RSF Grinton trip Day1: Richmond

Way back last October, following an audax from Richmond, I penned in a RSF cycling trip to Swaledale to explore the area a bit more. The danger of booking anything so far in advance of March is weather risky - this time last year we had plenty of snow and ice, thankfully the long weekend this time turned out weather wonderful.

The hostel had filled up pretty fast (with what turned out to be a school party, not of little ones exploring the outdoors, but six formers on a mathematics residential weekend!), so some of the group stopped elsewhere - inns, tea shops, tents & campers!

 
The Friday morning started out chilly, but bright as fifteen of us zoomed down the steep hill to join Route 71, which happily had been closed to motor traffic whilst some road repairs took place. The cracks in the road were minimal for a rough-stuff rider, but we had been duly warned to take care. The lack of traffic made a lovely carefree start to the ride and we enjoyed views across the River Swale valley as we sped along in the morning sunshine.


Our first bit of rough by How Hill was accompanied by the echos of gunfire from the military ranges and we popped out at the quaint hamlet of Downholme.

The gusty wind helped us up to the top of Downholme Moor. We admired the views from atop as Phil fettled with his bike.

After this was a lovely long descent all the way into Richmond. Initially straight with a nice gradual decline, you could really let yourself go without too much concentration. The last, steep down into Richmond opened up a smashing view of the castle as we rounded a sharp corner, alas being on road and going at speed with cars now a factor, nobody could stop safely to take a photo. (I'll remember that view for next time).

We lunched in sunny, blue skied Richmond. Sadly the ancient centre resembles a carpark whenever the market isn't on - the church and monument become the centre of essentially a big cobbled roundabout - I always think it's such a shame letting cars into this beautiful ancient town centre.

The climb towards Whitcliffe Scar through the woods was delightful; you're up above the town in no time and from this side of the valley the views are magical...

... And the woods are muddy!

At Marske we headed for the hills for an additional loop around the side of Skelton Moor, then back towards the river, although despite the path following the river course, it was far from flat as it climbed up to Marrick.


The evening sun was closing in and there was now a certain chill to the air as we waded our tyres through farm muck, which is where I picked up a massive thorn and pfffft, I had a puncture so close to the end of the ride (only the second of the day for the whole group). Stephen came to my rescue and we were heading back up the hill to the hostel in no time, which certainly warmed us up.

I believe le tour is venturing up that steep road - the tarmac seems far too smooth for regular car useage.
To say I'd not had time to head up here to try the routes out, this one turned out to be perfect.
A map and gpx can be viewed here

In the evening some new guests had arrived at base, so we spent a good few hours chatting over drinks in the hostel. 
Day 1 was a fantastic start to the trip!!

Cragg Vale fun coming up

If it's escaped your attention, Le Tour Grande Depart will be from Yorkshire this year. There is hundreds of years of history of rivalry between my home county of Lancashire with that of those tight fisted folk just over the border in Yorkshire, but my home town is right in border territory; so much so I'm often mistaken for having a Yorkshire accent. And who can begrudge a county when it is just so beautiful and created wonders like Yorkshire pudding and Yorkshire curd tart. So of course, I've volunteered my legs for some Yorkshire style grande depart fun. I will be joining a troupe of riders who will be hauling a grand piano up the longest continuous gradient in the whole of our fair land, Cragg Vale.
I'm ridiculously excited about it. 

February was a brilliant cycling month. Despite howling gales and plenty of wet stuff, I managed the highest mileage since last September and I didn't even take part in any audax rides! In fact, 80% of my Feb rides were purely commutes. I've been going a longer, less trafficy route a fair bit, which may account for the unexpected increase for such a little month.


Which meant when I led a toughish off road RSF ride last week, I still had plenty of off road hill climbing in my legs. Phew. Winter has not stifled my cycling fitness one bit :-D

Ian took some lovely pics on the ride. Thoroughly enjoyed the company.

When life gets busy

I dont stop riding, I just stop writing it seems.

Things are on the busy front at the moment. Finally the house buying is moving forward and we're in the throws of wedding planning and the associated stuff that goes with it. Plus work as usual.

The usual commutes are now happily getting more daylight filled, albeit still windy and damp. As have the rough stuff rides. Not so many photo ops when you're head down into the rain and just pedalling.

Rossendale. This is part of my daily commute - good for RSF rides too

But over the next few weeks posts will be picking up - one or two trips on the horizon that should bring plenty of lovely views with them.

And whilst winter is happening around the world, some other Bloggers are taking the opportunity to use it to interview other bloggers & hear about their worlds of cycling. Chasing Mailboxes & Suze Cycling have both been kind enough to share the riding here with their readers. These are two blogs I really enjoy reading & seeing pictures on- personally I love the whole Travel Journal aspect of reading about cycling around the world. And of course reaffirming just how important cake & caffeine is to cyclists everywhere!

Cycling Surprises

That lovely moment when you round a corner to be greeted by something unexpected and wonderful.

Sunset behind Blackburn's old Granada building

It's been quite a lovely week of commutes here and last weekend we did a wonderful urbanish RSF ride around North Manchester. I'm always amazed at how much green there is up there, plus a visit to a local tea shop in an old mill - which I've never seen from the back angle before - pretty (in a post industrial way) :-)

In the world of reading about cycling, Chasing Mailboxes has been running a series about why people blog about cycling.

Rain!

It's been wet. Very wet. So wet & blustery I've not been cycle commuting to work for a week (getting blown around when cars are about is not my idea of fun).
I've been going stircrazy through not riding. In a super grumpy mood.
But yesterday's club ride came along and the forecast was terrible, I had hoped nobody would turn up, but six of us blasted round the Guild Wheel and actually I really enjoyed it :-)

And today at work, I managed a quick ten minute blast around the hills through some very long puddles. Two were at least 20 foot across so I pushed as hard as I could, lifted my feet up and clear of any splashed & hoped that I could make it through without needing to pedal any again. Best way to spend part of my lunch break.
Tomorrow looks bobbins again. Here's to cycling on Weds.

The weekend ride pics

Stephen hasnt done much cycling over the last few months, which was very apparent on saturday when he was worn out after just a couple of little hills.

We climbed the rugged moor edges - feeling like you were in the middle of nowhere...

Until we turned round at the top of one climb to see the beautiful mill town spread out around the whole valley (Queen St Mill is where they filmed scenes from The King's Speech - I still havent seen the film & I've still never visited the mill!)

So we climbed some more!

We had made it to the lunch stop at the top of the moors, only to discover it was closed! So we freewheeled down towards the rows of terraced houses and headed for the canal to find a different food stop. We ended up at Parkview Cafe in Barrowford and were treated to a really lovely lunch - all delicious home made fare; Stephen had the biggest solo meat & potato pie that I've seen, I had a very spicy soup that warmed my frozen toes & fingers through after just one sip & we both had a massive cherry scone a piece. A bargain too! I'll be visiting again soon.  We then popped in to see my aunty for a lovely catch up. By the time we were ready for the return, Stephen had ceased up somewhat, so we plumped for an easy canal return leg & were treated to some dramatic skies.

A mere 21 miles with 2300ft of climbing. Stephen now shocked into how lazy he's become over the last few months. If we are planning on a tour to Cardiff from Chester, he has some work to do!

Happy New Year

Holidays are great for utility cycling. Most people are not rushing about in their cars! And as such, it makes for happy stress free pedalling. To make my ride home from Stephen's even more enjoyable, I picked a different route; about a mile & a half further, but avoiding the shocking potholes of Intack & Accrington and the pitiful, pathetic new road layout east of Accrington, which I contend with on my commute.

The route I chose passed mainly industrial estate areas and fewer residential places, so with it being new year, the traffic was at blissful minimum. 

The holiday cold still hanging on, the 13.5 miles was a little tougher than usual so I was happy that there was a significant amount of freewheeling available to me until the last few miles.

 And what a lovely day to be out & about in the sunshine.

Pendle Hill with Moorhouse's Brewery in the foreground

The new year will hopefully see S & I in our new house together, so this ride will be a thing of the past. No more need for two hair-driers, two hair-straightners, two lots of pretty much everything. And more free time to enjoy rides together :-)

Best wishes to you all for the new year.