Sunday 4^th August, 2019. A bunch of hardy (foolish?!) KVRC and friends gathered at Kendal Leisure Centre for 8am to tackle Graeme McKee’s “Grand Day Out”.

Graeme had described the route as being about 140 miles and “flat” (albeit with Hartside Pass 70 miles in). I’d ridden a “hundred” a few times but was conscious that this route would have me riding 150 miles if I rode from home. Slightly more miles than my previous longest ride! But I knew the value of riding as part of a group (I’d been on my own for my other long rides) and figured this would help. And Hartside Pass was definitely on my tick list. Plus, despite the banter from the rest of the guys, Graeme was right, this was a relatively flat route. I’d give it a go.

Chatting to a few of the other riders, many were in a similar position. Most had ridden around 100 miles but this would be new ground for many of them. That didn’t stop us heading off towards Killington Lake at a rate of knots. I kept to the back of the pack and hoped for the best, very aware that we were riding faster than I would have done.

We got to Orton, via Beckside and Tebay, all familiar territory for me, then headed towards Appleby via Soulby. WOW!!! What a fabulous part of the world. And what stunning roads! They offered glorious vistas, beautiful moorland and rolling climbs/descents. This has been worth it already, even if I have to turn around in Appleby, I thought.

Tom Wall suffered a pinch puncture but was super-speedy in changing it and we were soon on our way again. When we arrived in Appleby I’d done about 3.5 hours of riding and was more than ready for some calories. “Coffee?” asked the cafe owner, assuming our entire group would be takers. Now, controversially, I really don’t like coffee. I know this means I’m probably not a “real” cyclist, but hey. “Bacon butties?” he asked again. Now I started to panic slightly. I couldn’t face a bacon butty, but knew I needed some food. But I was getting the impression that coffee and bacon butties were all that were on offer. Jim Sinton asked for a can of coke and a scone. Now we’re talking, I thought, and asked if I could have the same. Cue a total breakdown from the cafe owner who clearly couldn’t cope with more than one order at once, and implied that he wouldn’t be able to serve me at all. I stopped bothering trying to explain I thought it might be easier for him to do the two identical orders at the same time and headed to the bathroom. I questioned whether I was going to manage the ride and was seriously considering heading back. But it seemed pretty pointless to ride all the way to Appleby and not even attempt Hartside. I arrived back at our table to find the lady from the kitchen had taken pity on me and brought out my order. One scone and can of coke later and I was wondering why I’d felt so negative. “Don’t worry about him, he’s crazy”, one of the other customers confided in me when I was queuing up to pay. I felt much better and got back on the bike.

My vague game plan was to ride to the top of Hartside and see how I was doing. After Hartside the route went right round the top of the Pennines, so it was quite a big decision point. If I felt completely destroyed, my plan was to ride to Penrith station and get a train home. If I felt fairly bad, I’d ride straight home, without doing the extra northern loop. If I was just quite tired, I’d carry on and reassess in Lambley. If I felt terrible there, I’d ride to Carlisle station and get a train home. If I still felt OK, I’d ride to Penrith and reassess the train option again. I had quite a lot of back up plans, including the last resort of calling the husband and pleading for a lift.

As it happened, I loved Hartside Pass. It is never horrendously steep: lovely long ramps that suit me far better than steeper climbs or ones that involve lots of changes in gradient. It was a fabulous feeling to get to the summit as part of such a long ride, even though we were all aware that the hard work was far from over. At the top we had glorious views over Alston, the Appleby calories were kicking in and there was no way I was going to miss out on riding those new roads up to Lambley and Hallbankgate. Decision made. I’d carry on.

This section, from Alston back to Crosby Ravensworth, was where Graeme’s incredible knowledge of the Cumbrian roads was invaluable. The awesome, hidden, village shop/cafe stop in Hallbankgate was a fine example. Cake....snacks....chilled drinks....wonderful ladies who were hugely grateful to have a large group in their shop and did everything they could to help us. Such a contrast to Appleby!

We rounded the Pennines and started heading back south. The wind was no longer on our side and the legs were starting to tire. And it started raining. But this was also where the group were great and it was simply fabulous to be able to defer the navigation to Graeme. No one was a prima donna: everyone helped each other and the atmosphere remained good, despite the flagging legs. Chats with the others helped the miles pass. I remember conversations with Adrian Steele about the Fred... Jim Sinton about doing time trials and triathlons... Joe Bowman about being sensible with traffic lights... Tom Wall about him racing up Hartside... Martin and Richard Bryers about their previous long rides... Dean Ireland about cobbles and Woolybacks... and there were many others. There was also the occasional ribbing for Graeme about his “flat” route, but in his defence, it was pretty flat, and certainly could have been worse, especially once Hartside was done.

We paused in Kings Meaburn for a speedy drink stop and there was a sense of urgency now. People wanted to get home. Everyone had done enough riding locally to know exactly what we had to come and the climbs we had remaining. Crosby Ravensworth. Tebay. Grayrigg. Flodder Beck. Then we were back.

Everyone got their heads down and over the climbs to Crosby Ravensworth and the group were still positive, though there were some seriously tired legs by this stage. Conditions were starting to deteriorate, it was persisting it down, and it felt a long climb up to the summit of the Grayrigg road from Tebay. But now we had nearly done it. Apart from Flodder Beck Flogger. Ouch! There is the option to ride round it but I knew that once I had done that, I just had two hills on the A65 to get home. I could do them, even if I was only averaging 5mph. I promised myself I could limp those and got my backside up Flodder Beck. The descent into Kendal was awesome, big smiles all round and some serious endorphins from a fairly epic ride.

Thanks Graeme and everyone else for what was definitely a Grand Day Out.

Claire Rushton