England : Lancashire Whalley - Glasson Dock. A scenic 103 km loop, *DATE CHANGE* SUNDAY 3rd April, 2016

[Accy cyclist]

I rode in a high cadence(unusual for me) I was mostly spinning to keep the legs fresh for tomorrow,and i kept my average down to 11mph to acclimatise as well!

 

[MontyVeda]

Out of about 10 of us on the Wednesday club ride only 1 or 2 carry pumps and not all mend their own punctures. There's always a couple of blokes who delight in showing off their change a puncture in less than 5 minutes skills and are straight in there when a flat happens. It'd take me around 20 minutes!

it'd take me a good twenty minutes too... but I've never been inclined to hurry a job that needs to be done properly.. plus I'd have a roll-up whilst I'm at it.

 

[ColinJ]

With better weather to look forward to, I decided to bring my Cannondale CAAD5 out of hibernation for the ride. I gave it a clean and checked out a potentially nasty cut in the rear tyre. The tyre was almost new so I was reluctant to scrap it. I let the air out and removed that section of tyre from the rim so I could run a finger inside it. The cut does not penetrate all the way through so I am going to keep on riding on that tyre but will keep an eye on the cut in case it starts to open up more.

Cafe de Lune it is then. Just started to clear here. looking forward to tomorrow though!

It was late afternoon here too before the sun finally came out.

It might knock a mile off the entire route but we can add that back going over Quernmore on the way. We could decide that at Marshaw on the day.

We had a few kms in hand for the metric century anyway so I think we will give that extra climb a miss this time!

I've been keeping a weather eye on the weather forecast and tomorrow looks good, or about as good as you will get in early April.

Which leads me to say I would like to join you.

Not least because @MikeW-71 told me this is a grand ride when we met a few weeks ago.

A bit longer than my last one with @ColinJ and chums, but it looks like less climbing to me, well it could hardly be more, could it?

I'm a bit wary of all the talk of punctures on this thread, that's bound to mean someone will cop one tomorrow.

I carry plenty of repair kit, as I'm sure do most of the rest of us, so @Accy cyclist has no need to worry.

Plus I'm sure Colin runs on the same principle as my group - everyone will be got home somehow, even if their bike breaks in half.

Enough doom and gloom, I'm looking forward to another chance to ride in good company on a lovely route which I wouldn't otherwise get to do.

Good man!

As we did last time, GtiJunior and Alex and I will meet you at Spring Wood and ride so far with you then peel off.

Alex, who lives in Whalley, says that Spring Wood is now pay & display. Anybody driving can park on Accrington Road to avoid paying.

See you at 10.00.

We aim to leave at 10:00 so try and turn up a bit before 10:00. Yes, it is P&D now but the last couple of times we went it was only £1 for the day and the money is used for the upkeep of the visitor centre, car park and grounds so I think that is perfectly reasonable.

AS far as I can make out, the list is now:

• ColinJ
• Littgull
• Bill
• Carrie
• Kevin
• Globalti/Gti Jnr/Alex for the first bit of the ride
• rusty bearing
• Accy cyclist
• Oldfentiger
• Pale rider
• oldfatfool (if his finger is ok and he is sober enough from his leaving do the day before!)

That's 12-13 of us for the first part of the ride and 9-10 for the remainder of it.

If anybody is significantly late you will miss us at Spring Wood and will have to chase after us on the published route. Bill might be doing that - he is probably riding to Spring Wood from Todmorden and will try to arrive just a couple of minutes before 10:00. He hates hanging about because he is a skinny bugger who gets cold easily! He knows the way and is quicker than many of us so he will catch up if he needs to.

See you all in the morning!

 

[ColinJ]

Well, after all the talk about bad weather yesterday, I am up for the postponed ride and the weather here is ...





... horrid! WTF!

I just did an emergency check of the forecast and apparently all is well. This was forecast, but should clear in time for the ride. As long as we get back to Whalley no later than about 6 pm we should avoid rain though if Bill were to do the whole ride with us then he might get wet riding back to Todmorden afterwards.

I had better have my breakfast now. Don't want to be late for my own ride!

PS @coffeejo - I saw that you just dropped in to CC to say goodbye to Vernon ... yes, it is very sad. I was thinking about you the other day, and how you said that you would have liked to do this ride again. Pity that you couldn't make this one, but if you could make it oop north in June, Littgull and I plan a rerun of last year's long, steady, flattish Cheshire ride and you would be very welcome to join us!

 

[robjh]

Have a good ride everyone

 

[coffeejo]

I thought of the ride the other day as well and reckoned I would barely make it out of the car park, let alone up and over the Trough! Did 28 fairly flat miles yesterday: longest ride since the summer!

Have fun today and I hope you don't get hit by that awful headwind on the return leg as well as rain.

 

[ColinJ]

Have a good ride everyone

Cheers Rob.

I just got a text from Globalti - his son is still busy sleeping off his night's sleep so they won't be joining us - ha ha!

Looking out of my window, it is hard to believe that a dry ride is ahead of us but I have just watched the BBC forecast and it confirms that this should blow over/evaporate! There will be a nasty band of rain this evening, but if it catches us at all, it should be very late in the ride and therefore not cause too many problems.

Right, time to finish my mug of tea and get my kit on!

 

[ColinJ]

I thought of the ride the other day as well and reckoned I would barely make it out of the car park, let alone up and over the Trough! Did 28 fairly flat miles yesterday: longest ride since the summer!

Have fun today and I hope you don't get hit by that awful headwind on the return leg as well as rain.

I know how you feel - I am having a very slow start to this year and could well find this hard work, especially that headwind coming back.

See if you can get fit in time for the Cheshire ride. It would be quite easy to join us for just the first half of it if that suited you better.

Anyway - I must dash, but you remember - you are always welcome on my rides!

 

[coffeejo]

I know how you feel - I am having a very slow start to this year and could well find this hard work, especially that headwind coming back.

See if you can get fit in time for the Cheshire ride. It would be quite easy to join us for just the first half of it if that suited you better.

Anyway - I must dash, but you remember - you are always welcome on my rides!

Cheers Colin! I'll see how it goes: I hurt my knee last summer, which is why I stopped, and my main focus is simply to get back into the habit out cycling for pleasure, without any pressure of mileage or hills etc.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Cheers Rob.

I just got a text from Globalti - his son is still busy sleeping off his night's sleep so they won't be joining us - ha ha!

Looking out of my window, it is hard to believe that a dry ride is ahead of us but I have just watched the BBC forecast and it confirms that this should blow over/evaporate! There will be a nasty band of rain this evening, but if it catches us at all, it should be very late in the ride and therefore not cause too many problems.

Right, time to finish my mug of tea and get my kit on!

I can;t decide whether to wear overshoes or not? Ah well, they're a bit tatty so i can always bin them if the sun comes out!

 

[oldfatfool]

Hope all have a good ride, without punctures . Unfortunately finger opening up every time I bend it excludes me from riding

 

[MontyVeda]

the weather at the Lune Estuary end of the route is fine as of 10.30am... hope it holds out for you all. In fact i hope it holds out all week since I've got the week off after today's shift.

 

[skudupnorth]

How was it ??? I was trying to think of a way to meet up after my shift at work in Bolton but it would have been too late ! Managed a little ride to and from work and tried out the new guided busway cycle path near my house so I got something out of a bitsa weekend

 

[Oldfentiger]

Great day cycling!
Weather was kind to us, with everyone stripping off layers, although the climb out of thr Trough of Bowland had plenty to do with it.
Personally, the longest ride for me to date, with plenty of encouragement from everyone.
Nice to put faces to names as always, and great company for a ride.
Big thanks to Colin for the excellent organisation and route planning.

 

[Accy cyclist]

How was it ??? I was trying to think of a way to meet up after my shift at work in Bolton but it would have been too late ! Managed a little ride to and from work and tried out the new guided busway cycle path near my house so I got something out of a bitsa weekend

It was a good day and a good ride with about 10 turning up! I've just woken up after snoozing for the last hour or so. We went through the Trough Of Bowland and ended up at the Cafe d' Lune near Lancaster. You'll have to ask Colin which way we came back, though the last leg took us through Longridge and Ribchester. The ride itself was around 63 miles though my total was 70 including getting to the meeting point and back. I haven't done a 70 mile run since er, a long long time ago.