Anna Taylor has become the first woman to complete a continuous round of all 83 routes that feature in 'Classic Rock', the iconic book by Ken Wilson. Carrying all of her kit with her, Anna cycled between each route, covering 1500 miles on the bike and climbing over 10,000 metres.

Beginning on 31 July, Anna set off from Penzance and ticked the southern section of the list, then cycled up through Wales, the Lake District and Scotland, before finishing on the Isle of Skye today. Anna climbed 68 of the 83 routes solo, either free or with a rope. She was accompanied for part of the journey by adventure photographer Marc Langley, while Neil Gresham supported her in her final climbs on Skye. 

The weather during the challenge was wet and unforgiving, but Anna continued regardless, completing it in an almost-continuous trip save for a brief interlude for a work commitment. Anna was also a newcomer to cycle-touring before setting out on her journey.

Commenting on Instagram, she wrote: 

'Well that's that. Two months ago I set off from Penzance with the intention of linking all of the Classic Rock routes together by bike. I didn't have a clue how to cycle tour, or how I was going to get all the climbs done if the weather crapped out, but bit by bit I learned, and here we are. So that's just over 1,500 miles on the bike, and 83 out of 83 climbs (68 of which were solos, either free or with rope), in a mostly continuous round (I did have to duck out for a work trip at one point).

'Big thanks to @neil.gresham for coming up to do the last few climbs with me in appalling conditions. The weather has often been unkind throughout this trip, and because of this things were difficult and pretty treacherous right up until the very last second. Still, we had a fun, mildly epic adventure sliding around on the Cioch, and the Cuillin Ridge was, to put it frankly, f**king grim. It wasn't quite the scenic finale I had in mind, but was quite a fitting ending in the sense that virtually nothing about this trip has ever gone according to plan.

'There's been some good and very memorable moments though. Climbing The Long Climb on the Ben in a bubble of mist feeling like I was the only person in the world was ace, as was the watery fight to get out of The Chasm (though that was perhaps more of a type 2 fun sort of day). Routes like The Devils Slide on Lundy and The Clean Sweep on Hells Lum were also highlights, and all that definitely made up for the times I was frozen, wet and off-route, or regretting my life choices cycling up endless hills. It's not been a perfect trip by any means, but I've learnt a lot (mostly about soloing), and I'm looking forward to putting some of that knowledge to good use on future projects. For now however, I'm just appreciating being warm and dry, and I'm pretty relived to have got this over with before it starts snowing.'

 

 

 

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A post shared by Anna Taylor (@anna_taylor_98)

Stay tuned for a UKC interview...