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marcomarcos
Since moving to Cornwall last year I’ve been wondering if the West Kernow Way is doable in a day as most reports online suggest 2-4 days. Yesterday was the day to find out.
The route officially starts in Penzance and ends just short of Penzance in Marazion. I don’t quite know why they didn’t make it a complete loop. As it is the route is 240km with 3000m of elevation. Rather than drive over to Penzance to start, I picked up the route in a place called Longdowns which is not too far from my home.
I’m all for a challenge but yesterday was a bastard. Some sections are almost impassable on anything other than a MTB. Whether deep rutted tracks running uphill at ~10% with massive lumps of slippery granite, sections of the coast path that are laughably bad or soggy forested sections that see y0ur front and rear hubs disappearing under water it's not much fun. In other areas, though particularly on the Lizard, the trails were like concrete; while not a geologist, I believe this is probably due to the presence of serpentine so close to the surface and how quickly the surface earth can dry out. The earth was rock hard and criss crossed with tracks that were almost impossible to find a line through which meant near constant stop-starting.
Unfortunately I don’t have a MTB so did it on ny Standert with 38c tyres fitted. As a concession to comfort I removed my unpadded Berk saddle and rode with an SMP evolution. I was anticipating it taking ~11 hours so left at 05:45 in the morning but as it was, the low BB, long cranks, speedplay pedals, hard forks and narrow tyres made it much harder and slower than it could've been.
Within ten minutes I’d gone over the bars and tore my knee open. I really didn’t want to stop and it didn’t hurt that much so I rode on. 100 or so km later I was over the bars again whacking my sternum something rotten. It was wonderfully quiet save for MTBers with their lovely soft forks making me question my life choices. After about 150km I was feeling pretty blue and my heart sank every time my Garmin indicated that I was approaching an “alley” or “unpaved road”.
The last fifty km were pretty crushing, everything ached, except for my whacked knee which I mercifully couldn’t feel at all. My head felt like concrete, my sternum throbbed and my legs felt like they'd staged a mutiny and jumped ship. I did eventually make it back to my start point in Longdowns, secure in the knowledge of two things; the WKW is doable in a day and I won’t be doing it again any time soon.
I ended up with an extra 8km in the legs and a bonus 1200m of climbing. When my partner saw the cut in my knee she thought it best to go to hospital so off there I trundled this morning - rather quaintly our local hospital closes at 8pm which meant I couldn't get there in time last night. They cleaned the wound with what they described as a "tickle brush" which looked suspiciously like a toothbrush to me. After ten or so minutes they cleared it though described the inside of my knee as “tattooed with dirt and grit” and I’m now steri-stripped up and off the bike for a week whilst the wound heals, lying on the sofa typing this drivel. Some snaps below, I didn’t ride with a power meter and given how slow I was going it was probably even less than that already dismally low number suggests.
Worst of all was when I whacked my knee I lost my treasured lfgss albion burner from the historic @Chopsicle LFGSS order. I was originally going to ride back out to find it today but Dr's orders have made that not an option and I am now Burnerless in Kernow.