I wonder if you are one of my Cragg Vale tormentors!
Haha I don’t think I am, no- the other day was actually the first time I’ve been up in 6 months or so, despite living 10 minutes away.
Not sure how fast I would do it now. Probably not very. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve timed it. I do less leisure cycling now and almost no “testing” rides recently, but through commuting I probably do more miles each week than I used to.
I've been up there many times with my Dad, and we also went to cycle in the mountains in France a few times. He was always faster than me on the flat (I think it’s probably close now, although we don’t ride together as often as I’ve moved out), but lagged badly on the hills- just solely because of excess weight. I often wandered how badly he would slay me up the climbs if he lost most of the excess…..
One of my Dad’s favoured rides when I was a bit younger was “the burn up” – Castle Hill school in Todmorden to the turning circle just before Hebden (opposite St James) and back, as fast as you can without a warm up. The race of truth. Awful.