It isn't my wrists that get in the way. On the last Wrinklies, which almost wrecked them by the end of Tuesday, but which fixed them (sort of) by Wednesday morning, I was expecting them to play up and having ridden up to Cumbria and then down to Derby, I was surprised they lasted as well as they did.
I have just had my fill of suburbs and 30 limits and traffic and traffic lights at the start or end of every day's ride.
Getting out of Southport. Getting into Swansea. Getting round the endlessly speed-limited Norfolk coast. And had I been riding, getting into Worthing would have done my head in.
And all in the name of getting to or from a big-chain hotel. They may be clean, safe and predictable, but I would add boring and inconveniently placed for bike trips.
I thought the place we stayed in Cumbria last year on the Monday night was perfick. Apart from the beer! Or rather, the no-beer! It would be perfect for a single-base set of rides into the Lakes with rapid access to great roads in the mornings and a rapid decamp at the end of the day into a familiar bar with no loading up, checking out, checking in and unloading.
When I used to ride Wales two or three times a year (before I moved to be nearer to it and haven't ridden it since) we used to base ourselves in Llanwrtyd Wells in a great B&B. 50 yard walk to the local pub with its own brewery out the back and a fairly good restaurant with an accomplished chef. They are both as far from corporate as it is possible to get and all the better for it. In my opinion.
TomL and Ron and I stayed there a few years ago and they loved it and the roads. One minute after start-up, you are into the meat of excellent biking roads and you are parking the bike with the sweat still dripping down your armpits at the end of the day; top-whack, challenging bends to park up in less than a minute. I'm not suggesting Llanwrtyd Wells as a base as it is a bit far into Wales, merely using it as an example, but if Richard wants grass down the middle, then a few minutes west out of Llanwrtyd Wells and the Abergwesyn to Tregarron coach road will give him plenty of challenges...
The reason I never responded to your request for help with the routes after last year's Wrinklies was that you asked Martin and I how else we would get into and out of the hotels we used. My whole point is that I wouldn't use those hotels for a bike trip. I've discussed this with you before Rae and you are adamant that you want 'to get somewhere' and I know you love the corporate safety. I don't know if Martin responded but I know he prefers the idea of a single base with cloverleaf rides.
You know how much we all appreciate your planning expertise, or you should do, and I have few gripes with the roads we ride, once we are out of the speed limits. I have seen places in the UK I never knew existed and hooning up and down the same stretch of super road between Llanwrtyd Wells, Builth Wells, Llandindrod Wells and Crossgates, whilst exciting and challenging, is not much fun after the first four runs... well, it is, but you get my drift.
To me, the huge beauty of a single base is the flexibility. Take my problem last year. If we had been in a single base, I could have cut and run after lunch and met you all back at the base that evening and been fresh enough for a new challenge the following day. On a mad dash from somewhere to somewhere else, you just can't do that.
Also, with a single base, if someone wants to do a specific road or route and others don't, then it is easy peasy to do your own thing and still meet up at the end of the day with everyone else. Ron tended to do this in Wales and on The Old Gits trips, going off by himself to do some culture or easy riding. The Old Gits trips are exactly this, with either one or two bases for a week's rides. Having discovered The Picos, I doubt they will go anywhere else, such is the variety and quality of the roads and the sparse population around the towns and cities where they base themselves. In the UK, you can't do that without basing yourselves out in the country.
This country has endless country pubs and small hotels with stunning roads around them. I've never ridden north of the Lakes or down into the West country or Kent and by and large Yorkshire is a complete mystery to this Lancashire lad. I couldn't believe that Richard had never even been to the Lakes, let alone ridden them.
Let's get our heads together and see what comes out of it and if it is more than one trip, then so be it, it will give folks the choices to do what they want but in a group of like-minded (sort of) guys.
Brian
