You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Hi,
I have a friend that is planning to do the 3 Peaks (Snowdon, Scafell & Ben Nevis) this summer with a couple of friends. They plan to ride inbetween the 3 peaks staying in B&B's along the route. They are doing it Snowdon, Scafell & Ben Nevis. They are planning on averaging 80 miles per day. They have slighlty more than 1 week to do it.
First day Snowdon up and down the Pyg path starting early (6am ish) and then cycling 80 miles apparently its quite an easy run largely down hill and then flatish from Snowdon down to the coast and along.
Just looking for pointers on route places to stop, places or roads to avoid at all costs.
They have a support vehicle so not needing to carry luggage more than food etc for the day.
Many thanks.
Suggest they do the three highest peaks in the UK instead. It's much less driving (and riding) 😀
They may have trouble getting parked at Pen-y-Pass even at 6am if they pick the wrong day!
down to the coast and along.
Not planning on riding on the A55 are they? Picking the shortest/easiest-looking route out of Wales is a recipe for a miserable time, even on some of the smaller roads.
Dunno why you'd ride down the Pyg track - you end up dropping half your altitude on road, surely?
I thought they were walking up/down the peaks, then riding between?
Just to be clear they are planning to walk / climb the actual 3 peaks but using road bikes to cycle between the peaks.
That's great...but why the support vehicle? https://www.thebmc.co.uk/three-peaks-challenge
Oooh, i did this. Driving one of the support vehicles and moving bikes around. About 98-99 i think.
Under the record time, at the time, (under 40 hours IIRC) but dipstick organising it (not me) filled in some stuff wrong so the record wasn't "legal".
It's apparently about 32 hours now. Which is mental.
I wanted to do this a few years ago, but couldn't think of a way of doing it fast without a support vehicle. And obviously a support vehicle defeats the whole point of the Real 3 peaks...
Fair play, that's an ambitious challenge!
You can ride the North Wales Coast along the seafront from Conwy to Talacre. I would go from Pen-y-pass --> Capel Curig--> Llanwrst --> Conwy and go from there.
Then, I would go over Deeside, up the Wirral and take the ferry across to Liverpool. It's a bit of a natural bottleneck between Preston and Kendal
You'll have fun winding around the Lake District in tourist season.
Wouldn't recommend riding up the A82 Trunk Road. It's rammed with coaches, logging trucks and campervans all summer. Safer alternatives would involve considerable detours up the west coast or using gravel bikes and going off road.
My daughter and I did this 10 years ago. My wife dropped us off at Pen y Pas car Park and we left the bikes locked there while we walked Snowdon. We obviously did it slower than you're likely to and out stops were
Night 1...Colwyn Bay
Night 2...Nr Ormskirk
Night 3...Keswick
Night 4... Carlisle
Night 5...New Cumnock
Night 6...Tarbert
Night 7...Oban
Night 8...Fort William
Day 1 ...Snowdon and riding to CB wasn't bad at all
Day 2 started OK, along the coast, but riding up the Wirral was on a busy main road A550/A41. Across the Mersey, western side of Liverpool and then back lanes to a hotel a mile or 2 outside Ormskirk.
Day 3 was OK for starters (Sunday) but we had a long ride and had to do a few mile section of A591 or face miles more (on a near 100 mile day)
Day 5 was horrible....riding the A76 from Dumfries to New Cumnock. A busy single carriageway road with loads of heavies (We decided a nicer route was via Arran and Oban rather than between Glasgow and Edinburgh.)
Day 6 was brilliant....ride to Ardrossan, a break and food on the ferry to Arran, ride across to the small ferry across to Claonaig and a stay in the wonderful Tarbert.
Day 7 was awesome....quieter undulating roads to Oban
Day 8 was mainly OK apart from the last 10 miles from Ballachulish to Fort Bill.
Wife picked us up the next day.
Overall, we really enjoyed it. Daughter wanted a big challenge to raise money for a charity of a friend who had died earlier that year in her late teens. The trip cost me nearly as much as she raised but that wasn't the point. It was a wonderful trip.
Day 8 was mainly OK apart from the last 10 miles from Ballachulish to Fort Bill.
From driving that road late last year it looks like there's now a (bike)path for riding on.
From driving that road late last year it looks like there’s now a (bike)path for riding on.
The bike path takes you to Corran. You can then get the ferry across the loch and ride up the other side, before getting the boat back to FW from Camasnagaul. The latter requires a bit of timing and also hoping that it's not after a shinty match as the skipper might have been "celebrating" 🤪
As for routes to avoid, I think the 3 peaks (these three peaks) is one of them.