About Ride the North
What’s it all about?
The defining feature of Ride the North is that it’s not a race – and the whole event is shaped around that fact. There is 3 hour start window in the morning and 4 hour window for finishers in the afternoon/evening …with routes of either 110 or 150 km to be complete between.
There are check-points every 15-20 km along the route where there are not only services and refreshments, but also a stamping station. Successful completion will involve collection of the stamps along the route and finishing inside the scheduled finish times. Too fast? Unlike most cycling events, that can lead to failure! Really it means you chose the wrong route or wring start time. If you do aim to cover 150km in 4 hrs, then is probably not the event you’re looking for. Too slow? Well, nobody really is too slow but sometimes people chose the wrong route or wrong start time. We have support vehicles to assist
There is lots of support, lots of encouragement and no shortage of Scottish hospitality along the way.
Ride for fun/Ride for charity
The event is not a charity ride (the registration fee pays the costs of organising and delivering the event), but from the very start, we’ve been committed to working with charities who are active in the local area and who serve the communities who support the event. If you miss the event registation (usually January) there are usually charity places available through to June.
Each year we protect places for charity partners and welcome hundreds of riders who use the event for fundraising.
RtN is an inclusive event that seeks to work for everyone who enjoys riding a bike – you don’t need to ride a road bike (the majority do), you only need to be confident that you can ride 100-180kms over the course of a (sunny) summer day in scenic Scotland.
Ride the North is both a celebration of cycling and our local area. Thank you to all those who have supported us along the way.
A short history of RtN
In 2011 we decided in to run a small cycling event in our native North East Scotland of Scotland and that first Ride the North found it quite difficult to attract 37 cyclists. It was intended as a one off and as a fundraiser for a local cancer charity. The sun shone and the one-off bike tour somehow turned into an annual event. In 2024 registrations were capped at 2,000.
The one thing that was clear from the outset was that this would not be a competitive event …but it would make an attempt to be more sociable than other event – a challenge ride that would be a celebration of cycling with coffee stops, lunches and some small detours to take the more scenic or quiet roads and notable climbs.
The nature of the challenge is always intended to be achievable (with training) for those with limited cycling experience, but to be tough enough to work for the more regular cyclists. Our regions is far from flat and the ride is always shaped to include some tough terrain.
