If you don't know the West Kernow Way, it is a roughly 150-mile (237 km) bikepacking route around the west of Cornwall. Created by Cycling UK, the route links together quiet lanes, bridleways, byways and old trails, taking in some of Cornwall's most iconic landscapes, including Land's End, the Tin Coast, Lizard Point and St Michael's Mount. With around 4,200 metres of climbing, it is normally ridden over three to four days.
But we're talking about Sam...
The idea of riding the whole route in one go had been floating around in my head for a long time. I'd never quite had the weather and trail conditions line up to make an attempt worthwhile.
In the week before, I came across someone on Instagram riding the West Kernow Way and posting daily videos. This gave me the perfect insight into how overgrown the trails were and how wet they had become after the very warm conditions we'd been having. It looked like the conditions might finally be right.
On Saturday morning, I made up my mind. The next day would be go time.
I picked up a CamelBak from the shop and Garry kindly offered to be my support vehicle. All I needed to do was survive two XC races that evening.
4:30AM START
Sunday started with a 4am alarm and I was on the bike by 4:30am.
I didn't follow the official route from the start, as I was only a couple of miles away from it at home. The early morning was colder than I expected, so I pushed on to keep warm.
I first met Garry in Portreath for a quick stop before heading inland and looping my way down towards Marazion and the official start of the route.
By this point, things were warming up, so I dropped some layers with Garry and cracked on. A major road section took me towards the Minack Theatre and Land's End.
THE HEAT
As the day went on, drinking became one of my biggest problems.
The temperature was hovering around 30°C and I simply couldn't drink enough. The heat started to take its toll as I worked my way across the Penwith moorland.
The trails were interesting, with ferns covering sections I hadn't ridden before. Eventually, this brought me back towards St Erth, where I knew I was properly on my way home.
There was just one small problem.
The Lizard Peninsula.
THE LIZARD
After tackling some steep hills and the sand at Loe Bar, I rounded the Lizard.
At this point I knew I had just a few big climbs around Coverack and Gweek to get through.
My family joined me at Kynance Cove, which gave me a huge boost. They would see me through to the end, while Garry stayed with me until Gweek.
Once I reached Gweek, I knew I was into the final couple of hours.
My Achilles had started to hurt, but when I was riding and kept everything warm, the pain seemed to settle down.
From Gweek I headed towards Constantine and decided it was time to just send it.
I picked up the pace and didn't stop until I got home.
There were a couple of flying check-ups with the family along the way, and then I was back onto familiar territory on the Bissoe Trail — the trails I call home.
12.5 HOURS ON THE MTB
I'm absolutely over the moon with the achievement.
12.5 hours of riding is the longest I've ever spent on a bike, and I've never done anything like this on a mountain bike before.
The West Kernow Way is normally an adventure spread over three or four days. Riding the whole thing in a single day was always going to be a big challenge, especially with the heat, the amount of climbing and the condition of some of the trails.
A massive thank you to Garry for being out there as my support vehicle, and to my family for meeting me along the way and giving me the boost I needed to keep going.
One very long day. One very tired mountain biker. And one route ticked off the list.
