I've just speed-read about 6 pages of ride reports to catch up. As usual, there are some very inspiring rides listed, and some great photos but I think that one or two of you should perhaps invest in better cameras? You've ridden to some wonderful places but a few of the pictures haven't quite done them justice. I just bought a Canon S120 for that very reason. My phone camera sometimes took good pictures in the right light conditions, but results were often a bit hit and miss. (You'll be able to see examples of what my new camera can do in my report below. Those pictures are all cropped out of much bigger photos.)
A '
my ride yesterday' report ... The Tour of Britain's stage 2 was a trip round some of my favourite local Forest of Bowland/Pendle roads so I tried organising a forum ride to go and watch the riders pass over the second King of the Mountains climb. In the end there were no takers from the forum but my superfit tiny friend Carrie was keen to join me so I cycled up the Keighley Road from Hebden Bridge and then down to Oxenhope and met her at the steam railway station there (as featured in the 1970s version of
The Railway Children).
I decided to change the route that I had posted in the original forum ride thread. We did ride to Haworth but not up cobbled Main Street. Instead, we went round the side of Penistone Hill and came into the top part of Haworth, avoiding a few busy roads.
We plunged down into the steep-sided valley between Haworth and Oakworth, and then immediately back up the other side. I decided not to go via the hamlet of Goose Eye. There is a viciously steep double chevron climb going that way. We still encountered multiple single chevron climbs on the amended route (14-19%) but at least we avoided most of the double chevron stuff (20+%)!
The road through Slippery Ford is no longer slippery! I can see where the ford must have been at the bottom of a valley but now there is a culvert under the road. That stretch of road was looking particularly lovely yesterday but I only started taking photos once we got to our vantage point for the race.
We did a very fast descent off Sutton Moor and then climbed over towards Lothersdale. Carrie encountered a couple that she knows from Ilkley cycling club together with their son. They were riding over to watch the race too. We had a quick chat with them and then continued ahead of them.
Lothersdale is a nice little village in yet another steep-sided valley. There is a very hard climb SW out of the village but we were not heading that way. We continued further up the valley and did a
slightly easier climb NW to Thornton Moor, from where we descended to Bleara Moor, and turned right to ride down to the King of the Mountains line above Earby.
We got there much quicker than anticipated, before the crowd had built up.
The weather forecast for the day was spectacularly wrong! We were expecting overcast conditions and temperatures of 14-15 degrees. Instead, we had sunshine all day and it was much warmer than that. I felt very overdressed in full-length autumn cycling kit.
We put our bikes behind the barrier a few metres back from the finish line, on the LHS of the road as the riders would be coming up to it. (From the right in the photo above.)
If you have a recording of the race going through that KoM, you should be able to see me taking pictures from behind the barrier - tallish, black and red long-sleeved jersey with a grey gilet over it and wearing a CycleChat buff on my head to stop my bald spot burning. Carrie was the tiny figure with a pink top on standing behind me.
Carrie bumped into more people that she knows from local road cycling and mountain bike clubs. Being
Billy-not-many-mates, I didn't see anybody that I know!
The crowds and anticipation grew, and eventually I could hear the TV helicopter hovering over the road to Earby at the foot of the climb. Police motorcycle outriders started whizzing past, then VIP cars, and then we saw Brian Cookson (head of the UCI, cycling's international governing body) standing up through the sun roof of an official Tour vehicle, and taking cheers from the crowd. As you can see from the photo below, he had a personal drone micro-helicopter above him, tracking his progress ...
Then the riders started coming up the hill. Most of the guys at the front were making a decent effort, but some looked like they were just out on a Sunday morning training ride. Wiggins especially! He appeared to be completely relaxed and not at all as though he had just done a brisk pace up a steep Lancashire hill.
Cav seemed to be making a bit more effort a few places back down the peloton ...
Then the stragglers started passing in twos and threes, then the team cars, then riders who seemed to be struggling to get back on. This rider definitely looked like he had been working hard!
Then the broom wagon came along.
We let the crowd clear a little, then rode down the hill into Earby. One of Carrie's friends works there and had offered us coffee so we called round to her office and had a chat, then we came out to see how we would cope with the climb back up to the KoM point.
Before we could set off, a group of young boys came running over. They were all really excited at having seen the ToB pass through. They insisted that someone must have fallen off and hurt themselves because they had seen the ambulance at the back of the race convoy, and lots of police motorbikes with their blue lights flashing. We explained that all big races are like that, but no, a cyclist must have fallen onto the road! Quite sweet really ...
We didn't get far round the corner before we spotted a bakery and decided to stop and buy some goodies. I had a scone with cream and jam, plus another item which they called a 'bee sting', which was made of puff pastry, cream, honey and nuts, and an ok instant coffee for £2.60. You wouldn't get that lot for that price round here!
After lazing about in the sunshine for a while, we decided to do the climb. As expected, Carrie shot off ahead of me. She probably only weighs 7-and-a-bit stone and is very fit. I still weigh 12-and-quite-a-lot stone and am only moderately fit so there is no way that I can stay with her on the steep stuff.
A villager laughed at my fruitless pursuit - "
Go on lad, she's getting away from yer!" I replied that she is only half my size so she was cheating!
I got halfway up and stopped for a pee behind a wall and realised that I was absolutely dripping sweat so I took the opportunity to strip off as much of my surplus cycling kit as I could without risking arrest.
It took me about 5 minutes to catch up with Carrie, who was sitting at the T-junction at Bleara Side waiting for me. We headed south down the hill to Laneshaw Bridge where Carrie and I parted company. She headed home via Haworth, and I rode back via Trawden, Coldwell, Thursden, Widdop, Slack, Blackshaw Head, Great Rock, Cross Stone Road and the A646.
I had done 51 very lumpy miles in total. Great day out.
PS 1 If any of you liked the look of the roads on yesterday's ToB stage, I am going to be doing a forum ride over some of them on Saturday, 19th September. For details,
CLICK HERE.
PS 2 Wow - I have just watched the recording of yesterday's stage - what a fantastic race! I know most of those roads, so it was great seeing the pros attacking them.
)
was 
and damp but the ex g/f wanted a ride out to check her bike over so after ..i was shown how to make 2 of my fav foods today by the lovely Karon Ashworth,corned beef hash and sausage casserole she even put the instructions on my computer 
karon did very well 15.25 miles .. also she cut my hair 
...I really do.
