Hebden Bridge - hilly 42 miler, Sat 20th Nov

[ColinJ]

Well I hope your ride went well, I did a 60 mile hilly route that I do quite often just to test myself, it was not my fastest time or even the slowest, but the hills really tested my legs, that seems to be were I am lacking in strength, but overall I am quite happy with what I did, especially when I saw from my Garmin download into Sporttracks that I had an intensity factor over 1.0, which makes a change as I have been around 0.8 for a few rides, so at least I'm trying.

Anyway I just beat the rain which bucketed it down which was the best part as I was not dressed for it.

Sounds good! I'm glad you had a good ride; we did too. 

Impressively, Svendo managed to catch us just after Widdop reservoir, despite having to cycle 14 miles to Hebden Bridge first!

The only part of the route that I didn't like much was the downhill through Brierfield but it is over very quickly - if you ever have a go, just watch out for the speed-bumps and potholes. I liked the parts of the route that I hadn't done before between Blacko and Laneshaw Bridge. 

Uncle Phil punctured twice due to a split in his front tyre. He put a tyre boot in the second time and it held all the way back.

I liked the tearooms at Scar Top Moor Lodge so I reckon I'll call in there on future forum rides. The views across the moors are impressive.

I'm afraid that tubbycyclist and I were lagging behind on the climbs so the average speed for the ride was very low. We sent the others on ahead to the tearooms so we could do the testing little climb up from Laneshaw Bridge at our own pace.

When we emerged from our lengthy stop at the tearooms, the cloud cover had increased and light drizzle was falling. It was getting dark early and Calum didn't have lights so Svendo volunteered to show him the way back.


The other 4 of us ended up doing the climb of Cock Hill and the descent to Hebden Bridge in the dark.

This would make a good hard training loop - it felt a lot further than 42 miles.

It was nice to ride with everyone again, probably for the last time in 2010. See y'all in 2011. I'll try and get fitter so I don't hold you back so much (Yes, Svendo - I know I've been saying that for 2 years worth of forum rides ). 

 

[Calum]

It was a good day out! Thanks to Svendo for putting up with my slowness on the long climb out of Oxenhope, I was getting a bit nervous about the fog at the top combined with the failing daylight, so it was reassuring to have his decent back lights behind!

 

[tubbycyclist]

Cheers to all for the ride, enjoyed it despite my usual inching up those hills. Glad to hear Calum and Svendo made it back in daylight, would have been interesting in the dark.

 

[ColinJ]

It wasn't a long ride, but it was a lumpy one!

 

[zacklaws]

It wasn't a long ride, but it was a lumpy one!

Bloody hell! it looks a bit lumpy, In fact at the moment I think it could be confused with an ECG of my heart rate going up a hill.

 

[Svendo]

Thanks for organising another challenging ride Colin, and the weather for mostly cooperating. After leaving the tearooms Calum and I headed straight off downhill then up through the two valleys before turning right to go round the Haworth side of Penistone Hill to Oxenhope. We couldn't have taken the road across the dam and straight up and over the hill as it was closed, and not just signed but blocked with Harris fencing.
From Oxenhope we could see the mist and fog over the top of Cock Hill, and as we cycled up I was gradually putting more lights on, then turning them off again as we descended the other side out of the fog. We got to Hebden Bridge station just before 4pm, and Calum was hopefully able to almost cycle straight onto the train that was just pulling in.
I headed off to Walsden and stayed at my better half's as I was a bit tired to go all the way home. I have just over 60 miles for the day in total, and did feel pretty done in.
Hi to tubbycyclist and Mr & Mrs UnclePhil, always good to put names to faces and meet nice new people.

 

[Amanda P]

Finally back on-line - yes, thanks again Colin for setting up something to keep us flatlanders reminded of what hills are. We did see quite a lot of them, didn't we?