If the Dales Way Tidal Trail walk is not for you but you like cycling, why not join us on the same Spring Bank Holiday weekend for a four-day bike ride around the Dales and raise some money to help Tidal to do what it does even better.

We’ll start from Gargrave near Skipton and follow aloop around the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, finishing with the walkers in Ilkley. The average daily cycle will be a fairly leisurely 30 miles, so there will be plenty of time for breaks and the occasional detour to points of interest  and refreshment – and at that time of the year sunset will not be until well after 9:00 pm. There are some big hills, but you can take your time and it’s perfectly all right to get off and push your bike up the steep bits! Group cycling is fun, even more so when it’s for a good cause.

 

The Route

At the moment the planned route is as follows:

Day 1 (Sat 2 June): Train to Gargrave, then cycle via Airton, Settle, Ribblesdale and Dentdale to Dent  or Sedburgh (the latter being where the walkers will be staying that night).

Day 2 (Sun 3 June): Dent/Sedburgh,Garsdale Head, Kirkby Stephen, Tan Hill to Keld in upper Swaledale.

Day 3 (Mon 4 June): From Keld, via Swaledale to Leyburn, Castle Bolton, Askgrigg to Hawes.

Day 4 (Tues 5 June): Hawes via Langstrothdale to Buckden, then down Wharfedale to Grassington, then via Appletreewick to Ilkley, mainly on back roads, and hopefully waving to the walkers somewhere along the way.

For those who would like to do some of the ride but don’t have the time to do it all, it might be possible to join us from Garsdale Head or Kirkby Stephen stations, but you would need to coordinate this with us in advance.

 

Accommodation

As we decided to arrange this ride somewhat later than the walk, we have only just started to look at accommodation options. It is the May Bank Holiday weekend, so accommodation will be tight, but we are hopeful of working something out. Most probably we will have to camp on at least one night, but will try to get the tents delivered so you don’t have to carry them; other options we are looking out include bunkhouses and community halls. If deposits are needed we will let you know soon.  If you want more comfortable accommodation, you will need to book this yourself.

 

Costs

We will do our best to keep these as low as we can, with cheap accommodation a priority. We will pick up meals  from shops, cafes and pubs as we go. You will also need to buy  a train ticket to Gargrave on the first morning, and from Ilkley on the last evening unless you still feel like cycling home!

 

Fitness and Bikes

You absolutely don’t have to be a Tour de France cyclist for this  (if you are, this is probably not for you!), but please make sure you have a basic level of fitness – doing a bit every day over a few weeks is better than doing nothing then trying to do 30 miles on the weekend before we set out. And make sure your bike is in good repair – there are no more bike shops once we leave Settle, and although we will carry basic spares and tools, if something serious goes wrong we probably won’t be able to fix it. So take your bike to an experienced bike mechanic a couple of weeks before we set off and make sure everything is likely to last the distance. We will tell you more about these things when you decide to join us.

 

Sponsorship

As with the walk, we are setting a minimum fundraising target of £100 per person for the whole ride, or £25 per day. We will provide more accurate mileages soon, but if all your sponsors together add up to a quid a mile, you’ll make the £100.

We are hoping that this will fill in the gap in our income and mean that we break even this year. With funding pots getting smaller and smaller, this is vital for Tidal to continue its work.

 

How to register

If this sounds like a good way to start the summer, just fill out the online registration form.

 

Registration deadlines

This is still somewhat uncertain until we know more about accommodation, but most probably we will need to know by 15^th March. But the most important thing at this stage is to let us know that you are interested.

 

Want to help without cycling?

We are not intending to have a support vehicle, but it would be really helpful to have someone deliver camping equipment on the night(s) we are camping, and to be on call in case someone needs to be rescued