With about 7 weeks to go until the inaugural Chase the Sun North, the organisers have announced their official route. All 201 miles and 3500m of elevation of it.
I’d looked at potential routes myself which really bore no resemblance to what they’ve come up with except the start and finish are the same.
The first surprise was the route heads north, straight up the coast from Tynemouth before it turns inland. I was looking at ways straight out of town. It can’t really miss Kielder Forest because its so big, but who would want to? Beautiful place from what I can see. From here I’d tried to work out a more direct route across the Scottish lowlands but it actually meanders a bit lower down and crosses the A74(M) at Lockerbie and then on through Dumfries and Galloway skirting Galloway Forest Park before swinging northwards to the finish in Prestwick.
Despite trying to keep the elevation down due to the distance, it still clocks up a mean 3500m of climbing which is a fair bit for a 12hrish ride.
They’ve also published mile by mile timings for riders. To beat sunset, riders need to average 14mph which I think for me if I can get in a decent group is more than doable. My biggest problem is going to be the mental aspect and probably my neck, shoulders, arms and back. Been on the bike for so long will test my mettle and I’m looking forward to it even more now as a couple of work colleagues have just completed the Majorca 312 and Liege-Bastogne-Liege each. Nice work. I just have to nail mine now.
