Trail bike
I own and ride a Marin Palisades Lite 1992 in Marseille and a 2022 Specialized Rockhopper Expert 29 in Keswick.
I can’t usually get on the Keswick BMX pump track due to traffic more proficient and generally a lot younger than me. But it’s far too much fun for them only. It’s a concentrated workout, bowls as well as humps. Strenuous as well as teaching the skills and commitment that are essential to ride on the surrounding fells.
Marseille riders have the Borély Bowls, which gets more sunshine and is better for tricks than Keswick but it’s fearsome to ride.
Cap Croisette is the weathered limestone massif at the end of the peninsular from the Marseille leisure port of Pointe Rouge. A ride on urban blacktop until I reached the derelict sardine canning factories at the end of the standard bus line at la Madrague de Montredon.
Onwards with a chilly Mistral to Les Goudes, a pretty fishing village and port. Cap Croisette is the end of this road (by now just a track of weathered limestone) facing l’île Maïre across a treacherous narrow strait.
Sunday afternoon ride on my Marin Palisades Lite. Crowds out also enjoying the November sunshine.
Beck and waterfall below Blease Fell
Loop ride from Keswick to enjoy the sound of moorland running water - and ride through some of it. Ascent through Brunholme Woods, joining the dog walkers on the Cumbria Way at Latrigg Saddle. Technical path in to the Glenderaterra Valley through Lonscale Crags. Picnic at the head of the valley where the becks converge from Skiddaw, Lonscale Fell and Blencathra. There are bridges but fording is more fun and my cyclo-cross shoes drain readily. A long cruise down to Threlkeld. The railway path was busy so I chose the byway up to Wescoe, then the home run through the colours of Brundholme Woods. You see Glenderaterra Valley from the A66, it separates the Skiddaw and Blencathra massifs.
More photos: Glenderaterra Valley loop - Lake District National Park
Sunday afternoon ride on my hardtail bike to the Marseille beaches. Busy in the October sunshine. Far too much competition to have a go on the Bowl du Prado BMX and skateboard facility.
