The Crossing 12-14th July 2013
Rat Race Intro
Forging a defining line across Northern England, justly famous for its off-road biking, over 3 days you will undertake a classic journey from West Coast to East, passing through the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors and sampling some of the UK’s finest mountain biking as you go, alongside jaw-dropping scenery. This is a challenge open to the gnarly fat-tyre brigade as well as first-time adventurers. If you’ve never joined us on a Rat Race event before, rest assured, you are in good hands. We have the best events in the business, amazing routes, superb over-night facilities and an Army of Rat fans all around you enjoying the views n’ brews from Coast to Coast.
San’s Adventure
Remember the summers when you were kids and you would dash out on your bike first thing in the morning and come back just as the sun would be setting only stopping briefly for a drink. Well this is what 350 of us from all over the UK, Spain, Australia, South Africa etc came to the seaside town of Whitehaven to do.
We arrived at Whitehaven on a very warm Thursday evening on the 11th July. Paul Bromley, a neighbour of mine, would be joining me for this trip as he did for London to Edinburgh. We registered and cabled tied the race numbers on our bikes, #99 was mine (love that number). All bikes were then stored in a secure compound overnight just meters from the start line.
We headed for the nearest Italian and filled our bellies with a Calzone each.
We were staying at the Travel Lodge in Cockermouth so called a Taxi and made our way. Less said about the Taxi driver and Travel Lodge the better.
Friday 12th July Day 1 Whitehaven to Shap (Lake District)
4.30am start! not sure what I was letting myself in for with such an early get up. The taxi picked us up at 5am and we headed for the start line with one eye open. The seagulls were up and probably wondering why 350 mtbikers were disturbing the peace.
The riders brief had started but couldn’t really hear it due to a poor sound system/megaphone and excited seagulls/mtbikers.
Just after 6am we started a nice steady ride out of Whitehaven on the coastal road. For over an hour we rode along taking in the views and chit chatting about not much. This seemed too easy to say it was an off road event with over 18,000 feet of climbing!
15 miles in and the off road fun started. A cracking climb was about to happen for some of us, but others were already pushing their bikes, it was going to be a long day.
First view “Lakes”
The heat was baring down on us all and de-hydration and lack of pre-training would, for some, be their un-doing. Paul who I was riding with was suffering badly from de-hydration and a lack of fitness. We continued on at a slow pace to reach the half-way point of Keswick for a break and food.
At 40 miles our next stop would be Fairlight Cafe where sandwiches and a can of coke were required. This brought back memories for Paul as it is where he would come with his Dad.
Once we had stuffed ourselves we continued to follow the orange rat race markers. This continued with more off road action just the way I like it. More climbing was involved but this time it was carry/climb which was very painful. As we reached the summit Paul was suffering badly with heat exhaustion and it was only a matter of time before it was game over.
We started a very technical descent which would mean carry/climb I was glad when that was over.
The last climb of the day was heading up on to the moor towards Shap. We followed a dubious looking sign that seemed to point neither straight on or right. Unfortunately we picked the straight on line and managed to head in the wrong direction. This wasn’t a clever thing to do as Paul was exhausted and de-hydrated. We bumped into another 20+ mtbikers doing the same event and we all agreed that we should have turned right at the last marker. So we rode to the marker and enjoyed the amazing downhill that came our way..big kids on bikes with massive smiles.
The final descent to the overnight #pitstop in Shap was the highlight bombing down the vegetation plant was fun!
We were greeted at the finish line by SportTrident and dibbed our timers.
I tucked into Jacket Spud and Veggie Chillie to put the calories back in and waited for Paul.
15-20 mins later Paul arrived broken dropping his bike to the ground and ready to quit.
Game Over…
68 miles 7,100 feet climbed 4,000 calories
Saturday 13th July Day 2 Shap to Northallerton (Dales)
67 miles 5,100 feet climbed 4,000 calories
Sunday 14th July Day 3 Northallerton to Scarborough (North York Moors)
60 miles 5,800 feet climbed 4,000 calories
First view “Lakes”
