Almost a week since my last ride, my right ankle decided to be boss for a while. Medication, beer, and a walking stick have cured the boss ambitions.
That said, I was still cautious about the ride this morning, after the Holbeck hoopla I chose to ride the towpath as far as Viaduct Road. It provides an easy ride back home, just in case. Anyway, things were doing fine so I continued pedalling, up Cardigan Road to Headingley and from there to the Ring Road at Lawnswood. Across there and that ‘orrible word ‘ cautious ‘, started to niggle me, so at the lights by Church Lane I turned right and then left to pass the church and cross Adel dam on the way to the top of Black Hill Road. And descended to Arthington like this.
I do like the whizzy bits.
Turn left at the A 659 and ride through Pool and still on the valley bottom road, on to Otley. All the green growing gorgeously everywhere you look, that and keeping an eye on the road ( shh! A most unusual tailwind also ) made that stretch of road go very quickly. Unlike the next stretch, the Leeds road out of Otley is uphill most of the way to the Dyneley Arms. That done, and not fancying the detour from Bramhope through Cookridge, I rode the A 660 all the way to Headingly, fair quiet it was for a Bank Holiday Sunday, turned right for the downhill dodgems to Kirkstall and the towpath back to Office Lock. Water Lane is still suffering archeology, so a dive under the railway station and a bit of street riding through Hunslet left me pointing towards home and a smidge over 30 miles for the morning, and a mere 1300 feet of climbing. Good though.
A not so different squiggle
That said, I was still cautious about the ride this morning, after the Holbeck hoopla I chose to ride the towpath as far as Viaduct Road. It provides an easy ride back home, just in case. Anyway, things were doing fine so I continued pedalling, up Cardigan Road to Headingley and from there to the Ring Road at Lawnswood. Across there and that ‘orrible word ‘ cautious ‘, started to niggle me, so at the lights by Church Lane I turned right and then left to pass the church and cross Adel dam on the way to the top of Black Hill Road. And descended to Arthington like this.
I do like the whizzy bits.
Turn left at the A 659 and ride through Pool and still on the valley bottom road, on to Otley. All the green growing gorgeously everywhere you look, that and keeping an eye on the road ( shh! A most unusual tailwind also ) made that stretch of road go very quickly. Unlike the next stretch, the Leeds road out of Otley is uphill most of the way to the Dyneley Arms. That done, and not fancying the detour from Bramhope through Cookridge, I rode the A 660 all the way to Headingly, fair quiet it was for a Bank Holiday Sunday, turned right for the downhill dodgems to Kirkstall and the towpath back to Office Lock. Water Lane is still suffering archeology, so a dive under the railway station and a bit of street riding through Hunslet left me pointing towards home and a smidge over 30 miles for the morning, and a mere 1300 feet of climbing. Good though.
A not so different squiggle
), I was finally out of the door just after 9am.
) climb up Scarcroft Hill to Milner Lane where I paused to pop my lungs back in and take a couple of photos:
