Clifton CC

Just thought I'd post to recommend this if you have a spare day. It really has a continental flavour to it - 45 minutes of sustained uphill with fantastic views of the surrounding hills and out into the sea.

Dave, highest metalled road in Britain. Did you cycle there and back in a day and if so how far is it?

Sorry to disappoint but I took the car out to Kirkby Stephen and had a cycle round to 2 local climbs - GDF and Lamps Moss.

The round trip to GDF from York would be in the order of 180 miles with intervening hills - it could be done from York but it would be an uber Rob O type epic for serious hard men. It would mean doing the Tan Hill Audax route to Hawes then over Butter-tubs. Instead of turning R after Keld to Tan Hill you would turn L and continue over the tops, descending Lamps Moss to Kirkby Stephen, then crossing the A66 past Appleby to GDF. Returning back you could bypass Kirkby Stephen and approach Tan Hill from the West. Basically it adds about 50 miles and several serious hills to the TH Audax so it could be done but only by serious ultra-endurance hard men.

The roads round there (apart from the A66) are lovely, scenic and quiet but very lumpy. I'd recommend a day trip driving out and plotting a route. Haviing said this, there is a Youth Hostel in Kirkby Stephen so if someone wanted an objective to organise a roadie weekend ride around, a 2 day trip would be doable.....

Dave, it's definitely on the to do list. It would be a good to do with an overnight stay. I'll have to do it on my own though because 45mins for you and many other club members is probably 1hr 45 for me.

Dr Dave wrote:The round trip to GDF from York would be in the order of 180 miles with intervening hills - it could be done from York but it would be an uber Rob O type epic for serious hard men. It would mean doing the Tan Hill Audax route to Hawes then over Butter-tubs. Instead of turning R after Keld to Tan Hill you would turn L and continue over the tops, descending Lamps Moss to Kirkby Stephen, then crossing the A66 past Appleby to GDF. Returning back you could bypass Kirkby Stephen and approach Tan Hill from the West. Basically it adds about 50 miles and several serious hills to the TH Audax so it could be done but only by serious ultra-endurance hard men.

Ooh Dave you're naughty, stop tempting me like that

I was up there on foot a couple of monhts ago and thought it looked like an excellent road to cycle. I did a bit of research on t'interweb and it turns out someone runs a hillclimb up there, which they must have started in a bout of pure evil.