30 hours on some of the UK’s best gravel: Rapha Pennine Rally | Day Two

The second day of Theo’s first ever attempt at bikepacking, with the Rapha’s Pennine Rally 500km off-road event back in 2023.

day one:

day three:

Applications are currently open for 2024:
https://events.rapha.cc/pennine-rally-23

Follow us:
instagram.com/theoclarkes
instagram.com/honorelliott

Thanks for supporting:
@halowheels halowheels.com
@sanaseurope sanas.be
@challengetires challengetires.com
@puresport links.puresport.co/honorelliott

Start of day two now got 200k in front of me just gone 8:00 be out for another 12 hours and then we’re in youth Hoster in hes tonight how you feeling tired the legs are really stiff I’m sure they’ll get better once I start pedaling but no

I feel quite tired it’s another big day tomorrow so today are you going to do anything differently today ideally I’d be to take it as easy as I can on the on the uphills but don’t really think that’s possible maybe just be trying to be consistent all day yeah eat a lot

More especially especially towards the end guys we killed it which is quite fun it’s just a lovely really lovely place we here last year did Dirty Reaver and that didn’t go quite so good for me hopefully I get a better experience from ker This Time Around by by this is it we’re

Back back on on the route for day two as second thought it’s a 45 minute climb out of where we were staying to start day two probably wasn’t the nicest thing but try and crack on now I stopped a bit earlier than everyone else so I think I’m

Effectively the back of the pack but I’m riding a little bit faster so hopefully I’ll be able to make some time up it’s super Sunny still a little bit chilly so I’ve still got the jacket on but let’s do It Just got to the lake and uh I’m on a gray little gravel path I put some time in here gorgeous hour and a half into the second day slow start but feeling a little better having seen this and being on this little this little Path The start was really hard it was like the climb up to the top of ker the K like into ker is really hard so I probably would have preferred to have done that yesterday and then stayed here but hindsight and I I didn’t know the knees hurt a little bit this morning the

Muscles are cold and then I started to feel okay now and like halfway up the climb I was like I’m not drunk any caffeine in the morning which I normally do so I just wasn’t on it now I have Jimmy’s iced coffee Oat The Descent down was has been really lovely the climb up took me about an hour and then the way down was about 40 minutes now I’m over that I think it’s like a fairly long road section which I might be able to kind of make up a bit

Of time on we left a little bit later than we kind of wanted to too and so I’m kind of needing to not push sure but I’m needing to be efficient I need biger tires or I don’t need anything like I was fine but my hands are getting quite

Sore from like rutted descending which is a bit annoying are you wearing gloves uh no and I should halfway down I was like I really shouldn’t be wearing gloves for this but now I’m down I should be all right this is kill the water it’s beautiful it’s really

Beautiful I like came to some little stream and I was like do this kill the water I was like no no no no and then like it got bigger and it got bigger and it got bigger and it got bigger and I was like wa okay yeah know this is K

Water it’s really nice place yeah I wish I was riding I don’t know that hair was horrible I wish I wasn’t riding That that coffee changed the game feel good now well I feel okay let’s put it like that just climbing through ker cruising along through these beautiful little login roads with tree trees either side might be a good day not going to say should be might Be Yeah I really got to work out and way to get this knee working a bit better cuz as it stands I don’t know if it’ll survive done a quarter of the route so far stay I don’t think it’s it’ll do the other three quarters in the state that it’s in

To be honest hopefully it’s just one of these muscles is tight from yesterday and a good stretch or loosen it up and let everything work a little bit better everyone’s out join the gravel like little time stretching it’s done a bit it’s helped a little bit kind of

Guessed it like be a tight IT band I might have been right so going to push on to whole whistle it’s kind of where I plan to do my first proper stop and res by 20 or so K give it another real good stretch yeah hopefully that does the Trick So we made it into England now my knee really hurts so that’s kind of limiting things a little bit at the moment road bits are really like I mean they’re inevitable right like you need to have them you can’t ride 100% off road but the time slows down so much on them

Because riding along on the road like there’s nothing that exciting going on the off-road stuff’s great all the climbs climbs are tricky you got to like pick your lines whereas the road is just like slogging away the first three 3 and 1/ half hours have felt equally as long

As the last half hour just outside of H whistle where we plan to stop it’s funny this this like Scotland looks like Scotland and England looks like England like I went through this I got a photo where I’ve like rolling roads and I was like hm I’m probably in England now there’s a

Fancy W around here I think not just this one Adrian Adrians Adrian’s wall it’s a very similar injury to one that I’ve had on my other knee it feels the same acts the same way which is both worrying and relieving it’s worrying cuz last

Time it took me off the bike for quite a while but like I know what it is so I I know how to manage it I know to stretch it to rest it take it easy go as slowly as I feel I need to and we’ll see rest

It tonight stretch it hopefully for tomorrow it’s all Right the like Hotel back there a plaque on it saying winner of 4 in back got the goods faffy what last hour can you just pop down this really steep little Hill to catch the Drone which is currently falling out of the sky and you did quite Literally I think the next bit is like a lot of Road a lot of cycle PA it’s where I can probably push on a little bit sit his Zone too and make some time up the knee’s feeling a bit better for the rest however which is which is good so

Hopefully it means I consist this for a little [Applause] Bit This is a cool little bike path alongside a little Railway track chugging along had to stop and stretch the knee saved a bird as well near ran over the pking couldn’t fly bit by bit little by little we’re getting There that was rough that was really hard just long climb that seemed to go on and on and on and on but I’m over the top of it and now go down this little gravel path I got to the point like where I just needed I needed something I ate a

Sandwich and an entire pack of Percy pigs in know 500 M of riding just had to do it which was uh which was I mean yeah it did the trick got me over the top put the jacket on and we’ll uh we’ll roll down This knee is getting really bad I had a bit of a wobble back there sat down had a monster refill my bottles and yeah cracking back on about 65k left to go we see how I get on with it really though it’s not looking great to be

Honest I’ll try and get today done and then make an assessment on it but it hurts a lot so I’m quite limited by how much power I can put out just slowing me down a little bit but you know these things happen it was really tough uh

Like on top like now that I’ve come down into like the valley a little bit it’s less exposed it’s a lot nicer it’s helping the helping lift morale quite a lot [ __ ] ni Up So I found Harriet which was to be honest after this day everything that I needed and then we just rode up like a 25% fim which is everything that I didn’t need at the end of the day 17 K 16k left till pause and the youth hostel and then time for a

Good night’s sleep and we’ll see how the knee’s feeling it felt a lot better having had some paracetamol maybe it’s just masking the pain and it’s not doing so good I don’t know I’ll have to assess in the morning I think will’ll be the best course of action see how we are then

Oh my God hello hi yeah the I killed her this morning wow we died in Edinburgh yesterday morning well done we’ll end hopefully we’ll end in Manchester tomorrow night wow you are all Ling this is probably the hardest V right now walking up there that’s the

Other thing about this route is that not only is it 500 km but it’s predominantly off-road and it’s like purposefully rooted through some of the most beautiful landscapes which also contain the most climate we we signed ourselves up to do this [ __ ] you know we’re not you know no

One’s making us do we’re just mental I see that that Lucas a looks so appealing but I understand it’s your in his pocket my phone roller I’m I bought it just so I can like that’s so clever like I went around and I squeezed all of the bottles and

Was like that’s the hardest actually the best is the big San pelo bottles I was like you it’s 11:00 was a lot longer than I’d like it to have been having to walk up a bunch of stuff some really nice but like really slow sketchy discerns I went into

This Co-op and I was like what do I need and I was like food and I was like all right no meal deals right no vegan cold things and I was like [ __ ] it I’m just going to have that’s where I got the lukid I’ve been carrying this lukid for

5 hours was that the co up in um midon in teaside Middleton that’s what I stopped as well I stopped at that little cafe I stopped there nearly nearly cried and bought my Lucas B my phone roll in your Lucas a CRA what did you get to eat

Then they had no nothing oh really anything oh I’ve like drunk all of my like caffeine shots cuz I thought I would taken I thought i’ brought like six and I remembered when I was looking for my like third one of the day I was

Like [ __ ] no wait I only took three so I’ve drunk all of those so you’ve had two monsters today coffee and two monsters two guino shorts and one caffine gel I think are you going to sleep no I got to turn Hill I was like I feel all right and then I was

Like if I can if I feel good now like the sun’s still in the sky like that Sun’s going to be out of rages I could get through I only have to go up oxnop SC and I was like I’ve done that before and it’s fine and it’s you know it’s

Ridable it’s only a tiny bit of walking at the beginning but I completely forgot the Swale Dale it’s just like a rock garden yeah like when you caught me that was a perfect example of like just different riding Styles and like different Comfort levels of descending on loose gravel cuz I had literally

Spent about 20 minutes like walking down that descent and then you just went around the corner swell at Sunset if you deleted all of the all the [ __ ] and you need everything that happened after that then that it’s so nice I had

A I had a full oh no up the um up I fell up fell up a climb up the telegraph pole climb out of pees which I hated anyway and now I hate even more because I was just trying to listen to a bit of Taylor

Swift and I was just trying to ride up this little section and I misjudged it and I was going so slowly and it just lost my balance and you know like when you just fall and like before you know it you’re just going and just like this rock this little [ __ ] point was

Like and I was so annoyed I literally near had a breakdown I was like it’s literally the first day and you crashed going up a climb if you damaged your hand I mean it was darker purple uh like earli today and yesterday night but it

Seems to have sort of spread is it a bruise yeah but I don’t know whether that’s dirt or a bruise I think both but yeah it was super painful in the moment and I was really annoyed cuz it was like as soon as I then put my hands on the

Bars to then push my bike up the climate was really painful it’s like one of your have many contact points on a bike and it’s also like I always ride like with like that with the shifters having pressure being a problem I was like that’s not going to that’s not going to Work Oh