thought I would do a bit of a long bike ride to celebrate/test myself a bit. The reason Peterborough to Dundee came up is because when I finished my GCSE's at 16 jumped on a train at Peterborough with my bike to visit my nan in Dundee for a week and went for a few rides around when I got there. At the time I was cycling reasonable distances every weekend so when friends asked where I had disappeared to for the first week of the holidays I told them I had cycled to see my nan.....

Well now it's time to make things right and actually do it!!

My plan is to start on the Sunday before my birthday (26th July) giving me 6 days to get there.

Now I'm not hugely experienced with doing long mileage, I commute to work every day but that's only a couple of miles each way, I race cyclocross but we're talking bottom quarter of the field in the seniors races. I occasionally manage to fit in a longer ride (like this weekend where we are visiting friends 40 miles away so I'm going to cycle there) but with a young family I don't like to miss out on too much weekend time with the little lad by being on the bike (We have a bike seat but I don't really like to take him out for longer than an hour at a time).
I have a mate that is planning to join me but he is football-fit not cycle-fit so I'm sure it's going to hit him hard when he starts ramping up the miles in the new year.

So I'm looking for a few tips to help me/us prepare:

-Fuelling tips, I cycled 60 miles a few weeks ago after a day at work eating rubbish at my desk armed with nothing but 500ml of water and a bag of Haribo.... I've never felt pain like I felt that evening before and don't really want to again! What would you go with to keep you going for 5-6 days in a row?

-Where to stay on the way. My current plan is Peterborough-Hull-Whitby-Newcastle-Innerleithen-Edinburgh-Dundee. There are some odd choices there but I've tried to split it into reasonable chunks with a couple of lighter ones towards the end so that a)we can recover from the really hard 4th day and b)we might get a chance to relax in Edinburgh a bit.

-Routes to take. Although we have a rough plan it is still flexible if anyone has any really good routes to aim for or flatter routes when we get to the borders!

-We won't have to carry much with us because our partners are going to be driving up from point to point and visiting local attractions along the way. Any tips on places for them to visit?

-What bike would you go for? I currently have a 2013 Genesis Vapour with 2x10 Shimano Tiagra which I used for cyclocross last year and is now used for commuting, long rides and carrying the lad. I have the option to pick up another bike on the cycle to work scheme in January but the budget will be tight so I would be looking at bikes around the £800 mark (I can buy bikes from anywhere including sale bikes on our scheme). Would it be worth finding a new bike for the trip and if so any suggestions? If not I would probably be looking at refreshing the bike I have already with new wheels, and a few consumables to make sure it's up to the job, what would you suggest?

I've probably got a load more questions which I will think of in time but I would really appreciate any help/pointers with the few I have at the moment. I might just keep this updated with how training and planning goes as a bit of a blog for the trip.

Thanks.

popularname

Hi Mikpem

Innerleithen to Edinburgh: My advice is to go over the granites (as the road is known locally) - the B709 from Innerleithen which goes past the golf course. You'll be climbing for about 20 miles or so (with a breather in the middle…) but it is (genuinely) an enjoyable road. I've ridden that road as part of a trip from York to Edinburgh and had already done 35 miles before Innerleithen and it was fine. Around 16 miles out of Innerleithen there's a right hand turn off (which stays as the B709) but you should keep going straight on the road you're on which becomes the B7007 at that point.

The obvious thing to do when you look at the route on a map is to go straight down to the A7 and then follow that in to Dalkeith and on to Edinburgh but I suggest you avoid it because it's busy and a bit of a culture shock. Better to turn off to the left a few hundred yards before and take the road through Carrington and Bonnyrigg. PM me and I'll send you a route map.

I did Dundee to Edinburgh a few weeks ago and decided to come down through St Andrews into the East Neuk and then through Leven, Methil, Kirkcaldy and Burntisland and I have to say that I didn't enjoy the Leven to Edinburgh bit at all. Just a slog and not especially nice - BUT it is a relatively flat route and the run from Lundin Links on to Dundee is pretty nice. You can go via St Andrews and spend some time there. The alternative is to go Dunfermline, Kinross, Glenfarg, Auchtermuchty, Newburgh and most people prefer this - although it is hillier. I've ridden it north to south and I do think it is nicer… Again, I can give you the precise routes.

You can get from the centre of Edinburgh to the Forth Road Bridge mainly on pretty good paved cycle track which I'd recommend doing.

On getting fit - usual rules apply: do the miles and don't eat rubbish. Pasta, rice, protein, veg and cake…

I did the York to Edinburgh trip on my steel framed ridgeback with 32c touring tyres and tiagra (triple chain ring right enough, but I was carrying luggage). My personal preference would be to keep the wheels and tyres as light as possible. The Ridgeback is good and for that money you could get a Voyage (http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/Voyage) but if you're not planning to do lots of touring get something else. I'm toying with doing a LEJOG next year and would probably do it on my Domane rather that the ridgeback.

mikpem

Thank you, some really useful tips there and some great alternative routes to my original plan, looks like I might need a decent GPS to find my way though!
I've sent you a PM

thegreatdivide

I can get you from north of the Forth Rd bridge to Dundee pretty safely (I'm in Dundee). Happy to route out a tcx file for you this weekend.

mikpem

Cheers TGD, I think popularname has managed to get together a couple of decent routes for that bit so we should be ok, I'm glad I've had a couple of offers of routes for that area though because it's not an easy place to get to for a recce from Ipswich.

The section I'm most confused about is between Newcastle and Innerliethen, it's going to be our longest day and without local knowledge I fear we might end up missing some amazing routes and getting stuck on main roads being battered by lunatics in vans all day!