Saw you and Longers at the start Colin, but was busy unlocking my bike and then suddenly everyone had started and I was last-but-one off.
Since you were telling everyone just how slow you were going to be, I thought I'd catch you and have a chat then.
But I didn't see you...
(although it may just have been me not being very observant – nor did I see that Knowl Top for the info control, to see what colour the door was. I asked someone later, he said ‘I can’t tell you that – you had to find that yourself, I can’t tell you what colour the red door was...’)
I saw Longers at Waddington and we climbed Waddington Fell together, which certainly made it more pleasant then grovelling up alone.
I was impressed that he was on his Hewitt Tourer, all racks and dynamos, looking like it weighed a ton, but he still wasn't using the smallest cog...
I'd stopped on Long Causeway and put my waterproof on, as I thought the rain was setting-in rather than just a shower, and kept it on down to Burnley because that wind was keen and cold.
Some bloke caught me and asked if I knew where I was going, I said no and the route sheet looked a bit complicated in the backstreets around Burnley.
He just looked blank, and I could see he didn't have anything holding his sheet on the bars, so I asked if he'd got the routesheet which Chris had posted to him.
Again he looked blank, then said he'd only entered on the morning but yes, he'd got 'the card for the stickers'.
I tried three or four times to explain about the routesheet but wasn't getting very far, particularly when he said he thought there’d be direction arrows at the junctions anyway....
I wasn’t getting through so eventually I gave up. He said he knew the area well so wouldn't get lost.
Another guy caught us, who'd done it before, so I followed him through the backstreets of Burnley, checking-off against the routesheet but faster following him than navigating street names myself.
Out the other side, when we started going uphill, I stopped to take my waterproof off and no-routesheet-bloke rode off up the hill after the third guy.
Waterproof off, I set off again and there was the turn further up, up the narrow lane with the horsesh*t.
No-routesheet-bloke was further up the main road, past the turning, and looking blankly about, so I waved at him and he came back, saying surely it wasn't this way because 'they'd never send us up a bad road like this' (other than the horseh*t, of course it was a fine tarmac lane, not some gravel farm track like I've been up on some audaxes...)
Over the top and down the other side, a nice fast swoop, I look back and no sign of him.
I waited for a couple of minutes, trying to decide what to do - clearly he had no real idea about what an audax was, let alone no routesheet (unless of course Chris had given him one - surely he would ? - but the bloke had just shoved it in his pocket or something ?).
I didn't know the guy, he seemed more than a bit dim and I didn’t relish the idea of riding round with him all day, but on the other hand felt I ought not to abandon him...
But he did say he knew the area well and wouldn't get lost...
I waited quite a while, but still he didn’t come by, no-one came by.
Maybe I’d shot off, full of downhill enthusiasm, but surely he’d have caught-up by now ?
I looked back up the road, no sign of him.
I decided I wasn’t going to go back and look for him, he said he wouldn’t get lost, or perhaps he could tag onto someone slower coming along, but either way, not my responsibility, he was plenty old enough to look after himself.
So off I went.
I still feel a bit guilty and unfriendly though...
Other than that I enjoyed the ride.
I actually found it easier than Sprint into the Dales last year, and considering it’s got a fair bit more climbing, that means I’m fitter.
I stopped at Cauldwell and there was a very nice Polish-or-something waitress...
And then that climb shortly afterwards, which I’d had to get off and walk when I did it three years ago, was a nice simple climb.
I ran out of gears (50 x 12) going down towards Widdop, although swooped slightly too fast around a bend and washed-out a bit wide to avoid some ruts only to find a monster pothole which required a rapid change of line !
I did go down the cobbles in Heptonstall (even riding a Roubaix, it wasn’t a pleasant experience, but at least the noise made the pedestrians shift out of the way) and then nearly went into the back of a car who stopped on the downhill to the lights.
Good day out.
Excellent spread at the end again, although the ladies making the sandwiches were only just keeping-up with the ravenous hordes !