Cornwall
Training Ride
Last weekend Jake and I set off on our first multi-day
training ride into Cornwall, trading the stresses of dissertations and
university finals for a few days of a simpler life with only food, thirst and
fatigue to contend with.
We started off on the right footing with a large early
morning English Breakfast at the local student haunt ‘Caffeine Club’, looking
out the windows as roadwork signs were blowing down the street, thinking “What
have we gotten ourselves into?!”
Thankfully the wind and ominous clouds cleared up for the
morning and we made our way to the Cremyll Ferry over the Tamar into Mount
Edgcumbe in Cornwall. The name gives a good clue for what was to come! Immediately
upon leaving the Cremyll ferry landing we set off up the first large hill of
the day. And the large hills kept rolling onwards all of the way into Looe. The
skies were thankfully clear, however a gusting headwind made for some difficult
riding with a lot of effort on the up-hills, and occasionally on the down-hills
as well!
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| Jake with Rame Head in the background, taking a quick breather on a hill. |
Looe was our first objective for the morning, and we made it there in good time, although having probably set off too fast earlier on we were feeling the effects of the hills on our legs.
We stopped for the compulsory Cornish icecream while the sun
was still out, then set off deeper into Cornwall, up a welcome valley system
giving our legs a break for an hour. It was soon back up the hills again for
the rest of the day!
We tried our best to avoid major traffic routes, preferring
the quiet country lanes for a safer ride. Winding through the lanes through
high hedgerows sheltered us from the worst of the wind and made for very
pleasant riding throughout the day.
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| Winding country lanes. |
This was our first experience of riding long distance with panniers, carrying a similar weight to what we will be carrying across the United States this Summer and so we were slowly getting used to the different weight distribution on the bikes while carrying panniers. As our confidence grew, we were comfortable taking corners a bit faster and had a few less “wobbly” moments on the bikes later in the day.
I also got to practise my rolling photo taking abilities, to mixed results!
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| Me attempting a ride-by photo shoot with my phone. Maybe I should just buy a helmet cam... |
We pulled into Polruan for lunch and to catch the ferry over the Fowey. A portion of fish and lovely chips went down a treat to replace all of the salts and energy we had spent over the hills so far.
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| Polruan ferry over the Fowey. |
A few more hills and we found ourselves just shy of Truro with jellied legs and opted to call it a day. We found the nearest campsite within shouting distance of a warm pub and pulled up for the night. A slightly boggy field has never looked so inviting!
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| Campsite outside Truro. |
The next morning we hurriedly packed away the tent, aware or the impending rain forecast for the day ahead, and thankful for the ease in the wind (at least early on).
More country lanes and big hills characterised that morning, coupled with a growing Westerly wind and intensifying “precipitation” (never say the ‘R’ word). As the drizzle turned to downpour we pulled into Truro, where I bought an extra drysack and a 1:100k map of Cornwall which was to prove immensely useful later on for route finding (our original plan being to simply “go West” until we hit Land’s End!).
We picked up cycle route 3 which we opted to follow for the remainder of the way to Land’s End. Being well signposted (mostly!), it made route planning much easier and let us concentrate on keeping each others morale up through the persistent drizzle typical of the UK. It was at this stage, after a particularly long and winding hill through headwind and rain that the trip received its’s unofficial name “Exercise Gopping Kernow”.
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| Taking a breather up the hill out of the campsite. This is where the name "Gopping Kernow" was coined. |
Following route 3 also let us test our bikes on a variety of types of ground, and led us through some unexpected scenery, including an old quarry works with a large iron content in the ground (judging by the red water).
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| Cycling through an old quarry on cycle route 3. |
The ground was flatter than before and despite the headwind we made good progress, cycling 10 miles further than we did the previous day. We passed through Penzance and Newlyn, where the surveyor in me had a little moment of appreciation for the Newlyn tide gauge where the UK datum sea level was derived, for some reason Jake did not share my enthusiasm?!
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| Still raining on the way through Penzance. |
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| Quick tweaks on the brakes. |
After making a few tweaks to the brakes (both our brakes decided to stop working on the way into Penzance, resulting in some hilariously dramatic low speed collisions with static objects) we progressed on and found our first sign to Land’s End! The celebration was short lived though, as the hills started up again at this point too.
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| Jake looking "enthused" about the following hill. It was deceptively steep. |
Daylight was fading, and so we opted to stop short of Land’s End for the night, and continue on in the morning. We found a well-equipped and quiet camping and caravan site in St Buryan, a stone’s throw from the very friendly local pub.
Gopping Kernow lived up to its name, and we only just managed to get the tent up in a momentary lull in the rain.
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| Campsite 2, in St Buryan, just shy of Land's End. |
Through a strong headwind, and heavy fog, we wound our way through the country lanes the next morning and emerged out of the murk into Land’s End just in time for the start of the heavy downpour forecast for the morning. We snapped the compulsory Land’s End photo, noting that we will be cycling further than the distance between Land’s End and New York if the sign is anything to go by! We then hid from the rain at the Land’s End restaurant for an hour or so.
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| Land's End, the Southern-most tip of the UK mainland. We are closer to New York here than we will be when we set off from Annacortes, near Seattle, in July. |
When we were confident the rain had stopped we rushed back to our bikes and were hastily on our way, trying to fend off the cold as we cycled off fully layered up.
Finally the wind played into our favour! Strong gusting tail wind meant we made light work (ish) of the hills heading back East along the Northern coast. This being the route we understood most Land’s End to Jon-O-Groats challengers to take, we concluded they do not know the true wrath of Kernow, as the hills were shallower in gradient and separated with flat ground (we forgot what cycling on flat ground felt like!). Before long we were cycling through the lifting fog into St Ives. It was coming down this hill that the winds took on a new character. Gusting crosswinds made life extremely interesting from here on during the downhills. As Jake put it “I must have almost died literally four million times coming down that hill!”
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| Setting off down the hill into St Ives. Crosswinds made for tricky riding at this point. |
The coastal route was on the whole much easier going than the previous days and we managed close to 70 miles. Before we knew it we were seeing signs to Newquay!
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| First sign to Newquay. |
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| Getting close to Newquay now. All smiles. |
This was deceiving however. The hills returned with a vengeance and the next hour was a test of endurance as we pushed on with tired legs. After pulling into Newquay briefly for some cash, we both concluded that neither of us liked the place (possibly influenced by the great hill it lies on…) and we would camp outside of the town. It seems we arrived just short of the start of the season and the first few campsites were closed, leaving us the only option of descending the great hill we had climbed into Newquay to stay at the Riverside Campsite. By the end we were just happy to have a pitch and a warm meal!
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| Me cooking up a gourmet meal of boil-in-the-bag rations for the evening. |
We celebrated with a well earned pint at the King’s Head, retired for the night, then made our way back into Newquay for the morning, catching the Sunday train service back to Plymouth.
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| Feeling a sense of achievement having made it to Newquay earlier than we thought. |
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| The Galaxys on the train. Time to relax. |
The trip totalled 175 miles, and we are feeling confident for our next ride where Owen should be along as well. He was away on a very difficult and challenging week of skiing in the sunny Austrian Alps during this training ride. I am sure he wished he was enjoying the rain in Cornwall with us the whole time.
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| 175.2 miles on the computer. |
We both drew valuable lessons from this trip. We know that it pays off to keep the intensity low for endurance, as does a large breakfast. We cycled the furthest on the hilliest day despite a late start from the Land’s End Restaurant, after having a breakfast totalling probably around 1500 calories and taking it easy on the uphill stretches. We know a large porch area on the tent we take to America will be invaluable for admin. The kit list has been refined to add things that we were lacking, and remove things we did not use. And most importantly we both enjoyed the whole experience!
If you made it this far well done and thanks for reading!
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Rich
