Saturday 21st June 2025 – Chase the Sun and a Twist
CTS is an epic C2C across 4 locations, 3 in UK, and 1 in Italy. A well organised event, that challenges you to do a 200 miler from start to finish. Detail here – https://www.chasethesun.org/
I signed up for the North in Nov24, planned acc, travel etc so its not a cheap day out, but the reward was to be worth it. As the weeks and months passed, training was my usual just ride the bike, with friends and company, and we got to near the time. Perfect weather, which sadly was to be come my grim reaper.
I stayed at the Windsor Hotel in Whitley Bay. Seemed nice, at least 20 others were there also, some nice chat at 330am, before heading to the start. 1 thing on every1’s lips was the bloody noise coming from the nightclub across the road. As such, despite being in bed by 930pm, never got a wink of sleep, so thought, this is cursed.
I was down early, and out in the first wave at 419am. We were hammering along on flat, plus 16mph average, again good chat with strangers from all over uk and beyond. We hugged the coast and got the best sunrise ever, and the feeling was epic.
We started heading north, towards Kielder, and sadly some poor chap had a cropper on a mega downhill. Hope he’s ok. Was lucky to meet some other Weegies – Curtis, Sharon, (and Glencarnock crewe), Jackie, Lisa and others. Exchanged some laughs and chat in the growing heat.
Stopped at Kieder boat club, for more food, but I could sense, through sore legs and constant cramp (like WTF ..) something wasn’t right. I ate well, probably drank to much (x12 bottles with electrolytes), I was getting slower and grumpy. 27 degrees according to Garmin at 11. But humidity was a lot more.
A fun moment was 2 English lads found me at the corner for a7, and joined my for a lay down in the grass. We had a chuckle, asked if ok, my reply, legs are fucked.
I crawled on to Langholm to the lunch check in, grabbed some more water but no food cause I felt full, and yucky. Not many people there, but others were still coming in, and I had to make a decision. Do I quit, or trundle on and make things worse. A split decision, handed in my tracker, and started heading to Lockerbie for a train. A kind person picked me up not long from Lockerbie, allowing me to get an earlier train. Several folk had bailed and Lockerbie seemed to be the place to see folk get on said train.
Got 100 miler in and 6700ft.
Home, tail between legs, spoke to a couple good friends, stretch, bath, dinner, bed by 730pm. Any1 that know’s me, I hate failure, take it personally, and decided this ain’t over. …
Set alarm for 130am, and I slept for a solid almost 6hours. Second dinner, changed bike, clothes, and felt ok, legs seemed to be fine, started heading out towards the coast for my usual flat route around Inverclyde.
Why do this you ask? – Because people had been kind enough to sponsor me, and any1 that knows me, truly knows me, hate letting people down. The Solstice weekend is my fav of the year, you see friends and others do big epic rides including many doing its alternative – Ride to the Sun, a free event from Carlisle, to Cramond, Edinburgh. Detail here – https://www.ridetothesun.co.uk/ – I’ve done it 4 times, and defo recommend it.
I trundled around the coast and down to Largs, earphones blaring to acdc and iron maiden, on deserted roads. Was well daylight by then, and a refuel for breakfast of sandwiches, a coffee and a cheeky donut from the local garage. Ardrossan, then started heading home. Light rain, more was forecast, and I did get wet. Check in from Strava’s and nice seeing RTTS rides come in, well done all, including the CTS epics.
Trundled home, weary and tired, but no cramp, enjoyed the cold and drizzle after temps of 27 degrees, same day.
So over a 24hours and a bit – 192 Miles with 11,332ft of Elevation for @samh – not what planned, but sometimes you adapt, grow, deal with a situation and get on with it. My life Moto. Thanks if you got to the end of this rather long read, and a big thank you who donated and help me raise £365 for a great cause.
Rest now, we leave on Thursday bound for Orkney and Shetland for the next adventure. Watch this space…….
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