I'm back!
My plan for the day started with a ride from Todmorden to Gargrave, which I did. That turned out to be a bit lumpier than I remembered ... 969 m of ascent in 43 km!
I got to Gargrave with a few minutes to spare before Effy/Mr Effy's train was due in but it was running late. Eventually it turned up and Effy, Mr E and I rolled down into Gargrave to meet Pale Rider. Mr E had to go and buy some cereal bars from the local Co-op to get some cashback for the coming cafe stop. I think cash machines are a bit less sparse in Essex than they are in the Dales ...
We rode round to the village of Airton to meet Sea of Vapours who was treating the ride as recovery from an exceedingly hard one yesterday. People from most parts of the UK would not consider today's lumpiness as 'recovery'!
Effy was doing her best. She had serious health problems a couple of years ago and they still limit what she can do now, though she has a damn good go anyway. I had tried to pick a less hilly route than many of mine, but I was a bit taken aback at how lumpy it still was. It looked like it was going to be a struggle to do the full route. The thing is that there isn't really a great choice of shortcuts on the route. If you look at the simple map I posted above, you will see that there is a potential one down the B-road from Burnsall and then from Barden Tower to Embsay. What that map doesn't show is that the latter road ascends Halton Moor very steeply to Halton Height. That wouldn't have been a popular choice!
PR eventually said what I had been thinking - that we would run out of time later in the ride. Normally, we just ride at the speed of the slowest rider and that is fine. The problem today was that Effy/Mr E had to be in Gargrave in time to catch their train back at 5:30. If they missed that then they would have had to either do a lengthy extra ride or pay for an expensive taxi ride. They decided to take a shortcut back to Gargrave. I got a text from Effy later saying that they had stopped for lunch in Hetton and then meandered back to Gargrave with plenty of time to spare. I hope that they still enjoyed their day, despite not getting their full ride in.
That left PR, SoV and myself to continue on the original route. We eventually got to our cafe stop at Cavendish Pavilion. As alluded to above - it was a sunny day during the summer school holiday so it was heaving!
We saw what appeared to be a women's cycling club leaving just before us. A lot of very fit-looking young women. Given how close we were to Otley, home of Lizzie Armitstead, I would say that her success is definitely boosting local women's participation in the sport.
During our stop, I started thinking that I would probably be in danger of missing my own train later on. I had done the sums and could see that we would likely get to Gargrave in time, but it would only have taken one puncture to have eaten up my time buffer. I was going to catch the train to Keighley for an easier ride home than going back the way that I had gone out in the morning. It dawned on me that I could simply ride back to Keighley from Bolton abbey and avoid the necessity to catch the train at all, so that was what I decided to do.
I chose to ride back on the original route of the local Spring into the Dales audax event. I rode along the lane through Beamsley and then crossed the footbridge over the Wharfe at Addingham. The old Ilkley road took me to a spot to cross the busy A65 and then do a rather stiff ascent of Nudge Hill, followed by a rapid and potentially scary descent to Silsden (Note to young driver: I was doing 40 mph down the hill and that was the limit of what was safe. Multiple instances of the word SLOW were painted on the road. Take them as a strong hint next time! Don't just go screaming down a 15% descent at 60 mph and then have to brake hard to avoid hurtling off the road on the tight bend just in front of you ...
)
The route from Silsden to Oxenhope is never great, and I hit it at just the wrong time. I caught the evening rush hour and it was very busy through Silsden, Steeton, and Utley, through Keighley, up to Cross Roads and Haworth Brow. I looked at the time and realised that if I had been on that train, I would just have been getting off in Keighley so I was about 20 minutes ahead of where I would have been.
Traffic eased off by Oxenhope and I began my climb to Cock Hill. I had been on a good day so far, but I know from repeated experience that my back normally starts to play up when I do that climb at the end of a hard ride. It did so again, but not as badly as usual. I must be getting fitter, and my new position on the bike seems to suit me (bars lower and further away from me).
The descent to Hebden Bridge was fun, as usual, and it was nice to have a '12' on my new cassette rather than the '13' on the old one. The big ring on my Cannondale is only a '48' and I used to spin out on 48/13. 48/12 still isn't quite high enough but at least I didn't have to freewheel all the way down.
The A646 from Hebden Bridge back to Todmorden is a bit busy and I have done it hundreds of times so it was something to get out of the way, rather than savour.
As I neared home, my thoughts turned to food. I really didn't fancy coming back out to buy supplies later ... Ah, the local chip shop was still open! I bought a fish 'n chip supper and wolfed that down back at ColinJ HQ.
I enjoyed my day out, even though plans changed during the ride. Nice to meet
@Effyb4 and Mr E, and team up with PR and SoV again.
Ride stats: 123 km (76 miles) with 2,375 m of climbing (7,800 ft).
PS I didn't take many photos. I think I have one or two from the ride over to Gargrave which may be worth posting. I'll check tomorrow.
