The Olympic Games

What a fortnight! I have to admit to being somewhat cynical about the Olympics prior to them starting, mainly due to the heavy handed enforcing of corporate sponsorship and the Olympic torch relay really didn't do anything for me. 

All that changed. From the amazing opening show (lots of "The Daily Mail aren't going to like that" moments) the games were a brilliant mix of enthusiasm, inclusiveness and British quirkiness, plus how is anyone going to top the Queen and James Bond? It helped of course that British athletes did so well and performed beyond all expectations - 65 medals with 29 golds. We rode past the gold painted postbox at Hebden (rower Andy Hodge) on Sunday and all wondered how long they were going to remain like that?

Interesting that the only time the dour Jacque Rogge clapped during Sebastian Coe's closing speech was following the mention of the volunteer Gamesmakers. 

My favourite moment of the games was Mo Farah's daughter running across the track to congratulate her dad on winning the 10,000 metres. Pure unbridled joy, lovely.

Can I go back to being cynical now?

Over the Hills and Far Away

Some months ago Cath signed me up for the "Ride with Brad" 100 mile sportive. This was actually before the start of the Tour de France so not really jumping on any bandwagon. However I'd not really done any long rides so when Skipton CC posted that Sunday's ride was heading over Fleet Moss to Hawes and back via Kidstone Gate I thought I'd better get out and do it.

Six of us set off from Skipton and from the start the speed was high. It didn't look as if any quarter was going to be given. In short order we were at Burnsall where Tim discovered that the rattle on his bike was a loose cassette lockring. With no-one carrying the requisite tool he decided to head home.

Grassington, Conistone and Kettlewell came and went in short order and before long we were on the long drag by the upper Wharfe before the climb proper of Fleet Moss. There's a short intro which begins suddenly with a sharp right hand bend and a couple of hundred metres of 14% before the road drops in to Oughtershaw. 

Then the fun begins. Mostly it isn't too bad as there's an easy section to recover after every steep bit. Of course the steepest bit is right at the top where a sharp hairpin forces you on to the opposite side of the road to the easiest angle hereabouts. As I was approaching this a car full of Chinese went past with cameras hanging out of the window. Having not got enough of my wonderful visage they stopped on the summit area and took more shots as I went past! Regrouping on the summit, the Chinese went past then it was time for the fast descent in to Gayle. Except we were now gaining on the Chinese who then proceeded to take shots of us as we descended. Not often you get your own press car whilst on a club ride!

Tea stop in Hawes avoided most of the rain storm that past then it was down to Aysgarth and the climb out of Bishopdale. I wasn't looking forward to this as it feels steep enough in a car. It starts steadily then steepens and steepens until the last few hundred metres are at 16%. I seriously considered getting off and walking but managed to keep going. The descent through Cray and down to Buckden is excellent though.

By now I was getting tired so kept getting dropped. By the time we got to Kilnsey I was just going to hold the others up so they sped back to Skipton. I wasn't that slow on the flat but any slope saw me down to a crawl. A short stop at Rylstone to get an energy gel down me followed by a steady pace to Skipton meant that I managed the steep hill to get back home (another one I really thought I was going to have to walk). 

All in all I did 85 miles in 5hrs30 which given the hilliness of it wasn't too bad. Another reasonable length ride next Sunday should see me good for the Sportive.

The Valley of Eden

Actually managed to get out climbing for once! We had intended to head over to The Lakes but the weather looked a bit (actually a lot) iffy so when Simon arrived at he had another plan. The Eden Valley. Despite growing up in the South Lakes, the only crag I'd been to in this area was Armathwaite so plenty to go at. 

We decided on Windmore End as it was supposedly quick drying. When we got there, the small walls facing the sun were dry whilst those in the shade were damp. It then began to rain so a retreat to the café was in order. On returning the rain began again in earnest so we headed down the valley to The Hoff an easy access crag near Appleby. Except there were big signs on the gates stating that climbing was now banned!

Running out of time our next attempt at getting some climbing done was Kings Meaburn. No ban and it was dry! Ivy Crack at HVS looked good to start with so Simon set off but took several goes to get through the crux start. It was pretty hard and we later found out it's been upgraded as there used to be a tree to help with the bottom section. After an easy lead for me, Simon lead Marik. Given VS it too has been upgraded which is probably fair as leaning limestone with hard to read moves is probably not VS. Very good climbing though and a real pity it didn't go on for twice as long.

On the way home we grabbed copies of the new FRCC guide to the peripheral Lakeland crags, only to find that the section of Windmore End that we'd been on is also now banned.

Wet and Dry Cycling

Thursday's evening ride was, to put it mildly, a bit of a washout. No sooner had we met up than the heavens opened and we had to wait under a nearby tree for around fifteen minutes before setting off.

We had just got to the top of the road underneath Earl Crag (AKA The Pinnacles) when there was a big clap of thunder and it began to rain quite heavily so we decided to head back down in to the village. It was "interesting" heading down one of the steepest roads in the area with so much water around. It had got so bad by the time we got in to Sutton that we headed for the park benches that have a wooden canopy.

To say the rain got worse would be an understatement and the thunderstorm was pretty intense. Eventually we called it quits and headed home. The roads were more like rivers and I was having to avoid golfball sized stones being washed down the hill. I got home to find that we'd had four power cuts and that the kitchen was flooded in one corner.

Saturday's ride was a steady affair, livened by one of my cleats breaking - I should have replaced it some time ago - and by having to get one rider back in to Skipton before his parking ticket ran out! Rather bizarrely it was quite sunny and I've a prominent tan line on my arms. Normal service was resumed later in the day as I was mowing the lawn in a race against an approaching thunderstorm. I lost by about ten seconds!

Sunday looked like it was going to be fine in the morning so another 0900 start saw about 17 or 18 of us head out on the Grassington road. Once again it began at a rapid pace and it was more like a spread out chain gaing than a steady ride. By the time we got to Hetton a split had developed so we ended up with an 'A' and a 'B' group though on the same route at least as far as Settle. Somehow I was with the 'A' group - hopefully I wouldn't be too far off the back.

The idea was that we'd wait at the cafe for the others to catch up. As it happened they weren't too far behind plus one of our group had had a mechanical - his front tyre exploded due to the heat from braking down Stockdale Lane! Fortunately it happened right outside the cafe not on the hill so it was a short walk to the bike shop on the other side of the square.

Once we got going again the speed really picked up and with no-one willing to sit up (!) we flew through Rathmel and Wigglesworth. I got dropped on the short climb out of the latter (I really need to figure out my gear selection for these short steep climbs) and spent the next 5Km hammering along at 50kph+ to catch the group. At Bolton By Bowland we got a breather due to another mechanical but then it was another long effort over to Halton West before the final effort through Bank Newton to Gargrave. Then it was just the usual hill to get home which wasn't as hard as I thought it might be.

Definitely tired after the speed, and concentration, needed on the ride though my legs aren't as sore today as they were after last week's ride.

A Tale of Two Clubs

The weather's been pretty dire for the last few weeks which hasn't been that condusive to climbing. Consequently I've been doing more cycling.

As it happens there are two new(ish) cycling clubs in the area: South Craven Wheelers and Skipton Cycling Club. South Craven meet up down in the village so one Thursday I headed down for an evening ride. Due to the weather forecast there were only three of us. One of these was the cyclist with whom I'd had a "male competitive syndrome" ride in to work a while back. With perfect timing there was a heavy downpour as we set off but after that there wasn't much precipitation. Rather than the advertised ride it was decided to go for a hilly option with West Bank being the first climb - eek!

A couple of more hills later we arrived in Elslack and decided to go for a longer loop out to East Marton and Gargrave. Once back at Elslack we just had the one big hill up on to Pinhaw in our way to get back home. Not a bad ride done at reasonable pace. (Missed the next Thursday ride due to going to watch Alan Davies at Grassington Festival)

This weekend there were two rides organised by Skipton CC: Saturday's was advertised as being a gentle 25 miles and Sunday's was to be a bit brisker, more like South Craven pace. There were a dozen there for Saturday's ride on bikes ranging from carbon fibre racers to city commuting models. The route went round Barden Moor via Bolton Abbey, Appletreewick, Burnsall, Thorpe and Cracoe. Apart from a heavy shower as we passed through Thorpe it was a pleasant ride with a bit of a blast back along the Cracoe - Skipton road.

Sunday's ride was of sterner stuff. The route was Skipton - Cracoe - Threshfield - Halton Gill - Malham - Airton - Gargrave and back. There's a steady climb out of Skipton up to the bypass, this was taken at pace such: "lively" I thought to myself. I began to think that I was likely to spend the day getting dropped out of the back of the group. With regular regroupings we got to Cracoe where I was about 60 metres behind the lead group of four when without warning they sped up and began to pull away. I managed to regain ten metres or so but couldn't close the gap as we were blasting along the flat at about 26MPH. Eventually I caught them up when they pulled up at Threshfield.

I was ready for the next break/effort as we headed towards Kilnsey and didn't have much problem sitting in the small group. Together again we headed up Littondale with the day's main climb ahead. By now it was raining and pretty miserable. There was a bit of a hiatus as we helped out a young lad whose chain had jammed round his bottom bracket but then it was time for the climb. It's not too bad with only a couple of short steep sections but once we got to the top we were in the full force of the wind and I was going at a slower pace on the flat than on the climb! By now we were all soaked from the driving rain so a café stop was called for.

The farm shop at Airton is most welcoming in these situations and after a refuel we were ready to go again. Except that when paying the staff caused the till to lock up so I was late back to my bike. Fortunately, three of the group had waited for me, unfortunately they were keen to catch the others up so another high speed blast down to Gargrave ensued. I got dropped off the back on a short steep pull and wasn't able to regain the group. Once at Gargrave the rest of the group were heading back to Skipton so I headed straight home with just the hill up from Elslack to look forward to again. 

My legs definitely feel the exhertions from the efforts. Still it will do me good.

White Rose Classic 2012

A little bit late but the blogs seem to be a week or so out of date at the moment, I'll catch up.

We headed over to Ilkley on a day that appeared windier than forecast and rather cloudy and parked up amongst a host of cheap cars and expensive bikes. Having got Cath sorted and away, I dropped from the long course to the medium as I didn't feel I was fit enough for the former.

With my electronic tag checked at the start it was off towards Otley. This was much easier than the last time I'd been this way as there was no headwind. Then it was a simple matter of turning north and heading towards Norwood Bank, the first of the main climbs. Not too bad but very rough surface in the lower half but still got nowhere near the 7mins that it supposedly should take according to the 100 best climbs book.

By now the club teams were out and zooming past me. A couple of peculiar loops took us to the A59 then it was the long climb up to Greenhow Hill. Mostly this is steady going but there are a couple of dips with steep climbs leading out the other side. I caught Cath on the second of these. Then it was in to the wind and down to the food stop at Grassington with a very nasty road surface at the foot of the descent to Hebden (Yorkshire Council take note!). I got to Grassington in 2hrs9mins which I was fairly pleased with as 2hrs was my fast target time.

After some refuelling and restocking of water I was on my way again heading towards Halton Gill and the next big climb. On the way I teamed up with a rider going at around the same pace which helped with the effort in to the headwind. No more big teams passed us so presumably they were all doing the long ride. The main part of the climb, being sheltered, was OK but as soon as we got on to the flatter bit at the top we were faced with a strong wind which made getting to Settle hard work.

Getting out of Settle meant Stockdale Lane, which is steep especially after 50 miles. By the time it came to the descent to Airton, my glasses had steamed up and I nearly wiped out, just seeing a huge hole at the side of the road in time. 

More food and refuelling at Airton then I missed the others leaving so ended up doing the last section on my own. No big hills for the most part but lots of short steep ones to slow you down. The one big hill is saved for the end - Langber. I wasn't looking forward to this with 80 miles in my legs. As I approached the second steepening I could see my earlier companion struggling just ahead, fair to say I struggled as well. When it came to the main climb I could see that the efforts were taking their toll on him and he came to a halt about halfway up slumped over his bike. I came to a halt about 50 metres earlier  and walked the rest.

After that it was a few miles of more rolling terrain before the descent in to Ilkley and the finish. My bike computer showed 6hrs 19seconds but with the food stops my actual time was 6hr20mins - bronze standard. Cath came in about an hour later looking about as tired as I felt. I think a lot of people had a hard time as on the medium route only two riders got a gold standard (by just a couple of seconds) and only 17 got silver. Still it was a good ride out. 

Bike Touring in Scotland

In an attempt to get away from the cringeworthy toadiness of the Royal Jubilee we decided to head up to Scotland for a week's bike touring. It seemed like a lot of others had the same idea as we eventually had to head north on the Friday as all the bike slots on the trains were already reserved. It took over an hour to find spare reservation and sort the tickets out! Our itinerary apart from the first full day was on roads or in areas that either we had never been to before or that it was several decades since we'd been.

The one problem with public transport is connections: it's rare that you get to a station with the next train just a platform away and ready to leave in ten minutes. So it was that with an hour waiting at Carlisle and three hours in Glasgow (though with a change from Central to Queen St stations), getting to Oban took over nine hours. The plus points? Riding along two of the best railway journeys in the world: Settle-Carlisle and the West Highland Line.

A bigger delay was at Oban with the ferry only leaving at 1530 on the Saturday so a lot of time to fill. We did a bit of biking up and down the coast getting used to the loaded bikes but in the end still had a couple of hours hanging around at the ferry terminal before we could embark. Again we weren't the only ones - there were nearly 40 bikes on the ferry - we just hoped that they weren't all on the same itinerary as ourselves. Once on Barra it was clear that there was a pretty keen northerly wind, not good for heading north and it was quite hard work getting to our B&B on the other side of the island.

Looking back to Barra from Eriskay

Sunday morning was our only real rush - we needed to get the 0900 ferry to Eriskay as the next one wasn't until 1130 and would mean that heading up the Uists would be unneccessarily pressured. Long summer days and accommodating hosts meant that we got there with half an hour to spare so we could relax somewhat. There were just seven other cyclists on this crossing. Sunday on the Western Isles is, err, interesting. Pretty well everything is shut and the further north you go the more likely this is to be the case. Our big problem though was the wind, not as strong as yesterday but still northerly and with no shelter to speak of. A cafe after fifteen miles provided shelter but the cafe at a museum on Benbecula was shut (as in shut shut - letters from the council stacked up outside) so it wasn't until Kirkibost that we got another break. It was then just another ten miles or so in to the wind to the B&B. We did have a break at a beach we'd camped at the last time we were here but it wasn't sunbathing weather.

Monday was another push to get the ferry crossing (had to get this one as spring tides meant that the midday crossing wasn't running) but with an hour and a half to do ten miles it wasn't really a problem but we did have a ferry to catch at 1600 from Tarbert. Crossing the Sound of Harris is tricky, the ferry makes 22 course corrections in the 9 miles (according to a crew hand) to avoid submerged reefs. Once at Leverburgh, the other cyclists (same group as on the Eriskay ferry) went looking for "The Cafe from Heaven" (?!) whilst we turned right and headed for "The Golden Road". This is a small road that links the communities on the east coast of South Harris and let's just say it's lumpy! No big hills but lots of small ones that are occasionally steep. We had our only rain showers of the trip whilst riding along here, one wasn't heavy enough to stop to put on waterproofs. After tea and cake at a wonderfully eccentric community run cafe in Liceasto we arrived in Tarbert and promptly found another cafe - never under any circumstances pass up the opportunity to eat cake! We were stopping in Portree so had to do the big climb out of Uig followed by a long fast descent or two in to the town. Portree has changed massively since I was last there, generally for the better, perhaps best described as being more cosmopolitan. 

Heading towards the Cuillin on Skye

We were undecided as to which way to go on Skye, we had to get to Armadale for the ferry back to the mainland, but eventually settled on crossing back to the west coast before rejoining the main drag at Sligachan. Definitely an interesting road and far from quiet at nine in the morning. It was also rather steep in places which was a bit of a shock. Whilst on the main road on the west coast we saw something I'd never seen or even heard of before: a finch or similar sized bird mobbing a cuckoo. A bit of research showed that it is known behaviour. After something to eat at the Sligachan we headed on southwards but took a side road that had been recommended to us by the hostel owner to avoid the big hill on the main drag. I don't think I've ever been on a road with as many pot holes! Dinner at Broadford then it was down the new road to Armadale getting there just in time for the ferry to arrive. We were stopping at the Backpacker's Hostel in Mallaig so didn't have far to go at the other end. Well recommended with excellent food in the restaurant downstairs.

The first part of Wednesday's ride I'd visited 34 years ago but there have been significant road improvements since then and I can't remember anything about the old road anyway. We decided just to head out on the new road and get it out of the way before we cut right and headed down to the Ardnamurchan Peninsular, the most westerly point of the British mainland. There were a couple of signs about the road being shut at certain times of the day - sure enough we got there when it was shut - new road being built. After half an hour we were on our way again and once over the hill and having avoided the fire engines heading to a heath fire we stopped for lunch. A short hill dropped us down to Salen and then it was along the coast. On the map this looks fine, on the ground it was lots and lots of short steep ups and downs with little opportunity to keep a pace going due to blind bends and recent laying of chippings. In fact it was easier once we turned away from the coast and tackled the big climb to get round to Kilchoan. We arrived just as the ferry was pulling in - good timing. Our night's stop at the youth hostel was just yards away from the terminal in Tobermory.

One disadvantage of spending the night by the sea on a hilly island is that you have to go uphill and Thursday started with a vengeance straight up from the harbour. Eventually it eased off and we went up and down hills and in and out of coves on the way to Calgary with some very nice road conditions and almost alpine like passes. The tea room at Calgary hadn't opened yet so we pressed on - mistakenly as it turned out as there wasn't anywhere to grab a bite for a long way. At the high point of the road we passed a radio mast in place for the Mull sportive a few days later then it was more undulations, declining the ferry to get to a pub. Cath was getting hungry and wasn't too keen on doing the next loop so we cut across the road at the neck of the island to Salen (another one) for tea and cakes. Then it was a case of heading straight for Craignure on the main road, which was pretty quiet really. We had the benefit of chasing down another group of cyclists before we got to the pub where we were stopping. A pint and an ice cream later it began to rain - the first real rain of our holiday, if we'd gone the long loop we'd have got wet - so we headed indoors. In the restaurant that night the waitress picked up my empty plate and remarked that very few managed to finish the fish stew as there was so much of it. I must have been hungry, besides I know how to eat!

Friday was basically, get to the ferry (oh, 500 metres); ferry to Oban, walk over to train station and get the train south. As we headed down the Settle-Carlisle (or should that be the Carlisle-Settle) it was apparent that there had been a large amount of rainfall with the becks foaming brown. All in all we did around 320 miles of biking. The only bits of kit that I took that I didn't use were my overboots and the midge head mask (really glad about that one!), even the waterproof didn't get a lot of use which shows just how dry the weather was.