Tough, scenic 100 mile ride - Mytholmroyd, Malham, Forest of Bowland, Sun 26th July

[ColinJ]

Thursden ? Widdop? Are you leaving the best until last Colin?

Yep! Mind you once we crest the hill and look down over Widdop, it's a nice easy 15 km run back to Hebden Bridge, and on to Mytholmroyd.

PS Just a reminder, so you can look forward to it...

 

[PaulB]

Yep! Mind you once we crest the hill

Crest the hill! Crest the hill! I've just been over that "hill" (just to the Pack Horse and then back) and have to say that the word "hill" probably doesn't really do it justice. May I suggest the word "bruell" to describe it as it is a brutal, cruel hill?

Oh, and the wind was against me as well!

But it was a clear and lovely evening!

 

[MSeries]

Cracking route. I think you might be being a bit optimistic with 10-11 hours though. Prove me wrong, go for it.

 

[ColinJ]

Cracking route. I think you might be being a bit optimistic with 10-11 hours though. Prove me wrong, go for it.

As the ride organiser, I have a bit of a balancing act between not putting off the fitter riders with the potential slowness of the ride, and not terrifying the slower riders (including myself!) with the severity of it so I'm hoping for 10-11 hours, but I am well aware that we will have 13 hours of daylight from when we set off on Sunday!

I'm just hoping that we don't also have 13 hours of wind and rain because this could be a brutal ride in bad weather conditions. I'd be tempted to shorten the ride significantly or even call it off if that was likely to be the case.

If the weather, riders' legs or time are causing concern we could always come back the easy way from Waddington via Padiham and the A646. I'd prefer to stick to the plan but it is a good bailout option.

Ooh, I've just gone back through the thread and noticed that I hadn't added Kestevan to the list of possibles - done now.

 

[PaulB]

I know it's early but the weather forecast for Sunday is for nice.

 

[ColinJ]

I know it's early but the weather forecast for Sunday is for nice.

I'd spotted that too - fingers crossed! It was pretty grotty here yesterday and has been again today. Hopefully all this stuff will have blown away by the weekend.

 

[Alun]

I'm taking no chances, I'll be bringing the factor 30 !

 

[trio25]

I rode through hebden bridge yesterday, then over cragg vale. Not done many hills recently and I could tell. I'm all ready for the ride, have a lift over and everything sorted!

 

[ColinJ]

I rode through hebden bridge yesterday, then over cragg vale. Not done many hills recently and I could tell. I'm all ready for the ride, have a lift over and everything sorted!

I took one look out of my window and decided not to bother...

I am going to try to get out today though and perhaps again tomorrow. I'll probably rest on Friday and Saturday because I'll need what remaining energy I have on Sunday!

 

[Alun]

Rode through Waddington yesterday on a training ride for this event and the Country Kitchen had shut 20 mins before. I was gutted, as premier league footballers say.

I hope it will be open when we hit town on Sunday !

 

[ColinJ]

Rode through Waddington yesterday on a training ride for this event and the Country Kitchen had shut 20 mins before. I was gutted, as premier league footballers say.

I hope it will be open when we hit town on Sunday !

Hopefully that would have been 17:20 then? I'm assuming that it still shuts at 17:00.

We'll get to Waddington at 16:20 if we average 14 kph. If we only average 13 kph, we'll get there at closing time. If so, we'll have to find somewhere in Clitheroe to refuel.

The weather forecast isn't great for Sunday so I'd suggest wearing layers which can be added or removed as appropriate for showers and sunny spells.

 

[Alun]

Nooo, 16.30 on a Wednesday, that's why I was gutted, thought I be there with minutes to spare.

And I couldn't get a decent ice cream in Clitheroe !

 

[longers]

I'd better remember to fit some lights for getting home!

Looking forward to some good company again

 

[PaulB]

I'm just hoping that we don't also have 13 hours of wind and rain because this could be a brutal ride in bad weather conditions. I'd be tempted to shorten the ride significantly or even call it off if that was likely to be the case.

The weather "experts" are now telling us it's going to be grim on Sunday after promising a good spell of weather coming in for the weekend. The latest is that Saturday will be the best day with sunny spells and the bad stuff will be back with us on Sunday! If they can't get it right a few days' ahead, why should we believe these stories about global warming?

 

[ColinJ]

The weather "experts" are now telling us it's going to be grim on Sunday after promising a good spell of weather coming in for the weekend. The latest is that Saturday will be the best day with sunny spells and the bad stuff will be back with us on Sunday! If they can't get it right a few days' ahead, why should we believe these stories about global warming?

If they are right, we will have a tailwind on the way out when it might still be quite dry, but then it will start raining as we turn south into the wind!

It sounds like it will still be too warm for heavy duty waterproofs. It could be tricky trying to decide what to wear... I might go for my lightweight gilet with a lightweight rain jacket for backup.

I'll take the precaution of programming a couple of shortcuts into my GPS in case the weather gets really bad. There's an obvious one from Settle to Waddington missing out Bowland Knotts and Gisburn Forest. It would knock about 16 km off the route but more importantly would miss out a lot of climbing which we might not want to do into driving rain!

Let's hope for the best but plan for the worst!