Sheffield based Andy Jones is one of the UK's leading cycling photographers with many years experience both at UK and Continental events. Andy works for Cycling Weekly and Cycle Sport and is also a keen cyclist

 

 

Andy's snowy weekend break

Over the weekend of 27th-29th November 2009, Peak RC had their annual social weekend away. Last year it was in Bala, North Wales and you can still read the blog from that weekend on the site here. This year we went up to Eggleston, County Durham. Our numbers this time included, Paul Bell, Alan Broadbent, Dan Cook, Steve Gibson, Tony Grassby, Simon Owens, Simon Wells and myself. Chris Myhill had planned to come along too, but a nasty chest infection unfortunately prevented him coming along this time. So in the team photo you will see from left to right, Paul, Simon W, Alan, Me, Steve, Tony, Dan and Simon O.

We drove up to Eggleston on Friday evening. I was last to arrive at our self catering accommodation - Stable Court, a grade II listed farmhouse situated just outside the main village. The lads had already found The Three Tuns Inn down in the village and it was where I met up with them for a bite to eat.

Returning later to the accommodation it was chance to investigate the farmhouse further. A fabulous place. Open fires, big aga equipped kitchen, two living rooms and out buildings to
store the bikes. A perfect ‘team’ base for
the weekend.

Saturday and our ride turned out to be a
90 mile epic. We were lucky with the weather
having generally blue skies and sunshine for the day. However, we did get caught in low cloud on occasions but were able to climb out of it to reveal some stunningly lit views across the areas varied rural landscape.

Setting out just after nine o’clock, our route out of Eggleston headed for Middleton-in-Teesdale where we took the road to Brough and entered Cumbria. Our views along this road were fabulous and we saw out first
snow of the season highlighted by the early
morning sunlight over on the summit of Mickle
Fell in the distance.

The first mechanical of the day occurred
shortly after this point. The descent towards Brough saw Alan’s front brake fall apart. His Scott cross bike’s front cantilever assembly fell out of the carbon fork recessed mounting. A very worrying fault there. It seemingly is only bonded in and the main force on the braking assembly is always going to try and pull it out.

We were at around twenty miles in to the ride
and Alan decided to pedal back slowly on his
own without a front brake to try and get it fixed for Sunday. He bought some Araldite and
bonded it back in ready for Sunday!

It wasn’t long after we were back on our way
that I had a mechanical mishap too! One of the
front stem bolts went ping leaving the handlebars very loose. I managed to keep the bike under control and got myself to a stop. We used a bolt from the steerer clamp end of the stem to secure the bars until we got to the nearest town for a spare bolt which happened to be Appleby-in-Westmorland famed for it‘s horse fair in the summer.

We found a discount motor spares place in the main street there which was like going back in time. An 'Arkwright's' of the motor world. There were just trays and trays of
assorted bolts and other spares. We
rummaged around for a suitable bolt to enable
a temporary bolt to go back in the stem clamp.
The shop had an adjoining workshop with
seemingly layers of work debris going back
to when time began. The proprietor in the workshop cleared an area on the bench to reveal a vice and produced a hack saw to enable us to cut the bolt to the correct length. Saved the day.

It was then back on the road towards Knock and the climb up Great Dun Fell. Epic! The bottom half was in sunshine. We soon found ourselves above the snow line where the road became too icy to carry on. We were at around 720m and there was still nearly another mile to the summit and another 128m
of ascent which we couldn‘t see for low cloud.

We about turned and descended back in to the valley and headed
for our next challenge up Hartside Fell. Another epic climb
where once again we found snow towards the 580m summit. The Hartside cafe at the top was most welcome as we were all running low on energy. Walking round in to the café, the snow in my cleats turned to ice and I could hardly walk straight.

Fuelled up, it was on with the capes for the descent to Alston. Halfway down Simon Wells had a puncture, so another stop for a repair here.

Alston is a fantastic old market town with a steep cobbled climb comparable with anything you get in Flanders. From there we took the road back towards Middleton-in-Teesdale and back in to Durham. The last 10-15 miles of the ride became a bit of a through
and off TTT and we soon rattled off the final miles back towards
base with the closing mile seeing the inevitable attacks going
off the front as dusk set in. What a day in the saddle.

Saturday evening we made a curry night and ordered in a feast from the local Tandoori in Barnard Castle. With stomachs aching, we relaxed around the large wood burner in the front sitting room.

Sunday dawned to heavy rain. And yet more rain! The delayed start to the day gave chance for Steve’s traditional final morning cooked breakfast to be digested a little better than perhaps it had been last year. Alan, Dan and Simon W helped Steve polish off the mountain of bacon, beans, eggs, mushrooms, sausages and tomatoes.
By around 10:30 the rain had eased a little and so we all
ventured out regardless for a run over Bollihope to Stanhope
and then up Crawleyside. The rain as we reached the
exposed summit of Bollihope was getting worse and the wind was picking up. We disturbed half a dozen Red Grouse that had been hunkered down in the heather by the roadside as we crested the Bollihope summit before the tricky descent in to Stanhope. By Crawleyside it was lashing down and the wind seemed even stronger. The roads were like rivers in places
by now.

We about turned at the entrance to Parkhead Station café by the old rail wagon and headed back the quickest way possible which was back over the way we came. There was a suggestion to try and bag the climb of St John’s Chapel but the conditions were
against us. The summit of Bollihope on our return was even wilder
with sleet and snow driving in at us, cutting in to your face. A tail
wind down the descent in to Eggleston was most welcome as we
skimmed through the rivers of water running down the road. I spotted a Red Kite lazily flying over the road close to our base, no doubt making a note of our weary bodies as we arrived back. The short ride of 32 miles had turned in to as much an epic as the previous days marathon ride.

Hot showers and baths all round remedied our semi hypothermic bodies which was followed by cups of tea and malt loaf around a roaring open fire. Perfection.

What a truly memorable weekend.