Yes, it was a great day out. The weather was very kind to us, but I did start to find the headwind a bit much later.
@Svendo was definitely having to work hard with about 2.5 stone of child and child seat to lug up Dog Hill (Buckstones Rd). He was riding just behind me and I could hear the breathless chat he was trying to have with his son - ha ha!
The pros make those hills look so easy... Here's a picture of them streaming past us at the summit just past the KoM point. Note the Lotto Soudal rider on the left of the picture taking a casual swig after his little climb.
Guy and I said goodbye to Svendo and Svendo-jnr and set off on our mini-tour of Saddleworth. We began the plunge down towards Delph when I was suddenly whacked in one eye by a fly.
Fortunately, my eyelid was closed at the moment of impact;
Unfortunately, the reason it got so close to my eyeball was that I had left my sunglasses at the summit of the hill!
I told Guy what the problem was and he effectively told me that he would keep an eye on the dry stone wall to make sure that nobody stole it while I slogged my way back up the hill!
I found my sunglasses straight away. It seems that I had inadvertently trodden on them because both lenses had popped out of the frame, and one of the, er... (after a quick Google, I found the name I was searching for is)
skull temples was bent. I managed to put the lenses back in and straightened the temple so it fitted over my ear again and then whizzed back down to Guy.
We continued down to Delph, round to Dobcross, then up through Diggle to the A62 at Standedge and soon crested the summit. We could have stayed on the main road down to Marsden, but I prefer the quieter route via Mount Rd so we went that way instead. From the town we climbed some way back up the B6107 (Meltham Rd) before plunging down Lingards Rd to Slaithwaite.
A stiff ascent to Clough Head was followed by a short refreshment break and then we continued to the A640, from which we descended for a tour round Scammonden Water, with the roar of traffic on the M62 crossing the dam nearby.
As Guy mentioned, the climb up to the B6114 to Moselden Height is very steep. It averages 10% for 800 m but there are a couple of much steeper ramps. I reckon one of them tops out at over 20%. I have nice low gears on my bike and the road surface has been greatly improved since the last time that I rode up there so I knew that by setting a comfortable pace myself I could get up ok.
I was on a lesser slope higher up when another cyclist came plunging down towards me. He called out, asking if I carried a multitool? My answer - "Yes"! His saddle had come loose and was flopping about all over the place. He tightened up the retaining bolt which gave me a chance to get my breath back before Guy made his way up to the scene.
After some more hilly scenic Yorkshire meanderings, we came out onto the A58 by Baitings reservoir. Guy was going up to Blackstone Edge before his fun descent to Littleborough.
More lumpy roads for me over to Mytholmroyd, and then onwards to Hebden Bridge. I eventually decided to treat myself to an easy finish, back to Todmorden along the A646 in the shelter of the valley, rather than doing a tough climb up the hill to Heptonstall and beyond, with a windy slog 'across the tops'. That meant my ride didn't qualify for my September metric century, but I still did 82 km so that qualifies as my September '50' (~51
miles in this case) for the 50-a-month challenge. I'll do the metric century in the next week or so.
)
