A long, good, Friday ride: Todmorden-Wray (100 miles) or Whalley-Wray (100 km). FRI, 22nd June, 2018

[ColinJ]

Short notice and on a week day, but some of you may be interested and free to join us...

Subject to acceptable weather conditions, a scenic imperial century ride from Todmorden or optionally a scenic metric century from Spring Wood picnic centre, Whalley.

The route is exactly the one used on last year's ride - details in THIS THREAD.

@Littgull and I will be starting from the park gates (town centre end) in Todmorden at 09:00 and will call in at Spring Wood picnic centre car park/toilets at around 10:20, with a view to setting off again by 10:30. We will take a reasonable lunch break at the cafe in Wray.

I have passed the word on to various non-Cyclechat cycling pals in case any of them would like to join us. No word back from them yet.

You wouldn't have to be fast to do this ride (a 15-16 kph/9-10 mph overall average speed would be about right) but you would have to be pretty fit because it has about 2,000 m/6,600 ft of climbs, some rather tough.

Let me and Brian know if you would like to come along with us.

 

[Domus]

How much climbing on the short route .

 

[ColinJ]

How much climbing on the short route .

80% of it!

There is about 400 m of climbing from Tod to Whalley and back. Whalley-Wray-Whalley is 1,500-1,600 m.

 

[Domus]

Thanks. Not fit enough to join just yet.

 

[ColinJ]

Thanks. Not fit enough to join just yet.

Oh well - we do it every year so think about joining us in 2019 instead!

 

[ColinJ]

The forecast is still ok. It is supposed to be dry and sunny all day but the wind will be keeping temperatures lower so I'll take armwarmers just in case, plus my standard gilet, which only comes off above about 20C.

If any of you are free to join us for all or part of the ride, feel free!

 

[Littgull]

Looks a great day for this one! Wall to wall sunshine, no rain and a light to moderate westerly wind. Ideal conditions.

Forest of Bowland here we come!

 

[ColinJ]

I'll try to remember to take a photo of the mysteriously perfect 'lane to nowhere'. We reckon that somebody with clout lives up there because there is no obvious reason why that little road should have been given priority over the poorly-surfaced main roads!

 

[ColinJ]

Ah, the 'road to nowhere' has become the 'road to somewhere'. The perfect tarmac up above Wray has been extended over White Moss to Botton Mill!

That's Brian doing a little jig for the camera ... The perfect tarmac replaces what was pretty much a dirt track with potholes the first couple of times that I rode up there.

As you can see, we had a lovely day for our ride. It felt a few degrees warmer than forecast. We had blue skies all day. The wind was not too bad, sometimes hindering, sometimes helping, always helping to keep us cool.

I was wrong with my estimated ascent figure of 2,000 metres ... It was actually a tough 2,670 metres for me. Brian would have done more like 2,800 metres!

I was a few km short of the 160.9 that I needed for my imperial century so I rode the extra round Todmorden before picking up my big post-ride pizza.

It was a really nice day out on the bikes. I felt much fitter tackling the hills on the route than I had done in previous years, but by the time we got back to Burnley I was running out of steam. I'm feeling pretty tired now!

Bonus: I was much lighter when I got home than I have been for a couple of years, but some of that is probably due to dehydration. I will weigh myself again tomorrow to see what I am after rehydrating properly.

 

[Littgull]

Enjoyable summer days out don't come any better than that! Great weather, great company and great scenery.

My ride stats (including 12 miles Littleborough to Todmorden and return) were:
- Total mileage =109.5 miles
- Average speed (moving speed) = 10.22 mph
- Maximum speed = 33 mph
- Total ascent = 2848 metres (9256 ft!)

Needless to say, I slept well last night .
This is a total gem of a ride that Colin created. I must have ridden it with him at least 7 or 8 times now. We have developed a habit of choosing beautiful sunny blue sky days for riding it. That makes the stunning scenery even more attractive. Mind you, you wouldn't want to be caught in a storm up there as long stretches are very exposed and remote.
Some pictures I took of Colin (@ColinJ) and the view after we had reached the summit of the Cross O' Greet climb.

 

[Blue Hills]

Hope to do that ride sometime.

If as you say you two or colin has such a knack of choosing blue sky days in that bit of the country you must have dark powers. Burn him or you both.

 

[ColinJ]

Hope to do that ride sometime.

If as you say you two or colin has such a knack of choosing blue sky days in that bit of the country you must have dark powers. Burn him or you both.

I refer the honourable member to last year's ride - this was the thunderstorm map on the Saturday afternoon when we would have been up on those hills ...

Fortunately, I had been watching the weather forecasts and had postponed the ride to the Sunday, when we had much better weather!

 

[Blue Hills]

nah, 'tis witchcraft

 

[Pale Rider]

Enjoyable summer days out don't come any better than that! Great weather, great company and great scenery.

My ride stats (including 12 miles Littleborough to Todmorden and return) were:
- Total mileage =109.5 miles
- Average speed (moving speed) = 10.22 mph
- Maximum speed = 33 mph
- Total ascent = 2848 metres (9256 ft!)

Needless to say, I slept well last night .
This is a total gem of a ride that Colin created. I must have ridden it with him at least 7 or 8 times now. We have developed a habit of choosing beautiful sunny blue sky days for riding it. That makes the stunning scenery even more attractive. Mind you, you wouldn't want to be caught in a storm up there as long stretches are very exposed and remote.
Some pictures I took of Colin (@ColinJ) and the view after we had reached the summit of the Cross O' Greet climb.

Good to see @Littgull back on the bike after his recent health hiatus.

He must have recovered well to be able to do this ride, 100 miles and all that climbing is a good effort.

I've done the shorter ride - enough for me even on an ebike.

As Brian says, you won't get much better cycling country.

 

[Littgull]

Thanks Rob (@Pale Rider). Yes, I felt really good yesterday and have got my 'mojo' back.