Looking like an 80s indie band mistakenly diverted onto a cycle outing (fronted by Oakworth Steve aka Mr Kool Glasses), here is a snap of the happy group taken at the top of Silverdale.
Whilst Grimpy was pursuing a misspent youth watching YouTube (see previous blog) the rest of us were busy preparing for the North West Passage (less than 2 weeks to go) by following our traditional warm-up route round Silverdale.
And what a great days ride it was, with temperatures soaring up to 6 degrees and a fresh south westerly breeze we (thats Nige, Ian, Damien, Chris, Steve and myself) decided to attack Silverdale from the Stainforth end. Occasionally a plan works and today was one of those rare occasions, for not only did we enjoy a helping breeze over Silverdale but to my surprise the wind also blew us down Littondale with Nigel and Damien making the most of the fast conditions establishing a gap on the descent down to Halton Gill and consolidating their advantage down the dale to Arncliffe where someone, who asked to remain nameless made the lighthearted observation that although Nige takes a larger waist fitting he shares his jeans (sic) with Mel.
Nigel waited for us at Arncliffe but Damien was now on a mission to get to Cracoe Cafe as soon as possible and rode off alone to take the direct route whilst the rest of us had a potter round Grass Woods, Grassington and Linton (looking at todays Strava ascents for the Grass Woods climb there's a Simon Fortune on the board - could this be the same Simon Fortune, also affectionately known as 'Single Simon' who once upon a time rode with us - and who was supposed to be coming out with us today?).
After a long, long, rest at Cracoe Cafe we headed straight home via Skipton and Keighley with Chris doing a magnificent job, resisting his natural urges and setting a comfortable pace for us up the Ingrow climb.
More of the same next week!
Whilst we have been enjoying the mildest winter in Yorkshire for many years Paul Daly has been having to endure day after day of hot, sunny weather out in New Zealand. The above photo shows Paul flying the Condor colours at the end of last weekends 90mile Taranaki Challenge where he finished as 1st vet60. Oh-dear, I was hoping he would be taking it easy and come back a couple of stones overweight.
Sorry to have missed the ride on Sunday but I had grand baby sitting commitments.
ReplyDeleteSpookily I blazed the trail for you guys on Thursday doing almost the exact same ride (not sure if you were right or left of the cove - I was right) and I was a bit shorter starting and finishing in Keighley.