NCN 68 - Pennine Cycleway

564.5 km 5802 m climbing About 6 days 16% off road Road cycling East Midlands

The route runs south to north through the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, North Pennines, Northumberland and the Lake District, and the terrain compounds as you go.

Climbing is steady throughout and concentrated in the upland sections, where the line crosses high moorland and drops repeatedly into valleys before rising again. Roughly a sixth of the route is off road, spread across those same upland stretches.

The figures

Distance	564.5 km
Climbing	5802 m
Off road	89 km, about 16% of the route
Riding time	about 34 hours, roughly 6 days at a moderate pace
Region	East Midlands
Route from	Sustrans

Worth knowing before you go

The North Pennines and Northumberland stages are the remotest, and resupply points will be further apart there than in the southern sections. The route is tagged as road but the off-road sections require a bike with some clearance. Six days is a moderate estimate and the northern stages carry the most accumulated climbing.

Put your own dates on this and TourTrax splits it into days at your pace, finds somewhere to sleep at the end of each one, estimates what it will cost and gets you to the start without flying.

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Other route guides

NCN 68 - Pennine Cycleway is an official route from Sustrans (their website).