Bargain of the year...

£3,000 is a fair bit of cash for a new bike riding outfit even on Ride It! wages. Who's going to be the first person to turn up to a Ride It! event and complete the ride wearing the new Rapha cycling suit?

Rapha Riding Suit

Gateshead

Dr Dean Doolittle, he talks to the animals...

Gateshead Mountain Bike Route

We've just finished marking the mountain bike route for tomorrow. The route heads out through Derwent Country Park along the River Derwent before a bit of a long road climb up to Chopwell Wood. The route takes in the Chopwell Wood red trail with some nice singletrack and a few north shore sections before heading over to Hamsterley.

If you're hungry when you reach Hamsterley, check out the sandwich shop on the corner, you can't beat the hot beef sandwich :-)

From Hamsterley the route heads on to part of the National Cycle Network back towards Rowland Gill and the biggest climb of the day (579 feet in total), it's all on the road and seems to go on forever, you know when you reach it.

It's then through Sunniside and Whickham to bring you back to the finish at the shop.

Gateshead Road Ride Preview

We've just finished marking the road route ready for Sunday. It takes in some nice quiet roads that seem to head straight for miles, the official climb rating is pretty hilly :-)

Tony's Random Route Facts - The medium route encloses an area of 40,551.76 acres and the fun route split is at the highest point on the route.

Pictures below -

It's a pretty tiring job...

We've arrived in Gateshead..

But where's Keith....

Caption Competition...

The first picture in our new "Where's Keith?" feature, post your caption ideas below...