The Minibus arrived at 9:30am on Thursday morning to pick up the first of 6 riders, taking them to Heysham for the Isle of Man ferry. With the rear seats removed, it easily accommodated the six of us with bikes, panniers and other assorted luggage. By 12:30, we arrived at the Ferry terminal at Heysham, with plenty of time to spare to enjoy our packed lunches before boarding for the 2:15pm sailing, where we met three more of our riders.. It was a calm day. Perfect for the crossing.
It was a 3.5 hour sail, but we were all in good spirits, spending sime time on deck watching Heysham disappear before relaxing in the bar, discussing the 4 days touring ahead. Two of our riders were taking part in the British Cycle Quest - A sort of treasure hunt, so our routes were planned to take in the locations for the islands six clues.
The Ferry docked in Douglas at 5:30pm. Our hotel was only a mile down the coast from the Ferry Port, so we just had a short ride down the prom before checking into our rooms, meeting the final member of our contingent, and sitting down for our evening meal.
Friday was our first complete day exploring the island, and our destination for the day was Port Erin. We headed south down Marine Drive, which was a gated road, so no traffic - Just how we like it. However, the gates did present a small problem for our tandem riders, as it wouldn't fit through the pedestrian gate. We had to lift it over. Thankfully there were only two. The views along this section were great, with rocky cliffs and amazing strata.
Heading inland at Port Soderick, we stopped for a light lunch at Castletown, and the first of our BCQ questions, (after full Manx breakfasts, we didn't need much fuel yet). CTC labelled bollards next to some railings marked the perfect spot to secure our bikes. After lunch, and replacing a broken gear cable we headed west through Port St. Mary, and on through Cregneash to the tip of the island where we spotted seals basking on the rocks between us and the Calf of Man.
Heading north we reached or destination, Port Erin, where we boarded the Isle of Man Steam Railway for our return journey to Douglas. 25 miles covered.
Our destination for Saturday was Peel, and we headed cross country taking in Parliament Hill (or Tynwald), the origin of the Manx Parliament. The return trip was via Cronk-y-Voddy for our next BCQ question, and then along part of the famous TT circuit, but unfortunately the weather was against us, with rain and sleet seeing us arriving back in Douglas a little earlier than expected. 33 miles covered.
A surprise was awaiting us back at the hotel, however, as we discovered that the Raleigh Pro Racing Team had taken over our cycle storage and were having a turbo trainer session prior to the Pro race on Sunday. The team staff were most accomodating though, and our bikes were soon saftely stored away for the evening. We even got a good look at the Pro racers bikes, sleek, red and yellow carbon machines, weighing less than one of our helmets!.
After the rain and sleet, it turned into a glorious evening, and as we were back at the hotel early, we passed the time before dinner with a casual stroll along the prom for a coffee.
Sunday was to be our longest ride. We split into two groups, the first jumping on the Electric Tram to Ramsay, whist the second group rode the coast road following, for the most part, the tram track. Calling to look at Old Lonan's church, for another BCQ question.
We then took a slight detour to look at the famous Laxey Wheel before continuing on to Maughold for another BCQ question, before heading into Ramsay for lunch at the Leisure Centre by the harbour.
After lunch we headed further north to Andreas for our final BCQ question of the day, before returning to Ramsay Tram Station to meet the other group of riders, who had been up to the northern tip of the island "Point of Ayre".
The challenge was now set. Who would be the first group back in Douglas? - Those catching the 4:40 tram, or the riders, leaving at 3:45? No doublt was in anybody's minds, it would take the riders a good three hours, and the tram would win by an hour. How wrong they were! On pulling into Douglas station, who was waiting to greet them. Arriving in Douglas 5 minutes before the tram, the riders had won!. You can see the shocked expressions on their faces if you look closely at the photos.
Monday was our final day, and not wanting to stray too far from Douglas, we took a leisurly ride back to Laxey for those that hadn't yet seen the wheel. A light lunch by the sea, and returning along the TT course past the Grandstand.
We stored the bikes at the hotel for the rest of the afternoon to have a short look around Douglas, and enjoyed a Fish and Chip tea before returning to the Ferry terminal for our sail home.
It was a late sailing, arriving back at Heysham at 11:30pm, where the minibus was waiting, getting the last rider home by 2:30am Tuesday morning.
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The 2015 CTC Birthday Rides were held at Newton Rigg Agricultural College just outside Penrith in Cumbria. The rides are held in a different region each year and are run by CTC Holidays with help from the local member group volunteers. This year around 250 members attended to celebrate the 137th birthday of the National CTC.
Seven Burnley and Pendle members attended the event, some staying in the en-suite accommodation with breakfast and evening meals provided, others making use of the caravanning facilities. There were a variety of rides each day ranging from less than 20 miles to 70 miles plus. The area around Penrith is a superb cycling area with access to the Lake District and the much under- appreciated Eden Valley. Our members generally tackled the shorter rides but nevertheless had superb rides around the quieter villages in the Eden Valley, the Ullswater area, and around the Mungrisdale area.
Entertainments were laid on each evening including a ceildh (video evidence available!) the Solway Saxophone Quartet (the joint was jumping!) and Murray the Magician (consensus -somebody was outside to let him out of the tank.)
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We spent the weekend of 24th to 26th July cycling around the Yorkshire Dales from our base in Hawes.
On Friday we rode over to Sedburgh via Appersett, Garsdale Head, where we took a break for lunch.
Whilst there we met an old member by the name of Derek Silverwood, he'd ridden over from Rimington that morning, and had stopped there for his sandwiches before heading back. He seemed to know most of the long term club members?
After lunch we made the return trip passing through Millthrop, Rash, Gawthrop and Dent, mainly following the River Dee before dropping back into Hawes where we visited the local Chippy for Tea.
On Saturday we were joined by several more riders, and we made the controversial decision to tackly Buttertubs (King of the Mountains: Stage 1: 2014 Tour de France). Heading up through Thwaite, Angram, Keld on our way to Kirkby Stephen for lunch.
Taking a more relaxing ride back to Hawes, through Outhgill and Aisgill, before relaxing for the evening in the local pub where we had an excellent meal.
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An early start on Friday, April 17th saw us arriving at Hesket Newmarket in the northern Lake District for a long weekends riding.
Hesket Newmarket is famed for it's pub "The Old Crown", the first registered co-operatively owned Pub in Britain. And our B&B was next door!.
We had three days of riding planned, starting on the Friday, with a trip out to the coast at Allonby where we could see right across the Solway Firth to Dumfries. Of course heading to the coast means it's largely downhill all the way. Which means it's uphill all the way back. I don't think we'll ever forget that long drag we finished with, before dropping back to Caldbeck, and Hesket Newmarket. Of course we then had to finish the day with a meal in The Old Crown.
Saturday saw us taking a circular route around Blencathra and Skiddaw, passing through Mosedale, Mungrisdale and Threlkeld before we joined the old railway line into Keswick, which is now resurfaced as a track for walkers and cyclists.
Keswick was heaving with tourists, as expected, and it was nice to hit the open lanes again as we headed back up towards Hesket Newmarket. Passing past Bassenthwaite, back through Caldbeck to our base, before returning to The Oddfellows Arms for dinner.
Sunday was a shorter ride. Heading east to Greystoke and the Cyclists Cafe for lunch, just outside the grounds of Greystoke Castle, home of the legendary Tarzan.
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Club weekend to Belgium 12th to 15th October 2013.
Six club members: John, Chris, Dave, Matt, Jim & Jackie met up at Hull on Saturday to travel on the overnight ferry to Zebrugge. It was a grey, wet day and there was a strong wind blowing - not what you want for a thirteen hour ferry journey. We parked on the long stay car park and put all our gear on the bikes.
Jim and Jackie were travelling light with just a saddle bag each. I'm relatively new to cycle touring, so had probably packed more than was necessary, so I was relieved to see others had packed similar amounts and alos had two panniers. After checking in we were packed off toward the ferry. It felt strange walking onto the ferry alongside the parked cars and lorries and we stowed our bikes right at the front of the car deck.
The ferry crossing was forecast to be quite rough due to the stormy weather. I get seasick so I was not looking forward to the journey, but fortunately Jackie had brought some motion sickness tablets and shared them out to the group. I took two and hoped for the best. We had prepaid our meals and once aboard agreed between ourselves to upgrade to the Brasserie retaurant. It was a good decision as we had an excellent meal with good service. It was impossible to walk down the corridors in a straight line by this time as the boat was rolling quite a bit, but the pills seemed to be working. After a couple of drinks in the piano bar we retired to our bunks. The worst of the weather was forecast for approx 1am but I slept through it and we all emerged for breakfast in good spirits.
After the buffet breakfast we donned our cycle gear ready for departure. As we could see it was raining, wet weather gear was definitely in order. As we all covered up it was obvious that Dave is made of stern stuff because he was in his cycling shorts! We made our way out of the ferry port and soon found the cycleways. The routes were of a good standard and seperated from the carriageway and pedestrians. We headed for the town of knokke Heist where we found a tourist information centre and bought a local cycling map. Using this and the maps John had downloaded from the internet we planned a revised shorter route to Sluis. We were already dripping wet by this stage and could wring our gloves out. It was really windy and still raining but so far the wind had been behind us as we headed north eastwards along the coast, but we knew that when we turned to head for Brugge we would be cycling into the wind.
We got to Sluis about 1pm and found a nice restaurant for lunch. We really only wanted a snack and a brew but the cafes didn't seem to cater for that so we ended up having a meal. We left around 2:15pm and continued our journey via Damme to Brugge and the santuary of the hotel. The cycling was very well signed and of an extremely high standard and it made navigation relatively simple. It is difficult to describe just how flat the area is and the only 'hills' we encountered involved cycling onto the canal levees. We arrived on the outskirts of Brugge and located the area of the city where our hotel was and plotted a route to it. The cycling in the city was so easy with priority given to cyclists when crossing side road junctions and dedicated phases at traffic signal junctions. We finally got to the hotel about 5pm, booked in and stored our bikes in a locked outbuilding. The hot shower was very welcome. The hotel had a dryer and they very kindly agreed to dry all our cycling kit.
After freshening up we met in the bar and booked a taxi into the centre of Brugge to find somewhere to eat and have a look at the historic city center which was very impressive. We returned to the hotel and turned in after a brief drink in the bar discussing the following day's ride.
The continental breakfast at the hotel was really good and accompanied by fine weather which was a bonus. We assembled for a photogragh outside the hotel and then rode into Brugge to see the city square and buy some gifts before riding northwards out of the city centre to pick up a large canal which would take us west towards Oostende. True to form the rain started as we joined the canal but fortunately it was accompanied by a mild wind rather than the raging storm of yesterday.
It was about 15 miles to the outskirts of Oostende whrer we turned north and headed on quiet roads for the coast, and the town of De Haan where we planned to find somewhere to have lunch. We found a small cafe where we had some nice cake and a welcome warm drink. From here we continued along the coast to Blankenberge which looked like a nice seaside town. We were a little early for the ferry and the rian had stopped so decided to take a less direct route to Zeebrugge.
For the first time all trip we missed the signs for the route we wnated and ended up on a cycle path at the side of a main road. We raelised we had gone wrong but found a cycle route which crossed the main road and as it turned out, it was the one we were meant to be on. Back on course we followed the quiet roads through fields of corn towards the coast and the ferry.
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The 2013 CTC Birthday Rides were held at Yarnfiled Park, North Staffordshire. The rides are held in a different region each year and are run by CTC Holidays with help from the local member group volunteers.
This year around 460 members attended to celebrate the 135th birthday of the National CTC.
The event was based at Yarnfield Park the British Telecom Training and Conference Centre. Members could stay in the en-suite accommodation with breakfast and evening meals provided, or could caravan or camp in the grounds either self catering or purchasing meals.
Burnley and Pendle CTC member group were well represented again, with 10 of our current members attending, along with a couple of our past members that have moved away from our area.
Detailed ride sheets were available for a wide range of routes along with a gazetter listing numerous places of interest in the surrounding area.
Entertainments were laid on each evening including talks, a quiz night, Jazz band and barn dance.
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Our Club Weekend from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th April 2013 was based in Miller's Dale, Peak District, Derbyshire.
Members stayed either at Eyam Youth Hostel or in caravans at Beech Croft Farm, Blackwell, just a few miles away.
Although the area is called the Peak District and there are not many flat roads and some seriously steep roads, cycling in the area is made a whole lot easier by using some of the many off road cycling trails, many of which follow the route of old railway lines with nice steady gradients.
Having made our own way down to Derbyshire on the Friday to check into our accommodation, we met up to discuss the route for the ride the following day.
We left the hostel and headed for Monsal Head on the Monsal Trail, which is one of the best of these trails, with a good surface and with pleny of interest passing through tunnels and over bridges and viaducts. We headed down toward Blackwell to meet the rest of the group that had been caravaning and then transfered onto the Tissington Trail and rode to Parsley for a refreshment stop at the cycle hire centre. Although we were only a couple of days away from May there was a bitterly cold wind and we were all searching our saddles bags for extra layers to put on.
Setting off again we then branched onto the High Peak Trail and continued for several miles before leaving the trail just past Gotham to get onto country lanes via Elton, & Alport. We then had a short excursion on a bridleway across a field and onto Bakewell for another stop and a sample of the local 'Bakewell Pudding' not 'Tart'. From here it was a very short ride to the end of the Monsal Trail and back to complete the circuit of just over 36 miles.
In the evening we all met up for a very nice meal at The Miner's Arms, Eyam.
On the Sunday we split up into smaller groups with some looking around the historic village of Eyam and it's museum, while others went for another cycle ride before packing up and heading home.
The village is famous for its part in the plague of 1665. When the plague arrived in the village, thought to be transmitted by a delivery of cloth from London to the local tailor, the villages took the brave decision to quarantine themselves, to prevent the spread to other villages, and as a result many of the villagers died with some familes losing up to 25 of their relatives.
By John Ramsden with additional photo's from Jim Duerden.
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