Sea2Sea09
11-13th September 2009
135 Miles in 3 days, from Irish Sea to North Sea!

At the start of September we took a team of mostly novice cyclists on one of the most famous cycling routes in the country, the C2C route from Whitehaven to Sunderland. We did it to raise money for Sustrans, the organisation that give us the National Cycle Network and the Safe Routes to Schools Scheme. For more information on Sustrans, please click on the Sustrans logo to the right.

• We left from Xscape Castleford at 8.30pm on a Thursday evening in early September by Rock Tour Bus so that we could get to the start point at Whitehaven in time for a nights sleep before we had to start cycling!
  
  
• We started early on Friday morning with a traditional dip of the back wheels in the Irish sea, and then headed off for Penrith, a little over 50 miles away, where we stayed for the night in the tour bus at the excellent Penrith Truck Stop. This part of the route took us over the north of the Lake District, included some of the hilly bits (Whinlatter, etc) but the sight of Penrith came as a welcome relief for the riders!
  
  
• Saturday morning arrived and we set off for Allenheads some 45 miles away. This was the toughest day of the 3 as we cycled (or walked!) up some pretty steep climbs including  Hartside and Black Hill. We stopped for numerous photo opportunities, including a lunch break at the Hartside Cafe.
  
  
• After another nights sleep outside a lovely pub (the Allenheads Inn) we set off for Sunderland, approximately 40 miles away. During the first few miles there was a 200 meter climb followed by a huge climb up to the start of the Waskerly Way and the Parkside Inn and then some pretty plain sailing for the rest of the day. The last 20 miles was a nice gradual downhill run to the coast where we dipped our front wheels into the North Sea before we rushed to the nearest fish and chip shop!!

Business Sponsors

Thank you to all our Business Sponsors. We send out thousands of emails that link to this page. All newspaper articles and radio play mentions this site too. Look at our previous sponsor pages to see who took advantage of this cheap form of local advertising and supported our fundraising!

History

The 2006 event was the first time we'd cycled this route, and what a time of year to pick (November)! We rode through every type of weather imaginable, including sun, rain, sleet, hailstones and snow! 13 riders gathered a total of almost 20 punctures between them, we had two ripped tyres, broken cables and a rear mech that simply fell off! In 2007/08 we brought the start date back a month to try to avoid the extremes. For the 2009 event we made it even earlier but we still couldn't promise anything!! Please feel free to read the 2006 ride report below. There are photos in there as well as some amusing stories!!

Craz's 2006 Ride Report (PDF)