(Apologies to the OP for going off on this tangent.)
Yes - sorry for meandering away from the thread topic, but it is kind of related!
That does sound quite testing. How do you think that would split- something like this?
Tod centre to foot of Cragg- 15
Up Cragg- 27
Top of Cragg down and through lights at Littleborough- 4
Littleborough to Tod centre- 13
And then get there with a minute to spare! Looks painful : /
Your timings actually do make it sound pretty tough!
I have another target which is to do the CV hill climb course in 20 minutes. I wouldn't seriously try to do the hour loop unless I could manage the 20 minute climb. You could add (say) 3 minutes to the 20 to get from the A646 to the start of the hill climb, and from the end of that to the A58, so I would have to do the rest of the loop in about 37 minutes.
If I ever do it, I will probably choose very early on a summer Sunday before the traffic builds up. I'd want a day with nothing more than a gentle wind blowing, and I wouldn't want any temporary traffic lights to slow me down (there are several sets on the loop at the moment). I would obey any red lights so hopefully I would not get too many. I would ride to Littleborough for a warm-up, u-turn at the lights and start my timer just on the Tod side of them. I'd stop the timer as I got to the lights at the end, whether they were on red or not, which would eliminate a potential delay there. I think all of the other sets of lights are triggered by cars or pedestrians so an early start would eliminate delays at most of them as well.
It is very unlikely to be possible this year but it is something I would rather try and do aged 61 (next year) or 62, rather than busting a gut at 71 or 72 so I had better get stuck in!
