England : Greater Manchester Hilly Hundred

[middleagecyclist]

Been working on a nice hilly imperial century route I can do from my house. I know a lot of the roads already but not the bit from Blackburn to Barrowford and from Rochdale to Oldham. Any suggestions of bits to avoid/include without changing the overall distance much would be appreciated. Ta.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

That's not a bad route, the only changes I'd suggest is going via newchurch. The bypass is not too bad a road, outside of rush hour that is.


Edit: if you go via newchurch you'll get to see the famous witches galore shop.

 

[Christopher]

At Rishton (point 35) you could turn left and go through Whalley via Whalley Old Road, TR in Whalley then on to Sabden, then ether SO up Black Hill (hard) or TR and zigzag up to the ridge, fine ride to Barrowford which rejoins your route in Fence (point 45 on your map).
At the M65 (point 25) you can also go around to the north of Blackburn but your route to the south of the town is not too bad. Anything is better than through the middle of that town.

Got a date in mind for this?

 

[ColinJ]

I think half of that looks really nice and half of it, er, doesn't!

I've exported the route to my mapping software and will play about with it later to see what I can come up with, keeping as close as possible to your route but cutting down on the built-up areas.

 

[middleagecyclist]

Aww. Thanks guys.

I plan to do it one dry day in January as the first ride in my attempt at the 2013 Imperial Century a Month. I hope to do the Mere 200 audax at the end of January but will bale on this of the weather is very wet. Will be nice to have the hundred in the bag already.

Look forward to alternatives. I really want to climb up from Barrowford past Blacko and also call in at Foulridge to see relatives. Going via Haworth will be good as I used to live there and I must include Crag Vale.

Cheers

 

[Christopher]

The Barrowford-Blacko climb is great IIRC as the road is wide enough that cars and m/bikes etc have plenty of room to pass, has nice views and is not too steep.
I haven't commented on Rochdale to Oldham as that's not my 'hood, homeboy. Agree that Cragg Vale is a must-do.

 

[ColinJ]

A potential problem is that a lot of the nice little roads on this route could well be icy in January. A friend went out in a group on similar roads on Saturday and they crashed on black ice, one rider ending up in hospital!

Still, it's an interesting exercise so I'll still take a look later. You could always do the route in warmer weather later in the year - maybe even as a forum ride!

I'd been plotting a route from here to Belmont which is very similar to this one so I'll see if I can adapt that to make sure that it incorporates all your must-do locations.

 

[Pennine-Paul]

The road from Hollingworth lake to Milnrow gets a lot of boy racers
on it and they've mounted reflective studs to the edge of the road where we ride
forcing you out further than you need to be.........not pleasant.
I tend to jump on the canal towpath near Hollingworth Lake and ride that to kingsway industrial park
following the cycle lanes here till it brings you out near J21 (the towpaths all hard surfaced ,no mud or nasties)

The road from the M62 j21 gets a lot of artics going to the distribution warehouses in Shaw,
There's a very tight double bend over the railway just south of your 92 marker,I've had to bunny hop onto
the pavement here many times when an artic comes past you just before the bend then cuts in
front of you leaving you nowhere to go

I'd advise you to use the subway/cycle path by the junction of the A627m to avoid the roundabout,
there's a good cycle lanethat keeps you well away from the road,
where they're just slowing down from 70 to 40,some poor cyclist met his end there a couple of years ago

 

[dellzeqq]

the road that goes from Tottington straight to Blackburn is just gorgeous

 

[ColinJ]

Aaargh - I just typed out a long post and my browser crashed while I was sending it!

I've worked out a 100 mile loop which goes to all the 'must-do' places mentioned. It might need a few tweaks to get back up to distance once Pennine-Paul's advice is taken.

Will post later when I can be bothered to do it all again!

 

[middleagecyclist]

Aaargh - I just typed out a long post and my browser crashed while I was sending it!

I've worked out a 100 mile loop which goes to all the 'must-do' places mentioned. It might need a few tweaks to get back up to distance once Pennine-Paul's advice is taken.

Will post later when I can be bothered to do it all again!

Look forward to it Colin. Cheers for now.

 

[middleagecyclist]

Incorporated a few suggestions here but i'm losing distance while I gain quality. Going to have a look at the Hollingworth Lake Shaw Road section tomorrow and scout out alternatives through here. Further comments welcome.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm having computer problems! My laptop is crashing after random periods of crawling.

I'll transfer my route to my desktop PC tomorrow, finalise it on that and upload it to Bikely for you to take a look at.

I still think that you would have to be lucky with the weather to tackle my route in January. It includes some fabulous singletrack lanes which probably see little sun in the winter, and even less salt/grit!

 

[dellzeqq]

I'm having pangs of conscience now.

The road from Tottington to Blackburn is a delight but.....
- it's tough
- some of the short descents near Tottington could be nasty in the wet - I see you intend to do it on a dry day, but take care if the road is wet from overnight rain
- and the final descent in to Blackburn is dangerous. The locals may not agree, but I've lost the back wheel three times out of four, and I'm reasonably circumspect these days. The problem is that it gets steeper as you near the traffic lights near Tescos.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Miles 23 1/4 to 80 are a delight, I used to live in Nelson and know those roads like the back of my hand. I know the rest up to Milnrow pretty well as I now live in Rossendale and ride the Hebden bridge on often and commute/leisure ride the Rossendale/Rochdale roads.