Sanderson Weatherall Charity Ride - September 2009
by Simon Heather

On a long weekend of 25/26/27 September 2009, 16 Sanderson Weatherall staff set off on the W2W as the charity bike ride for the year. Due to perceived time constraints, we opted for the Wearside ending (as opposed to Whitby).

The team assembled in the north-east at 7.00am on the Friday morning, before being mini-bused over to the start point at Walney Island, and we managed to get going by about 11.00am (somewhat later than we originally hoped for) in cloudy, but bright and dry conditions. From the various reports (and the route profile!) we were expecting a fairly easy first day, but I have to say the route was a bit of a shock to the system. It was far more undulating than we were prepared for and the climb up 'Bigland' (a strange plateaued outcrop just before Cartmel) almost had a few of the group chucking the towel in early (although it maybe that we just overdid it in the bar the night before!). A fantastically tasty lunch of 'homemade' soup and a sandwich at the cafe in Cartmel generally sorted the group out though. After that, the route settled down a bit, which made for a very pleasant and scenic trip through Grange and onto Kendal. We stayed at the YHA in Kendal on the first night - which we all thought was great value for money (circa £20 pp pn B&B). The YHA are obvioulsy well set up for dealing with groups and they have a secure shed to lock the bikes up in over-night.

On second day, the weather had cleared and, apart from several fluffy white distant clouds, the sky was blue and the sun shone bright! This was the day everyone has been bracing themselves for - about 60 miles and the ascent of Tan Hill before tea. The weather, however, made this day fantastic. The Lune Valley is gorgeous (you are hardly aware of the 6 carriageways of the M6 to your left!). We took in a short, mid-day stop at the yummy Chocolate Shop in Orton, and had lunch at Kirby Stephen. The actual ascent of Tan Hill is quite unusual - it's not particulary steep - just about 7 miles of energy-sapping incline. The bonus of reaching the top is, of course, (apart from the great views on this particular day and the pint in the Inn) the free wheel down towards Barnard Castle. For the second night, we decided to blow the accommodation budget by staying at the Morritt Arms at a place called Greta Bridge (a few miles to the south east of Barnard Castle). This meant taking a slight deviation from the official route, but the small amount of extra miles were definately worth it for the food, hospitaility and the quality of the accomodation (we stayed in an annexe building called Burns Cottage (which can sleep up to 14) which was brilliant!)

For the start of Day 3, from the hotel we needed to cycle a couple of miles north to meet up again with the 'southern braid' of the route, which would take us through Bishop Auckland. The scenery was pleasant enough - with country lanes and some tracks - although it was always going to be difficult to live up to the quality of the first 2 days. Lunch was in Durham, before we embarked on the final section taking us into Sunderland. It was pleasing to see that the Council in Sunderland have put up the artwork to mark the end of the route (it wasn't there the year before) - it's always nice to reach an 'official' end point, which we did at about 3.30pm (Sunderland playing at home to Wolves added a bit of extra interest as we cycled the last few miles).

On previous years, Sanderson Weatherall Charity bike trip has covered several routes - including the C2C and the Coast and Castles and, without doubt, the W2W is the favourite to date (although I think the great weather we experienced helped!!). Our group comprised a range of people with varying cycling abilities (from people considering a LEJoG, to those that were only used to the occassional trip out on their mothers shopping bike) and the W2W had something for everyone. I would certainly recommend it. Well sign-posted throughout as well!