Lakes Road Ride, it's a toughie

We've been out on the bikes finalising the road route for Sunday's sportive ride, for those that aren't local to these parts be warned it's a little bit hilly, they don't seem to do flat roads in the Lakes.

We've made a couple of changes to the route and route options, we're unofficially renaming the long route the hard route as it's not actually much longer than the medium but it adds in over a thousand feet of extra climbing.

All the routes start from Coniston then head through Torver where the fun route riders leave the main route and head round Coniston Water but for everyone else it's the first main challenge of the day, a long steep climb heading off the main road over to Broughton Mills and on towards Dunnerdale.

From Dunnerdale you need to make the decision if you're going to tackle the hard route, if you are it's up and over Hardknott Pass (ascends 1000 ft in 1 mile!) to rejoin the other riders at the bottom of Wrynose Pass, if you're not it's an easier ride along the valley to Wrynose Pass and some more steep climbing. The Short, Medium and Hard routes all go over Wrynose Pass before heading back to the main road towards Coniston. From here the Short route heads straight back to the finish but the Medium and Hard route heads out for a second loop past Coniston Water and through Grizedale Forest Park.

Slight Change to the above route description. Everyone does the loop around Grizedale and Coniston as this is the Short ride. After coming back to the event centre the Medium and Long rides head out to Hall Dunnerdale where the next drink station denotes the split. Medium goes on to do Wrynose with the Long going onto Birker Fell and HardKnott Pass. Gpx routes show this route.
Ta
Dean

Route Distances & Start Times -

Fun - 14 miles - Start Time - Between 08:30-10:30
Short - 28 miles - Start Time - Between 08:30-10:30
Medium - 53 miles (6390 ft of climbing)- Start Time - Between 08:30-10:30
Hard - 62 miles (7690 ft of climbing)- Start Time - Between 08:30-09:45