A bright and chilly morning again and I really must go for a ride. Four and a half miles last Tuesday is not going to reduce my excess weight or increase my fitness, although the ascent of Pendle Hill last Thursday might improve both those goals. Sorry, the ascent on foot is what should have been typed.
Twenty four miles today, beginning with the Holbeck hobble and a slightly more sprightly crossing of the Aire at Crown Point Bridge. Sundays are very quiet, are they not? Usually, from the Palace ( a pub, Leeds has a few ) onwards there is a nuisance bit of traffic around but this morning very little all the way to the Clock at Oakwood. Pleasant. Pass the scruffier park gates and along to the bottom of Boot Hill, for the first time in a while. And it showed. I had to stop about halfway up, and this was not to admire the scenery. A couple of minutes and all was fine again. Cross the Ring Road and continue along the A 58, then turn right onto Red Hall Lane. Straight on to Skeltons Lane at the mini roundabout, much preferred the crossroads, and at the end turn left. The first Thorner Lane of today’s ride, a very welcome descent through Sandhills and into the village the Lane is named for. Along Main Street, pass the church and more or less straight on to Milner Lane. Up that steep little climb to the junction with another Thorner Lane and what Google Earth has just told me is Kennels Lane. I rode along Milner Lane though, towards East Rigton, not remembering to turn on the camera until that village came in sight. So along to Rigton Green and turn the thing on.
After four minutes or so a ‘U’ turn was needed. Video done and the ride was already going to be a bit longer than intended. So, return to East Rigton, down the drop to the A 58 and turn left when the lights allowed. Down the hill, the railway bridge is long gone, and then the long climb through Scarcroft. This is not a slog all the way, the gradient varies often and fools the legs into thinking they have rested. Of course, the steepest bit is the last . . .
After the road levels out it passes what once was some sort of school or college. Advertising now informs the world that a luxury retirement village is to be built there. I suppose the folk that live there will have a good view of the farm across the road. So I rode past this promise to find a couple more rises in the road on the way back to the Ring Road and the drop down Boot Hill I bought earlier. Back to the Oakwood Clock and further on to the roundabout at the bottom of Eastgate. Crown Point Bridge again, uphill and feeling less sprightly. A quick flit through a bit of Hunslet and then home. Happily tired.
A strangely shaped route, thank you Garmin
