Do you know how much wind resistance two bikes stuck on top of your car create?

Neither do I, but I couldn't half feel it driving 320 miles to Cornwall. I only averaged 25mpg according to the trip computer thingy and it kept changing down a gear when we went up a hill. It was a bit of mission taking the bikes to Sennen but I was determined to get a ride in. Some prior Googling had also revealed that West Cornwall was hardly a hotbed of singletrack and trails.

In fact officially there is nothing apart from the epically tame coast to coast Camel Trail. But the interweb is a wonderful thing and a local has been posting his routes, all nicely plotted on OS maps, on mapyourroutes.com.

There were two routes around Helston and Praa Sands that we reckoned we could stitch together to make a route around 30 miles long. They involved quite a bit of coast path which is obviously a 'path' strictly speaking but I reckoned we'd be ok as long as that bloke who lives next to the Buddhist retreat hadn't come on a nice walking holiday to get away from it all and calm down for a bit.

So it was that me and my brother (on Emma's bike, he is small and whippet-like) set out on the Coast Path in bright sunshine towards Praa Sands.

The coast path was surprisingly smooth going in most places, apart from the odd disused mine shaft and rambler.

What sign? I didn't see no sign...........

The views weren't bad - St Micheal's Mount and Penzance in the distance.......

 

some of the singletrack was on the narrow side.....

A really nice, slightly rocky climb up to Godolphin Hill. Amazing view from here of both North and South coasts. Time for sit down before tackling a great descent with some decent size boulders to contend with. My chainring now has at least one less tooth thus shaving about 1 milligram off the weight of my bike.

 Did I ride it?.............

 Did I f*ck....................

Route took us through Helston and back to the coast after about 23 miles. We were sorely tempted to stop for a pint but settled for an ice cream in the end. Good bloody job as the last 2 miles were one massive climb on the road back to the car park.

 

We were pretty happy to see the car after 5 hours and 30ish miles. Fairly slow progress, lots of map reading and one flatty but a cracking ride by the seaside and definitely worth the effort.

Dave