‘It’s a wide open road,
a wide open road.
And you can go any place,
that you ever want to go’.
Last month, at the age of 45, a lifetime’s ambition was realised when I finally got a song request played on the radio. It was all part of promoting the opening of the improved route along Windermere’s west shore from the Ferry House to Wray Castle. Being even more of a music geek than a cycling geek I knew I had to choose something obscure so went for The Triffids, a late 80’s and early 90’s indie band from Australia. The song Wide Open Road is one of their finest (check it out on YouTube pop-pickers) and although it has nothing at all to do with cycling, I chose it for two reasons: firstly that the lyrics above represent a cyclists’ nirvana, being able to just get out and pedal and not have any worries. Secondly that ‘open’ can also mean welcome or welcoming – and I wanted to get across that’s what Go Lakes Travel is aiming to do for leisure cyclists.
However the reality is somewhat different and the Lake District being open for leisure cyclists is not a phrase you hear very often. The virtues that make it a mecca for both mountain bikers and serious road cyclists – big hills, steep roads and long climbs – are the very things that make it difficult for the aspiring would be cyclist. We know that there are three main barriers to cycling in the Lake District:
- The perception that it is too hilly for cycling to be a realistic option
- That the roads are too busy and dangerous, especially for families with younger children
- Lack of knowledge of existing quiet and attractive routes
The first and third of those are relatively easy to tackle, the second one less so. We have said all along that we want to make the most of what we have already got here in the Lake District. That isn’t meant to be damning with faint praise, it is making a statement that we have got some fantastic cycling opportunities here in the National Park. And that we are going to make them even better and tell you all about it! The quiet back lanes of the Lyth and Winster Valleys, while not flat, are ideal to plan circuits that link villages and pubs and a series of leaflets will be coming out later this year to show you the way.
We have already completed two major schemes to get cyclists from Bowness northwards to Ambleside. The first was 2km of new off-road cycleway from Brathay up to Pull Wood and the junction with the Drunken Duck road. The second was the Windermere west shore road improvements – over 3.5 km of newly surfaced bridleway means it is now suitable for all bikes, not just mountain bikes. We are also working on links from Wray to Pull Wood and from the Under Loughrigg road to Ambleside town centre. Imagine, by the end of the first full year of Go Lakes Travel, we could have a completed and promoted cycle route all the way from Bowness to Ambleside – how exciting is that! And in the years to come we will be extending our horizons north to Grasmere and west to Langdale.
I really believe that cycling’s time has come. The success of Bradley Wiggins in the Tour de France and the Olympics and the roll call of other Olympians and Paralympians – Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, Jason Kenny, Laura Trott, Sarah Storey – means that more and more people are taking up cycling. I wasn’t there but apparently around 1000 people were on a very wet and windy Shap summit yesterday (12 September) cheering on the Tour of Britain riders. Hopefully Go Lakes Travel will ensure that cycling is here to stay in the Lakes too.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
