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MOUNTAIN BIKING IN THE LAKES


In the past five years mountain biking in the Lakes has grown in popularity. Keswick, Windermere and Ambleside are among locations offering easy bike hire opportunities.
Passing through the central Lake District is the Coast to Coast (also known and signposted as the CtoC or C2C) mountain biking route provides around 130 miles of riding. Your start point can be either the lighthouse in Workington or the harbour in Whitehaven (Here there is a tradition of dipping your wheel in the Irish Sea and doing likewise in the North Sea). And on the east side finish in Tynemouth (4 miles longer) or Sunderland. The Sustrans map also shows a further link from Carlisle to Penrith. The Sustrans route is signed as 'C2C'
The route is predominantly on minor roads and disused railways. There are some tougher (=more climbing) options, e.g going from Whitehaven crosses Whinlatter Pass but starting from Workington (6 miles shorter) does not. And east of Keswick the 'alternative' Old Coach Road takes you way up on to rough moorland tracks while the 'main' route parallels the A66 on minor roads.

The CtoC links into the recently created West Cumbrian cycleway network near the Mirehouse housing estate in Whitehaven. The cycleway is largely tarmac-topped and follows the lines of disused rail links that used to serve the are's iron and coal industrial past.
More details of the C to C cycleway can be found at: Excellent site giving details of the Coast to Coast Cycleways.
Thanks to Sustrans many disused rail lines now double as cycleways around Keswick and between Workington and Whitehaven.
  Hadrian’s Cycleway is a new 170 mile long distance
Coast to Coast cycle route being developed by Sustrans and is due to eventually link Tynemouth to Roman Ravenglass.

USEFUL WEB LINKS

Details of West Cumbrian cycleways.

Keswick Bike Hire optionKeswick Mountain Bikes

Mountain Biking details on Keswick based site Lake District Outdoors

Bikemagic UK site....Bikemagic.

Cycleway information... Sustrans

Rivals Net Mountain Biking webRivals MTB

MTB biking magazine link http://www.gofar-mtb.com

American MTB site...MTBReview.com

Extreme site: http://extreme.nas.net/

Fattires! http://fattire.com/

Try this one.... Cool biking link

Cumbrian cycle club;honister92.com/

Bunkhouse near Shap: New Ing Farm, Shap, Nr. Penrith, Cumbria, CA10 3LX tel: 01228 598782.


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