Last Sunday on the SCCC Weekend away, there was a choice of either a longer or a shorter ride. I had been told (by Andy) that I was doing the longer ride and I was looking forward to it as we had tried the ride a few weeks back. I knew that the scenery was going to be spectacular. After a hard week at work, I was feeling really tired all weekend.

After breakfast, we had  bit of a stroll around Newton Rigg College to see some of the animals there.

Just after 9:30 we set off turning right out of the college and going out through Newton Reigny, Laithes and then on to Skelton.

Although there were no specific hills, the route was rolling a little. I was finding it very hard! When we got to Skelton, after around 5 miles, I decided that there was no way my legs were going to cope with the hills to come on the longer ride. Andy suggested that I turn back and make my way to the Greystoke Cycle Cafe where the shorter ride group where heading for morning coffee.

Having turned round, I first went back to Newton Rigg College as I had left my sun glasses in the car and then took a direct route to the cycling cafe in Greystoke.

As I arrived on the outskirts of Greystoke, I could see Greystoke Castle in the distance.

The Cycle Cafe was decorated ready for the Tour of Britain, which was due to pass through Greystoke the following day. I arrived there before the other cyclists but not before Andy and Barbara, who were travelling in the support car.

After a couple of mugs of tea and some gluten free cake, I was feeling a little more human! There were a few delays as we had to pump up the tyre on Anne’s bike – this turned out to be more complex than expected. Connecting the pump caused all the air in the tyre to rush out, making the problem worse. We had all sorts of problems getting the tyre pumped up.

After a number of attempts, we finally get the tyre pumped up properly and set off again, heading towards Greystoke Gill.

There was one hill where a few of the group got off and walked.

We went through Newbiggin

We had to cross the A66 and make our way through Stainton.

As we reached Ullswater, we turned left towards Pooley Bridge. At this junction we met up with the front of the group that was doing the longer ride. They were about to go up the hill that we had just come down!

We stopped in Pooley Bridge for lunch at a cafe next to the bridge call Granny Dowbekins.

After lunch we set off again to make our way back to Newton Rigg College via Penrith.

We could see that Tirril were getting ready for the Tour of Britain.

As we turned onto the A6, we stopped for a brief rest before pushing on to Penrith.

Once we reached Penrith, the route followed a different way than the one that we had done before.

From Penrith, we headed back to Newton Rigg, passing some Alpaca’s on the way.

You can see our SCCC Weekend shorter route below: