Coast to Coast Cycling Challenge

After conquering Europe over the last two years, our annual cycling challenge returns to British soils for 2024 as we take on the iconic Coast to Coast challenge! Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, we'll cycle from Whitehaven to Sunderland, looping round - and over - the North Pennines on the way to raise vital funds to support North East Autism Society's services right across the region.

This is a two-day challenge, with transport available from Chester-le-Street to the starting point at Whitehaven Marina on Saturday morning. We'll cycle straight from here to Kirkby Stephen, where we'll spend a night in a local hostel before continuing on in the morning. The challenge will finish at Roker beach on Sunday evening.

The Route

After the traditional ceremonial dip of our back wheels in the Irish Sea at Whitehaven marina, we'll cycle North out of town, in the direction of Cockermouth. Skirting around the Lake District and its beautiful rolling hills, we'll loop towards Penrith before heading Southeast to our overnight halt in Kirkby Stephen.

Day two will separate those who have done their hill training from those who haven't! An early start will see us climb up towards Tan Hill and past the famous Tan Hill Inn - the highest pub in England - before descending the Pennine Way to Middleton-in-Teesdale. Here, the infamous Yad Moss lies in wait, bearing a 7.7 mile climb up and across Chapel Fell. A long descent into, and lunch stop before reaching, Stanhope will provide relief before tackling Crawleyside Bank towards Consett. One further climb up Lanchester bank is the last hill of note though, as we drop back into the valley and pick up the C2C path at Chester-le-Street and follow its undulations all the way to a triumphant finish and dip of our front wheels in the North Sea at Roker.

Estimated Distances:

Day	Section	Distance	Elevation
1	Whitehaven - Penrith	49 mi	3,050ft
	Penrith - Kirkby Stephen	26 mi	1,624ft
2	Kirkby Stephen - Stanhope	51 mi	3,973ft
	Stanhope - Sunderland	38 mi	2,257ft
	Total	164 mi	10,904ft

Please note: all distances are estimates and the current route is subject to changes.

Event Cost

The cost of the event is £95.00 per person, which includes shared overnight accommodation in Kirkby Stephen, transport from Chester-le-Street to Whitehaven (if required), Team NEAS cycling jersey and bespoke tour t-shirt, and support crew for the duration of the challenge (including drinks and snacks). The event fee is payable either upfront, or by paying a £20.00 deposit to secure your place with the remaining £75.00 due later - it's up to you.

Fundraising

For this challenge, we are asking riders to aim to raise £400.00 in sponsorship for North East Autism Society, to support our lifeline services for autistic people right across the North East.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Could your business be a corporate sponsor of our cycling challenge? We're incredibly grateful for the support we've been offered by businesses over the years of organising our annual rides, with their contributions helping us to maximise the benefit we're able to offer the people in our services with across the region.

We'll feature your company's logo on our website and social media channels, as well as in our press releases both before and after the challenge, which have previously been picked up by the Northern Echo, Chronicle Live and Yahoo News; and we'll also feature it on the bespoke tour t-shirts we produce for the challenge. We'll be launching our Sponsorship Brochure soon, which will detail all the opportunities across our range of 2024 events, but in the meantime you can express your interest by simply contacting us