Warburton said:
Colin - good to see you again yesterday. What did you make of this year's route variation?
Oh, hi Andrew! Yes, it was nice to see you again, if only briefly.
I thought the new sections were fantastic and I told SITD organiser Chris Crossland that at the finish! The only thing I didn't like was the fact that we inevitably had to use a couple of short stretches of busy, fast A-road between them. Thinking about it though, we had to cross those same roads on the old route, just further east.
In a perfect world, the route would bypass Silsden and Keighley. I'd really got into riding in the idyllic, sunny, spring-lamb-fest that was the Dales yesterday and my senses felt assaulted as we emerged back into the noisy, smelly, aggressive real world of those towns.
I might do the route again over the summer, but I will skip those towns. I like the look of: Draughton Moor, Kildwick, Sutton-in-Craven, Slippery Ford, Oakworth, Haworth, then rejoining the SITD route at Oxenhope. I think Chris would be lynched if he tried taking the SITD riders that way though! It will make a hard route even tougher, but I'd like to have a go at it. I will wait until I'm a bit fitter because the actual SITD route is about as much as I can currently cope with.
Are you doing the Brian Robinson Challenge at the weekend? I'll be doing it with John Birkby if you fancy saying hello at the start. If you aren't doing it, watch out for us as we ride through your village later on!
