More than anything else this was an experiment in how suitable cycling for utility is over greater distances than is typical in Cambridge. I’m home for the weekend, having got the train to Stoke (On-Trent) on Friday afternoon (I’m only typing this now as I’ve been pretty busy). In need of some new trainers (the old pair had split, presumably from too much pressure on the front from cycling), I cycled straight from the station to Newcastle (Under-Lyme) and bought a new pair (which will hopefully last longer than six months). That bit in itself was surprisingly quick, though given how short it was I didn’t bother recording the route/any stats. The bit of interest here is that I then cycled from Newcastle to home in Wetley Rocks, a journey which (when I was at school in Newcastle) took 40-50 minutes by bus and 30 minutes by car – so I was very keen to see how quickly it can be done by bike.

Surprisingly, I did it in a total time of 39m37s (moving for 35m24s), despite the hill climb that is Ash Bank; just look at the elevation gain of 233m – greater than that of the Cambridge Semi Oribal route, which is about three times the distance – to see that it’s reasonably hilly. This is a good result for cycling and really makes me wonder why it isn’t more popular just for utility – I’ll certainly be cycling to the railway station this afternoon.

Route:

View Newcastle to Wetley Rocks in a larger map

Here is the Google Doc with all the stats:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?
key=0At0EKwdiLZmYdFg4Mk9fdHltdWlGeWpQTHMzM3RjU3c&hl=en_GB