My favourite ride special
DISTANCE 45 miles ROADS A6, A686 NOMINATED BY Alex and Sue Minors FEATURED IN Feb 2020
We choose our favourites from the year’s routes
Over the past year, we’ve featured some great routes nominated by RIDE’S readers. These are our faves…
NO NEED FOR sat nav or route notes here — A6 to Penrith, A686 to Alston, and that’s it. It’s a simple route, and that’s how Alex likes it: “I design routes for ride-outs for our group, and we don’t want to lose people or make it complicated, so I like routes where I can just wave people past, and they can go at their own pace, knowing that they just have to follow the road.” Sue laughs: “Just as well; the rest of us can’t find our way out of a paper bag!”
The A6 from Kendal to Penrith is fast, sweeping, and Alex’s favourite part of the ride. “I like the momentum of it, it really flows.” You need to keep an eye out for the various quarry and farm entrances though — partly for trucks and tractors emerging from gateways and misjudging your approach speed, and partly because there’s a lot of slippery dust and mud spread about.
From Penrith to the girder bridge at Melmerby is still quick but more rolling, more trees and walls crowding in on the road. Then from Melmerby up over Hartside pass, you climb up out of the village onto rugged moorland — open, exposed, tight and twisty, with stunning views stretching in every direction.
“You could easily spend a few days exploring up here,” says Sue, as things like Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman fort at Vindolanda and Kielder Forest aren’t far away either. Roads like these make you just want to ride all day!”