Sunday, 11th April - The PaulB Recovery Ride, Hebden Bridge / Whalley / Ribble Valley

[Garz]

Am interested in this one big C, shall keep my eye on work schedule as post again as soon as I know.

 

[Arch]

I can't remember what I wrote other than to say to Arch that Warthill only appears to be 25 m above sea level so that hill must start off underground!

Ok, it's more of a lump...

 

[trio25]

This'll be my first Hebden Bridge ride being 18 (Turn 18 on Apr 2nd), hopefully it'll be a good and nice weathered one. Trio, up for meeting at the same place arranged for the previous ride?

You are a baby ;-)

Yes that sounds a good idea. Will sort time out nearer the ride.

 

[Calum]

Hmm... tricky one this. I'm supposed to be heading back up to Leeds from Bristol on the 12th, but i'm now considering coming back on the 10th instead. I REALLY want to go on the ride, it sounds like it'll be an ace one! Put me in as a 'maybe' and i'll keep you updated Colin!

 

[ColinJ]

Am interested in this one big C, shall keep my eye on work schedule as post again as soon as I know.

Pencil me in for this one. I should have the snot rocket right by then.

Hmm... tricky one this. I'm supposed to be heading back up to Leeds from Bristol on the 12th, but i'm now considering coming back on the 10th instead. I REALLY want to go on the ride, it sounds like it'll be an ace one! Put me in as a 'maybe' and i'll keep you updated Colin!

It'd be good to meet you Garz and to see you again dan_bo and Calum.

 

[zacklaws]

Its a bit too close to the ride on the 18th of April and at the moment I have been over doing things so would start tapering off a bit that weekend for the following one, so I do not hurt like I do now. I am really struggling to progress at the moment, and finding it hard, but looking at my mileage for this past 3 weeks it has been a bit excessive, but there again I may have improved but thinking I should be doing better. Even after a four day lay off, my legs were still shot to bits when I went out today.

Perhaps a few days out on the flat may help instead of the hills.

But I may still come over, I think my holidays start on the 11th, and the ride on the 18th is not that demanding at the end of the day.

 

[ColinJ]

Perhaps a few days out on the flat may help instead of the hills.

But I may still come over, I think my holidays start on the 11th

Zack - the ride out to Whalley has some decent hills in it but overall, this one will be a lot less hilly than most of my rides. Over 50 miles of the 70 miles will be pretty flat or undulating.

...the ride on the 18th is not that demanding at the end of the day.

Spring into the Dales (on the 18th) shouldn't be underestimated. It has over 2,000 m of climbing in just 110 km and some of that is pretty steep. If you take your time it can be a scenic tour of the area but if you try and do it quickly you'll find it demanding enough.

Chris Crossland (the event organiser) told me that very few riders have ever got round at the maximum permitted average speed of 24 kph. Give it a go! (I'll average more like 14 kph this time and my best so far was about 18 kph.)

 

[zacklaws]

I actually meant by demanding that there is no reason to race around like a lunatic, otherwise I'll take it as it comes, a gentle plod round or maybe take off like a rocket if the goings good.

 

[Calum]

Agh feck, count me out, i'm watching Bristol City vs Swansea on the 10th so wont be back up north untill the 12th. Have fun the rest of you!

 

[ColinJ]

Agh feck, count me out, i'm watching Bristol City vs Swansea on the 10th so wont be back up north untill the 12th.

There's loads of time after the match to get the train up! Unless of course you want a 6 hour drinking session afterwards...

Have fun the rest of you!

We will!

 

[ColinJ]

I've put the route up on Bikely but the site has really been playing up the past couple of days so you might have to try several times to access it.

I had to say that the route started in Halifax because Bikely didn't know where Hebden Bridge is!

I've added a little 5 km loop at Bolton-by-Bowland which takes in one hill. If Paul wants to rest there we could nip round the loop and pick him up 20 minutes later on the way back round. Alternatively we can all just turn at B-b-B and head back the way we came.

For a bit of variety, I've taken us out of Waddington by a different route which will then rejoin our outward route further on (in the opposite direction of course!)

I've annotated a few relevant points on the route (cafes etc.) in case anybody fancies tackling the route at a later date and would like to know where things are.

 

[Christopher]

hi Colin
I've had a word with the boss (my real boss, not that bloke at work) & she says the 11th is fine for a trip out.

Didn't realise you were planning to go past Widdop on the outward leg, so I plan to get the train to HB & join you there. In any case I think the rear wheel rim on the fixed is starting to come apart, looks like more tomfoolery with a spoke key on the horizon...

BTW I see your route goes straight down Black Hill into Sabden, might be better to go along one more junction and do a 135 degree right turn to descend into Sabden, as Black Hill is steady 1 in 6 and the longer way isn't as steep.

 

[ColinJ]

hi Colin
I've had a word with the boss (my real boss, not that bloke at work) & she says the 11th is fine for a trip out.

Excellent!

hi Colin
Didn't realise you were planning to go past Widdop on the outward leg, so I plan to get the train to HB & join you there. In any case I think the rear wheel rim on the fixed is starting to come apart, looks like more tomfoolery with a spoke key on the horizon...

Yes - I fancy getting some nice hilly stuff in before we do the flatter bit in the middle of the ride.

I'm just trying to remember where you live - isn't it out Preston way? If so, you'd have to catch the Blackpool North train, but the first one of them doesn't get into Hebden Bridge until 10:32 which is about 40 minutes after I intended that we should set off. That isn't a show-stopper - we could make the meet-up at Spring Wood, Whalley at 13:00 instead. We should be able to get out there in 2.5 hours quite comfortably.

If you'd be catching the train from Manchester, the first one of them gets in at 09:52 which is only a few minutes after the original departure time so not much change required there.

Update - Frustruck will ride out towards Widdop from Brierfield as we are riding towards it from Hebden Bridge. We'll met in the middle somewhere.

hi Colin
BTW I see your route goes straight down Black Hill into Sabden, might be better to go along one more junction and do a 135 degree right turn to descend into Sabden, as Black Hill is steady 1 in 6 and the longer way isn't as steep.

I'm familiar with Black Hill - it's bit gnarly, that, isn't it! I had to walk most of it the first time I tried climbing it. I've been up it several times since then on the Pendle Pedal event. I'm happy to go the other way so I'll amend the route on Bikely. It'll give us another nice bit of woodland road to ride along before descending.

Update: Route amended to use safer descent.

 

[aJohnson]

Looks like a nice route, I'll be slow on the descents again

Found out I wont be able to do my A2 coursework or homework last minute as this ride will probably knacker me out. Looking forward to it.

 

[Garz]

Big C, unless I don't go to a function in Sheffield on the 10th (which is an annual birthday bash) then I could make it. I would realistically say that my chances are less than 10%, the strange thing is the last time I wanted to get out with you guys it fell on the same kind of circumstance where I was getting wasted the night before!

If it changes weekend then I will be glad to participate, I am however doing the Wrynose or bust cycle event on the 25th which would have been excellent preparation for..