Okay, here's a summary of what happened...
First, Martin (
goodspeed) fell off his bike on the little cobbled bridleway down from Mankinholes to Lumbutts. He skinned his knee, but more importantly, he gave it a good hard knock and it was hurting him for the rest of the ride. It didn't help that he fell off on it again later at Top of Leach!
2 of Shaun's 4 chainring bolts went walkabout, as described above. Shaun thought about carrying on but it would have been crazy. He'd probably have ended up with a broken bike miles from where he'd left his car so abandoning was all that he could do really.
Jon (
RedBike - though funnily enough he was riding a black bike today) demonstrated what a fit rider can do on a singlespeed bike. I am not worthy!
I demonstrated what an overweight middle-aged guy with 27 gears can't do on a mountain bike - especially on anything remotely technical! I kept Martin and Jon waiting a lot more than I should have done really, but they were very good-natured about it.
Martin had a route programmed into his GPS. I say 'a route' since it wasn't really an accurate version of the PBW/MTL route! I think it was derived from a tracklog of somebody's attempt to ride the MTL, complete with doubling-back and diversions. Our navigational problems were compounded by finding that idiots had pulled down quite a few of the PBW signs. And so it was that I managed to miss the correct bridleway at Deerplay and lead us on a major push over a boggy moor up to Thieveley Pike. I went up there on the Rossendale Mountain Bike Challenge a few years ago and somehow got the two routes confused. I didn't remember until I got home that I had the official MTL guide in my bag and it would have clearly shown us which way to go.
We ended up criss-crossing the Deerplay hillside in drizzly conditions before finally deciding that we would give up on completing the MTL today and just head down to the valley and ride back to Callis Bridge on the A646. Martin's knee was giving up on him, but I can't use that as an excuse because I didn't really feel that I wanted to do the last section from the Ram Inn either.
On our trip down the hillside I somehow managed to dig my front wheel into some kind of rut that I hadn't spotted and the next thing I was flying through the air and landed heavily on my back. I heard the bones in my back and neck go 'crunch' and had a moment of panic before I realised that I could still wiggle my fingers and toes and nothing seemed to be broken. It was rather like the demonstration that a sadistic Judo instructor subjected me to at school nearly 40 years ago - "This is how much it hurts if you don't know how to break a fall properly! In case you didn't see Colin wince when I threw him 6 feet in the air, dumping him on his back, I'll do it again. Repeatedly! Next week, I'll teach you how to break a fall."
I'm aching all over now, and feel a slight sense of failure for not completing the ride, but overall I enjoyed our day out. I didn't like the muddy bits, the gates, the technical descents and the steep pushes, but there were some really nice stretches of bridleway that I'd like to ride again. I think that I'll give the MTL a miss until next year now. I need to get fitter to really enjoy it.
It was nice to meet Shaun and Jon, and to see Martin again.
