Day 7 - Earby to Carlisle

Fast Facts:

Distance: 85.5 miles
Miles to Go: 391
Average Speed: 13.2 mph
Time in Saddle: 6 hours 26 mins
Lunch: Cross Keys, Tebay

Route Profile:

Report:

Our ride today was awesome...we even managed to leave a litte earlier (around 8:15am), to try and make it to lunch and then to our B&B in Carlisle in reasonable time. Out of Earby, we rode towards Sedburgh, skirting the edge of the Yorkshire dales, following the Ribble then the Lune river. The countryside was really stunning.

Once again, the knees and other various parts of the body were in quite a bit of pain, particularly as there were a few lumpy hills to negotiate in the first 10 miles or so.

Our mid-morning break was around 11:30am, shortly before reaching Kirkby Lonsdale...more pot noodles, sweets, raisins, coffee etc! The second group arrived just as the first was leaving, so that gave us all encouragement of being able to make lunch by 1pm.

By this stage, we were well into the Dales and there were some serious climbs ahead of us, passing between Langdale Fell and the Whinfell Beacon. As we neared our lunch spot at Tebay, we passed under the M6 and started a long and steep climb into the village. Seriously hard work!

However, the sun was shining and we had made good progress. The only thing to dampen the mood, was that we passed a serious road accident, in which a van had turned over....the air ambulance arrived just as we approached. Ben (ever the attentive doctor) asked if there was anything he could do, but doctors were already on the scene.

We purposefully kept lunch relatively short, as we all fancied getting to Carlisle in good time this afternoon. However, we were all fearful of the 6 mile climb up Shap Fell that was ahead of us. Incredibly, the climb never really materialised and we progress on at good pace towards Penrith along the A6 (old Roman Road), which follows the M6 into Carlisle. It was a little boring travelling in a straight line mile after mile, but the scenery made up for it.

Group 1 had made excellent progress and arrived at the B&B around 17:15....the second group, however, were suffering from a number of very sore knee compaints. Ali in particular was in a lot of pain, and did incredibly well (with the help of Stella) to cycle through the pain barrier and make it to Carlisle. We just hope that today will be a better day for her.

Some good news....Rich's bike is finally fixed. A big shout out to the support crew, who sped on to Carlisle after to lunch to drop the bike at Scotby Cycles. A big thank you to Dan Rolph...if anyone needs a bike shop in Carlisle, look no further!

Thank you also to Adrian Hogarth, who bumped into the support crew in Carlisle and donated £20! It's amazing how generous complete strangers can be.

Tomorrow's ride should be another good one...we're leaving England, and crossing into Scotland to the New Lanark youth hostel on the bank of the Clyde!