Please also visit the excellent website page www.cockermouth.org.uk/walksrides

Cockermouth lies on  2 popular long distance cycle routes that are part of the National Cycle Network developed by the charity Sustrans. The Sea to Sea (or C2C) is Britain's most popular long-distance cycle route. It starts in Workington and goes for 136 miles to Sunderland or Tynemouth. It comes into Cockermouth over the Memorial Bridge across the Derwent and leaves the town along the River Cocker and the Greenway.It is numbered route 71. The other route is number 10, the Reivers Route, a distance of 187 miles. This also runs from coast to coast but takes a longer and more northerly  direction from Whitehaven to Tynemouth via Carlisle and Kielder. This route also enters Cockermouth over the Memorial Bridge but then continues along Main Street and into the Market Place before climbing up Castlegate and taking the Isel Road towards  Bewaldeth and the Caldbeck fells.

In Cockermouth cyclists can find plenty of places  to stop and have a drink or stock up on supplies. There is also plentiful accommodation and  most importantly  a cycle shop, Four Play Cycles, in the Market Place.

The information above was kindly submitted by Dianne Moyes, September 2007.

Adam Stitt opened 4Play Cycles in 2000. He comes from Liverpool where he had also worked in the cycling trade before heading North.

I think becoming a dad helped me to think about  the cycling wants and wished of 'the family' and before this  I suppose I was a bit blinkered towards glossy bikes! However, I took lots of advice from people coming into the shop looking, say, for sturdy bikes for the whole family (usually about to embark on their holidays!) and increasingly there are more families visiting 4Play just as there seem to be lots more families gertting out and about on their bikes in general. 

Yes, come and talk to me and bring a map! I'm full of ideas for things to do in and around this area, including cycling!

4Play are planning on producing our own route maps, in the meantime we can suggest routes for all abilities.

I know that on Tuesday nights you help to organise rides from outside 4Play. Are they suitable for beginners, like me?

I feel the rides are good for people who, shall we say, have some experience, 'intermediate' for want of a better word. I've been thinking, though, that I'd like to lead a 'class' for beginners and take some time to teach them the basics, including the basics of bike repairs!

Cockrock was about the realisation that the sports we do put us in danger and a group of us wanted to acknowledge the work of the Air Ambulance and Mountain Rescue after a serious accident involving a friend. He wouldn't be with us today were it not for these guys.

I don't actually have one but like bikes that make me grin from ear-to-ear! I suppose my dream bike might be one that didn't require any maintenance. Speaking of which ....