Читать книгу The Lancashire Cycleway - Jon Sparks - Страница 9

INTRODUCTION

Cycling is one of the best ways of getting around, and of seeing places, that has ever been devised. It’s fast enough to get somewhere, yet slow enough to see everything along the way. And you don’t just see: you can use your other senses too. You can hear the birdsong and smell the flowers. Cars don’t just travel too fast, they also insulate their occupants from the world outside – not least by creating noise and smells of their own. Cycling also means you feel the country: as Ernest Hemingway said, ‘it is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.’

Cycling is also immensely satisfying. To get somewhere by your own effort is rewarding in itself. And when you get to the top of a long hill, you’ll appreciate the view all the more. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that it’s all about suffering – it isn’t. Cycling, above all, is fun. If you’re sensibly prepared, if your bike is set up correctly for you (see ‘Correct riding position’ under ‘Bike choice and setup’ below), and if you don’t try to go too far too soon, then cycling is one of the most physically pleasurable things you can legally do in public.

There are, then, plenty of good reasons to go cycling. But why cycling in Lancashire? This is easy to answer – Lancashire is beautiful. This may surprise a few people, but it’s true. A few southerners may still cherish the ‘grim up north’ image, but dark satanic mills, flat caps and whippets are generally thin on the ground. The plain fact is that most of Lancashire – especially as seen from the Cycleway – is rural. Indeed, it includes a lot of countryside that looks quintessentially English: rolling hills clad in a patchwork of fields, woods and hedges. But no such generalisation will do justice to the diversity of Lancashire.

Lune Valley from above Crook O’Lune, Ingleborough in the distance (Stage 6)

Of course the county does have an industrial heritage. Two centuries ago, cotton was king and great mill towns like Blackburn and Burnley shipped cloth to half the world. The early days of canals and railways are well-represented too, not to mention Britain’s first stretch of motorway. However, Lancashire’s heritage goes much deeper. There are Roman sites like Ribchester, great mediaeval monuments like Lancaster’s castle and Priory Church, magnificent houses like Stonyhurst or Samlesbury Hall, and literally hundreds of ancient villages. In a different dimension, Blackpool is the original seaside resort and remains, for millions, the definitive example.

Lancashire’s rural character is particularly evident on the Northern Loop, but throughout the county green countryside is rarely far away. The Pennine moors offer vast expanses of open space, with the population largely confined to narrow valleys. Further west there are miles of level fields and reclaimed marshes, where you could almost imagine yourself in Holland. The closeness of town and country is best exemplified where the Cycleway slips between Preston and Blackburn. Lancashire’s two largest towns – correction, Preston is now officially a city – are barely 12km apart, yet the route finds quiet, shady lanes.

Further north, the population is concentrated close to the coast. Apart from Lancaster, which is not on the official route but is invaluable for access by rail, there are no large towns on the Northern Loop at all. Instead there is the gentle loveliness of the Ribble and Lune Valleys, flanking the high heathery ridges of the Bowland Fells. The county has sole claim on one Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (Forest of Bowland) and a half-share in another (Arnside and Silverdale). The Northern Loop gives you a thorough look at both areas, while the Southern Loop makes brief acquaintance with the Forest of Bowland.

If you don’t know Lancashire, it will surprise you. Even if you do, there are probably some corners you haven’t yet discovered. Either way, cycling is a great way to explore the county.

Descending from Cross O’Greet, Pendle Hill in the distance (Stage 2)

The Lancashire Cycleway

On a map the Lancashire Cycleway resembles a rather squashed figure 8, whose two loops meet at Whalley in the Ribble Valley. The Northern Loop is approximately 208km (130 miles) in length, the Southern a fraction longer at 217km (135 miles). There are similarities between the two, with both being flat in the west and hilly in the east, but there are also distinct differences in character. The Northern Loop is almost entirely rural, while the Southern Loop, clever as it is, cannot entirely avoid some urban sections. None of these, however, are too long and, this being Lancashire, you generally soon escape back into open country.

The Northern Loop is entirely on tarmac. Apart from the (unofficial) Lancaster Link, which exploits a dedicated and well-surfaced cycle track, all of it is on public roads, mostly minor roads and quiet lanes.

The Southern Loop also has a few fairly short sections on surfaced cycle tracks, but otherwise the route again mainly follows quieter roads and lanes. There are a couple of urban sections, through Rawtenstall and Haslingden and also around Adlington. Generally these are not excessively busy, but school run and peak commuting times are best avoided if possible.

This book describes both loops in a clockwise direction, but of course they can be tackled either way and are signed accordingly. At first sight doing the route anti-clockwise would seem to mean more left turns and fewer right turns. Left turns are easier when there’s traffic about, which may be a consideration if you are nervous about tangling with cars. In fact, with such a complex route, there’s little difference between the overall numbers of lefts and rights. Tackling the loops clockwise, however, takes greater advantage of the prevailing south-west wind for the flat sections, and generally means that the biggest climbs are taken from their easier side.

Experienced cycle tourists may tackle either loop in a weekend, or comfortably complete the entire Cycleway in a few days. The less experienced or less ambitious will be glad to know that it’s easy to break it up into shorter sections: perhaps, but not necessarily, the eleven stages described in this guide. There is much to be said for the more leisurely approach, taking time to smell the flowers at the roadside, amble down to a river bank, or visit some of the attractions near the route.

Tackling the route as one (or two) continuous circuit(s) is only one approach. You can also break it up into day rides. The best way to do this is by using the trains (see ‘Making connections’, in Appendix B, for more details). The Southern Loop is criss-crossed by railway lines and the permutations are almost infinite. The northern half of the county has a sparser, but still adequate, rail network. A selection of suggested day rides is briefly outlined after the main route description.

For reasons of space, further information concerning places the day rides pass through is not reproduced from the Lancashire Cycleway stage directions, but cross‐references to the relevant stages are provided in the information boxes at the beginning of each day ride.

As the junction of the Northern and Southern Loops, Whalley is an obvious starting point, and the County Council has consistently promoted it as such. However, it is not particularly convenient for arrival by rail (from most directions). Visitors from outside the region will generally find Lancaster to be the best starting point for the Northern Loop, and therefore the description of the route starts here, but since it’s broken into convenient sections, you can easily start from wherever suits you best.

For the Southern Loop, the choice is less clear cut. The route officially begins from Whalley, but again you can start anywhere that suits you: if you’re arriving by rail the Wigan Link, connecting Wigan North Western station with the Cycleway, may come in handy (see Stage 9a).

If you’re tackling both loops in one continuous ride you will transfer from one to the other at Whalley, but you can still start and finish at Lancaster, or anywhere else that suits you.

Whalley Abbey. Whalley is the hub where the Northern and Southern Loops meet (Stages 4 and 7)

Preparation

Experienced cycle tourists can skip this section, but if your previous cycling experience has been confined to nipping out for a loaf of bread, or riding to school a decade or two ago, there may be several questions that concern you. The most basic, of course, is ‘am I up to it?’ And then there are other questions, like ‘do I need a new bike?’ and ‘what do I need to take with me?’

Am I up to it?

For the majority of people the answer is yes, provided you prepare sensibly. Mind you, there’s only one way to find out for sure! But tackling the Lancashire Cycleway isn’t an all-or-nothing commitment. You can take it in easy stages, and many of them have bail-out options at railway stations. Pro cyclists might cover the Northern or Southern Loop in a few hours and regard it as a good training ride (one-day Classics like Milan–San Remo or the Tour of Flanders are significantly longer). Some experienced cycle tourists will happily tackle either loop in a weekend. But others may get equal or greater enjoyment and satisfaction from spending a week over one of the loops, or indeed doing it in dribs and drabs over a longer period.

Even 20km can seem a long way if you’re not used to it. Like anything, cycling gets easier if you do it regularly, and as it principally uses the leg muscles – which are the largest in the body – it is among the best forms of exercise for all-round fitness. Using a bike to get to work or to the shops is a good way to get into the swing of cycling, as well as saving you money, and very often time as well. If that doesn’t appeal or isn’t practical, regular rides at evenings and weekends will do you good too.

Daffodils near Wolf House Gallery, with Morecambe Bay behind (Stage 1)

Bike choice and setup

Most bikes will serve. Maybe not the one buried in the garden shed, with wobbly wheels and rusty chain, but anything roadworthy will get you started. Of course, if your bike hasn’t been used for a while – or maybe even if it has – it deserves a thorough check. If you’re not sure of your mechanical skills, head to your local bike shop. A professional service will set you back a few quid, but it’s worth it for the difference it can make, both to your safety and to your riding pleasure. If it gets you riding more often, the expense will be repaid many times over in petrol, car parking and other costs.

If you haven’t got a usable bike already, it’s well worth looking around for second-hand bargains. The boom in road cycling since the first edition of this guide means there are fewer road bikes languishing unused in sheds and garages, but bargains are still out there. Even if you have to replace a few components, excellent deals can be found, but be careful: if you aren’t clued up about bikes, take advice from someone who is. Be particularly wary of bikes that appear far cheaper than they should be. Unscrupulous sellers may be keeping quiet about a hard-to-spot issue, like crash damage causing cracks or misalignment. And, of course, stolen bikes surface from time to time.

If you are buying a new bike – whether brand new, or just new to you – there are a few things to think about. A lot of Dutch people have several bikes, but most people in Britain manage with just one. As your new steed may have to serve multiple purposes, take time to consider exactly what you want to do with it before you open your wallet, preferably before you even start shopping around.

Despite the road bike boom, the majority of new bikes sold are hybrids. Hybrids look superficially like mountain bikes, with wide flat bars and fairly chunky wheels and frame. They’re great for light off-road use, like canal towpaths or forest roads. True mountain bikes come into their own on rougher terrain, but if you’re staying on tarmac, fat tyres and suspension will soak up not only the bumps, but also much of the effort you’re expending. ‘Supermarket special’ mountain bikes – sometimes called ‘bicycle-shaped objects’ – are often excessively heavy, burdened with ineffective, essentially pointless suspension. For the Lancashire Cycleway, and pretty much everything else, they’ll make your life worse rather than better.

For riding longer distances road bikes still have many advantages, not least that dropped handlebars give a greater variety of riding positions and allow you to be much more aerodynamic. This can become very important if you encounter a headwind on the Fylde.

The bikes used in the Tour de France may be feather-light works of engineering art, with carbon fibre frames and electronic gear shifting, but the essence of the design hasn’t changed for well over 50 years. Bike-makers pursue innovation in the hope of selling more bikes, and there has been a steady process of development and upgrading, and the advent of ever more specialised and radical bikes, notably for time-trials and triathlons. Even so, the all-round bikes used for road stages in the Tour are still recognisably related to what Fausto Coppi or Eddy Merckx rode. This is, quite simply, because you can’t improve on perfection.

Gorgeous though the Tour bikes may be, even if money’s no object they aren’t quite perfect for the Lancashire Cycleway. You’re looking for something with a slightly softer and more stable ride, like the bikes now aimed at the sportive market. Sportives are mass-participation events, not races, over a range of distances up to, and occasionally exceeding, 100 miles.

An endurance or sportive road bike is a good choice for riding long distances

A new, but very interesting, niche is the ‘gravel’ bike (terms like ‘adventure bike’ may be used instead). At first glance these closely resemble traditional road bikes, but they probably have disc brakes, have a slightly more resilient ride and are built to take wider tyres. They’re still pretty nippy on the roads but can also handle off-road duties, well beyond mere towpaths and forest tracks.

In any case, budget at least £300 for a worthwhile new bike. If you plan to get serious, be prepared to invest significantly more. Cheaper bikes may look superficially similar but almost certainly won’t last as long (or hold their re-sale value). If your budget is much below £300, you will be better off shopping around for a good second-hand machine.

Having said all that, any bike which gets used instead of bus or car will pay for itself sooner or later. If your employer is signed up to Cyclescheme (www.cyclescheme.co.uk), you should be able to get tax breaks on any new bike up to £1000, saving you up to 42%.

Do you regularly get off and push on hills? A really vicious climb will have most people walking, but if you’re regularly getting off on slopes of 15% or easier it’s worth reviewing your bike’s range of gears. With the right range of gears, cycling’s easier than walking on any incline you’ll meet on the Lancashire Cycleway (the maximum is about 18%).

If your bike’s existing gears aren’t low enough, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need a new bike. New sprockets and/or chainrings may be all you need, with perhaps also a new rear derailleur – ask your bike shop.

If you do have a mountain bike, you’ll almost certainly have low enough gearing for any climb on the Cycleway. For long days on tarmac, do yourself a huge favour and swap those knobbly tyres for something smoother. Those chunky knobs are for soft and loose surfaces; road tyres generally have pretty minimal tread. Higher pressures give a harder ride, but transmit your pedalling effort efficiently. However, current thinking is that wider tyres and proportionately lower pressures can give a smoother ride with minimal penalty in effort. For road bikes, 25mm to 28mm tyres have become much more common in recent years, even for racing. Mountain bikes and hybrids will have wider tyres anyway.

One other thing: traditional ‘ladies’ frame designs have little to recommend them, unless you actually plan to go riding wearing a long skirt. It’s unlikely you’ll want to do this on the Lancashire Cycleway, but if you’re using the same bike for riding to work, then lots of bikes, including many contemporary road bikes, have a sloping top tube (‘crossbar’).

Correct riding position

Whether you’re on a brand new bike or you’ve dusted off an old one, a vital and yet frequently neglected issue is getting the riding position right. Cycling might require effort at times – all exercise does – but it shouldn’t be continuously uncomfortable, and there’s no need to make it harder than it has to be. All too many give up after a few outings because their knees or back always hurt. It’s simply tragic that so many people have never experienced the pleasure and sense of ‘rightness’ of a bike that’s set up correctly for their individual dimensions.

A decent bike shop will be able to help you: in fact, if they don’t take the time to fit your new bike to you, they aren’t a decent bike shop. A real bike shop will also help you check your position on your existing bike. A basic assessment can be done in five minutes, and many bike shops will give you a quick once-over for no charge, especially if you’re buying new tyres or other bits and pieces. However, if you’re planning on riding far, or fast, or both, then the finer points of your riding position assume greater importance.

These riders both have an efficient but relaxed position on the bike

A full bike-fit is a serious and skilled business, and likely to take at least an hour. You can’t expect that level of attention for nothing, but it’s money well spent.

While a proper bike-fit requires skilled professional input, you can at least make a rough assessment for yourself. There are two essential elements.

First, get the saddle position right – not just height, but fore-and-aft as well. This is vital for efficient pedalling. Once it’s right, you’ll be able to ride faster for the same effort, or the same speed for less effort. A correctly set saddle also greatly reduces the risks of problems with your knees – usually when the saddle’s too low, or hips – more likely when it’s too high. The longer and harder you ride, the more important this becomes. As a very rough guide for saddle height, your leg should still be slightly flexed at the bottom of the pedal stroke. As a similarly rough check on the fore-and-aft position, set the cranks horizontal: you should then be able to drop a plumb line from kneecap to pedal spindle on your leading leg.

Second, get the handlebars set right. This affects stability, control, aerodynamics and above all comfort. Aches in the back, shoulders or neck (possibly all three!) are all too likely if this aspect is wrong. Again, both height and fore-and-aft placement need to be right. This may mean spending money on a new stem. Again, it will be worth it many times over.

If you find it impossible to get these elements even approximately right, it may be that the bike itself, and specifically the frame, is the wrong size. If it is, no amount of fiddling with saddle and handlebars will make it completely right. With so many different frame designs now available, it isn’t possible to give a short explanation of how to resolve this: consult your bike shop or one of the recommended books/websites listed in Appendix A.

With the riding position sorted, nothing can make or break your ride more decisively than the saddle. Choose one that’s too hard and the results are obvious. But too soft a saddle can be just as bad. It may feel comfortable to sit on, but pedalling isn’t sitting. There are many weird and (mostly) wonderful designs available nowadays, including cutaway types that may look like instruments of torture but actually relieve the pressure in crucial areas. Male and female anatomy differ significantly in these areas, and there is much to be said for gender-specific saddles. Saddle-fit is very personal, but is dictated above all by the spacing of your sit-bones (ischial tuberosities). This must be measured: you can’t judge it by eye or infer it from other vital statistics.

Cycling is healthy, sociable and above all fun

Clothing

Having just discussed saddles, let’s consider the bit that sits thereon. In warm weather shorts are great, but neither everyday nor running shorts are designed for cycling. Proper cycling shorts are cut for comfort when riding, and have padding in the crucial area. You can also buy padded inner-shorts which you can wear under ordinary trousers or tracksuit bottoms. Close-fitting, stretchy tracksuit bottoms are OK but baggy ones will catch on chains and gears and make your life a misery. In fact, baggy clothes in general will flap infuriatingly at speed and act like a sail when the wind’s against you. Cycling shorts (or those padded inners) go next to the skin. Do not wear underwear beneath them: this grievous faux pas is potentially painful.

Shoes are equally important. A firm sole unit ensures that effort is transmitted to the pedals, and that the pedals don’t feel like they’re cutting into your feet after an hour or two. Trainers are not necessarily better than traditional shoes: it can be worth going through your wardrobe with an open mind. Cycling shoes are, of course, made specifically for the job. Out-and-out racing shoes can be difficult to walk in: mountain bike or touring shoes are better.

Old-style toe-clips and straps are now rare, as so-called clipless pedals have almost completely taken over. These greatly enhance pedalling efficiency, but must be matched with compatible cleats fixed to the shoes. There are many different cleat/pedal systems: Shimano’s SPD is the best-known, but even this comes in two incompatible flavours; the ‘mountain bike’ variety is better if you plan on walking any distance.

For the upper body, dedicated cycling kit is great but can be pricey, and isn’t entirely essential. There’s no need to become a mobile advertising hoarding like the Tour riders, although bright colours make you more visible to other road users. A lot of cycling kit isn’t vastly different from other outdoor clothing, except for being cut longer at the rear to avoid exposing the lower back when riding. Cycling jerseys often have rear pockets, a good place to carry essentials like wallet and phone, although not if you’re also using a rucksack or bum-bag.

It can get pretty warm going up hills, and a lot cooler going down the other side. Traditionally, Tour de France riders would stuff a newspaper up the front of their jerseys for those long, chilly, Alpine descents. As newspapers aren’t readily available at the top of Cross O’Greet, a light windproof layer is a good alternative for descents on cooler days. Although it rarely rains in Lancashire, it won’t hurt if it’s waterproof too.

Gloves have two main purposes: keeping your hands warm is only one. Proper cycling gloves have subtle padding where your hands rest on the bars, and this improves comfort immeasurably. In warmer weather, fingerless gloves with ventilated backs, often called track mitts, keep this comfort advantage but stay fairly cool. Some people, including some pros, can’t bear riding with gloves, but I feel naked without them even on a two-minute spin to the corner shop.

Last but not least, a helmet may serve no purpose whatever most of the time, but there just might be that millisecond when it could save your life. Modern cycling helmets are extremely light and well-ventilated and you'll probably forget you’re wearing one. If you still overheat, shaving your head has been found to help. Like everything else, a helmet must fit properly. Don’t wear it tipped back on your head, as so many people do. The front rim should be, at most, three fingers’ width above your eyebrows.

Carrying gear

Weight is not the most crucial factor when cycling on the flat, but certainly makes a difference when you hit the hills. How you carry it is important too. A bum-bag is reasonable, but if you need to carry a large rucksack, think again. On your back is really the worst place for heavy loads. It will make your back sweaty, compromise your balance, and may obscure your vision to the rear. It can also give you backache and a sore posterior.

For day rides, especially if you buy food and drink along the way, you can travel very light anyway. A spare inner tube and/or patches, a multi-tool and a pump are vital, and you’ll probably want a couple of bits of extra clothing in case the weather changes. This book is also essential, the relevant OS maps are a good thing too, and most people carry a camera of some sort. Incidentally, carrying a repair kit is pointless unless you know what to do with it.

This much kit can usually be distributed under the saddle and in the back pockets of a cycling jersey or a bum-bag. A substantial saddle-pack is a traditional solution but a handlebar-bag makes everything just that bit more accessible. Some have a clear pocket on top to hold map or guidebook for instant reference (but don’t read while you’re riding!).

A handy, adaptable saddle-pack from Apidura

For trips involving a night or two away you’ll need somewhat more clothing and a few toiletries. If you’re crafty, and fairly strict about excluding non-essentials, you can still get everything into a good-sized saddlebag or a saddlebag and bar-bag.

For longer trips, or if you’re camping, panniers are the traditional way to carry substantial loads, but if you’ve never been cycle-touring before a trip that needs panniers seems a bit like going in at the deep end. On the other hand, if your bike already has a suitable rack, then panniers (maybe just one if you’re travelling light) could be the easiest and most economical option.

Potholes and pitfalls

It has to be said: a lot of the roads on the Cycleway, like many others elsewhere in the county and across the country, have deteriorated noticeably since the first edition of this guide appeared.

As noted above, wider tyres run at slightly lower pressures will mitigate the discomfort of rough surfaces, but they won’t help you if you hit a real pothole at speed. Keep your wits about you and scan well ahead for these hazards. Don’t ride too close into the gutter as this can limit your options. If there’s traffic about and you need to move out to avoid a pothole, make your intentions clear and make your move in good time.

Deviations from the route

As this is an ‘official’ cycleway it’s not up to a guidebook author to tinker with the route, but I have suggested one or two slight deviations where these seem to make sense.

The Priory Church, one of the glories of Lancaster’s Castle Hill (Stage 1a)

There have been a few, mostly minor, modifications to the official route in the last decade. The most obvious is around Buckshaw Village (Stage 11 of the Southern Loop). What was a virtual wasteland when the first edition of this guide was published is now a large community, with hundreds of houses, shops, industry, even a new railway station.

One factor of growing importance is the spread of dedicated cycle routes, whether purpose-built or adapted. Where these provide traffic-free routes which link comfortably to the rest of the Cycleway, this is generally most welcome.

However, such provision can encourage the misguided (and thankfully rare) view that cyclists should only be on dedicated cycle tracks, not on the roads at all. When, and only when, cycle provision in this country is on a par with that in the Netherlands or Denmark, can there be any justification for such opinions. Meanwhile, and in the foreseeable future, we have every right to ride on all normal roads apart from motorways. Every time you or I make a journey by bike instead of by car, we are reducing congestion, not adding to it, for which any reasonable motorist can only be grateful.

Whatever the politics, there will be further changes to the Cycleway route in the future. It’s even possible that a wholesale re-drawing of the route could take place, although this will only happen when funding is available to support a consultation process, new signage, mapping and so on. As author of this book, I hope to be involved in any such consultation and would welcome feedback from readers.

The obvious place to track such developments, you might think, is the internet, but I’ve yet to find a site that can be relied upon to be up to date. We’ll do our best with the Updates tab on this book’s page on the Cicerone website (www.cicerone.co.uk), and you can help by letting us know of any changes you notice.

Signage

Based on my experience (I re-rode the entire route in the early months of 2016), 99% of junctions on the Lancashire Cycleway are correctly signed. All well and good, but what about the 1%, those odd spots where, perhaps as the result of mischief, signs are missing or wrongly aligned?

If you rely solely on signs to navigate, one missing sign (or even one that’s momentarily hidden by a double-decker bus) can throw you right off, and by the time you realise you may have scant idea where you are or how to get back on route. It’s wiser to maintain a running check against the text and maps in this book. GPS navigation is another great standby.

Several stretches are shared with other National Cycle Network routes and the proliferation of blue signs could be confusing. The Northern Loop of the Cycleway is NCN route 90 and the Southern Loop is route 91. Other NCN routes you’ll encounter include National Route 6 (London–Cumbria), Route 55 (Ironbridge–Preston), the Way of the Roses (Route 69, Morecambe–Bridlington), and the Bay Cycleway (Route 700), unveiled in 2015, which runs from Walney Island to Glasson Dock.

Are there enough signs here?

Maps, apps and timings

Combined with the detailed route descriptions, the maps in this book should be more than adequate for navigation, but you may want to consider carrying Ordnance Survey maps as well as they give a much wider view of where you are and what you can see. As they show every road and track, you can also use them to plan alternative routes and links for future exploration of Lancashire. The 1:50,000 Landranger series is an ideal scale for cycling. To cover the entire Cycleway you’ll need six of them:

 97 Kendal & Morecambe

 98 Wensleydale & Upper Wharfedale

 102 Preston & Blackpool

 103 Blackburn & Burnley

 108 Liverpool

 109 Manchester

The first four are needed for the Northern Loop; the last four for the Southern. Sheet 98 is only needed for about 10km of the route, with no complicated navigation, so you could well manage without: as it includes the final stages of the highest climb on the route, you may well feel that ignorance is bliss!

There are now many apps which allow you to access OS mapping on a smartphone; check out www.viewranger.com for example. A good alternative to OS mapping is Open Cycle Map (www.opencyclemap.org). Alternatively, there’s much to recommend a dedicated bike computer, which will allow you to keep your phone safely stowed, and conserve its battery. The simplest cycle computers cost little more than £10 while GPS-based ones start around £75. Most GPS computers can be used for navigation as well as for tracking rides, and many will display simplified maps as well as giving turn-by-turn directions. Garmin (www.garmin.com/en-GB) is by far the best-known name in this field; I’ve recently been using their Edge Touring Plus, which comes pre-loaded with maps of the UK and Europe.

Using any computer or tracking app will soon give you a sense of the average speed you can expect to achieve on a bike. This is a great help in planning your rides, as estimating times for cycling is notoriously more difficult than for walking. Walking speeds vary much less and there are many formulae and rules of thumb enabling you to work out how long a walk may take: Naismith’s Rule is the best-known, if not necessarily the best.

Cycling speeds vary for many reasons; fitness, aerodynamics, the load you’re packing, and so on. Hills will slow you down, but cyclists have much more chance than walkers of taking some time back on the descent – at least when there’s a reasonable surface and it’s not too twisty. For example, the descent from Merrybent to Slaidburn at the end of Stage 2 is a good one; the descent from Marl Hill on Day Ride 7 is not (at least until they fix the road surfaces).

Still, even if your name is Chris Froome, average speed in the hills will be less than on the flat. If you’re a bit more ordinary than Froomey, the time taken to cover a given distance may increase by up to 50% for the hillier stages; perhaps even more if you’re heavily laden.

Using this guide

This guide is divided into sections, averaging around 40 kilometres in length. The endpoints of these sections are either reasonable candidates for an overnight stop, or places with a train service, or often both. It’s hoped that this structure will help in planning your trip around the Cycleway, but these are only suggestions and there are many alternative stopping-points.

Each chapter includes a detailed description of the route to be followed, accompanied by a route map, usually at 1:200,000 scale. In addition to the maps, there are route profiles for most stages. If there isn’t one, you can assume that it it’s flat!

At the start of each stage of the route you’ll also find a box telling you:

 where the route description starts

 the total length of the stage

 the total ascent

 a brief outline of the nature of the actual riding (how hilly it is, how busy the roads are likely to be, and so on)

 the maximum gradient encountered (if this line is missing, the stage has no climbs of note)

 OS maps (Landranger sheets needed)

 an outline of train services on or near the route

 a general indication of where pubs, B&Bs and so on are plentiful and where they are thin on the ground: for more on accommodation, see Appendix A, Further information

 intermediate distances: cumulative distances of intermediate points from the stage start

Each stage is preceded by an introduction giving a brief sketch of the character, scenery and major points of interest of the stage, and the route descriptions mention places of refreshment along the way. It’s a scientific fact that cyclists need lots of refreshment!