North West Passage Audax, 18 Feb - anyone done it?

[400bhp]

70% chance of showers/rain until 11am.

Then wind from west at 34 kph.

Looks like a crap day for cycling.

 

[totallyfixed]

70% chance of showers/rain until 11am.

Then wind from west at 34 kph.

Looks like a crap day for cycling.

At the moment I have to agree have checked numerous sites and they all more or less concur Typically Sunday looks like a good day to ride up there, colder but light winds and sunshine. Can we not just all ride on Sunday instead?

 

[400bhp]

My current thinking is that I will go on one of my usual cheshire rides tomorrow. Less exposed to the elements and shorter.

 

[ColinJ]

At the moment I have to agree have checked numerous sites and they all more or less concur Typically Sunday looks like a good day to ride up there, colder but light winds and sunshine. Can we not just all ride on Sunday instead?

I've PMd potsy about it, since we were going to ride round together. He doesn't appear to be online at the moment but he works weird shifts so he could be asleep, mid-shift or mid-commute! I asked him if he was desperate to do tomorrow's ride, or would he be happy to do something on Sunday instead?

If potsy still wants to do the MNWP, I'll go along to keep him company since that is what I am committed to, but if he is happy to ride on Sunday instead, then I'd be up for that.

I don't like the part of the MNWP route around Rochdale, and I don't feel that I need to ride in bad weather when a better choice is available the following day so if potsy is with us, I'll knock up an alternative route with start and finish in Hebden Bridge for Sunday.

 

[ColinJ]

I've just sent potsy a text and am waiting for a reply. Meanwhile ... I just took the first part of my previous forum ride route, removed the section to Waddington and grafted on a ride through Whitewell to Puddleducks in Dunsop Bridge instead. Globalti is always recommending that cafe but I've never been to it so it would make a nice change to go and check it out. It is 58 km out, and we'd come back by the same route in reverse, a total of 116 km and not far short of the MNWP distance, but with slightly less climbing.

Let's wait and see what potsy says!

 

[DCLane]

I'm still doing it, come rain or shine - so I'll be there. Even if it's on my own ...

Need to. Next Sunday (26th) I've booked on Evans Leeds Sportive so need the practice.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm still doing it, come rain or shine - so I'll be there. Even if it's on my own ...

Need to. Next Sunday (26th) I've booked on Evans Leeds Sportive so need the practice.

I wasn't forgetting you and the other potential CC riders on the MNWP, but I think that potsy was the only one planning to stay back with me in the slow group. Steve H would have done too, but he fell off his bike and isn't riding!

 

[totallyfixed]

Once again we are going to have to cry off on this one, seems like a lot of rain from very early on until around midday and after that there will be wet roads, couple that with strong winds, it ain't going to be too pleasant.
I am occasionally bemused by Audax UK and the CTC with some of the routes they choose, I realise many are historical but once quiet roads are often now clogged with traffic, but how difficult can it be do use quieter roads? There is an old club in Leicester called The Ratae which has been around for ever, they do a reliability ride, half of which is on A roads. We did this ride a couple of years ago and never again, yet it would have been so easy to plot a very similar route using quiet lanes. Some folk are very resistant to change!
I will be interested to see what you come up with Colin, and of course what all the other CC'ers will be doing.

 

[400bhp]

Once again we are going to have to cry off on this one, seems like a lot of rain from very early on until around midday and after that there will be wet roads, couple that with strong winds, it ain't going to be too pleasant.
I am occasionally bemused by Audax UK and the CTC with some of the routes they choose, I realise many are historical but once quiet roads are often now clogged with traffic, but how difficult can it be do use quieter roads? There is an old club in Leicester called The Ratae which has been around for ever, they do a reliability ride, half of which is on A roads. We did this ride a couple of years ago and never again, yet it would have been so easy to plot a very similar route using quiet lanes. Some folk are very resistant to change!
I will be interested to see what you come up with Colin, and of course what all the other CC'ers will be doing.

It would seem that way looking at the route and a couple of other routes I have looked at. A roads these days :no no:

I haven't done an Audax before but first impressions on the organisation make it feel like an IaM type set up.

 

[totallyfixed]

Just heard from the boss, can't do Sunday

 

[ColinJ]

Potsy is half-asleep (I think my text might have woken him up! ) but he said that he is happy to ride on Sunday instead, so that's what we intend to do.

I'll quickly start another thread to see if we can get a few more people to come along and will edit this post to link to it ...

To be fair to the (M)NWP organiser ... it is a winter ride and it starts and finishes in Rochdale. The A-roads at the start and finish are unavoidable. (It is a Rochdale club organising the ride, so it is fair enough to base the ride there, even though there are nicer places down the road! ) Using so many A-roads also increases the chance of the rides being able to take place at this time of year.

My alternative route will still involve 46 kms on the A646 but at least we'd get 70 km of nicer roads in.

 

[potsy]

Happy to do a ride Sunday instead if there is enough interest, been keeping an eye on the forecast for a few days and it wasn't looking good for Saturday.
Dry and a bit cooler Sunday, and less climbing is always fine with me

 

[Christopher]

I'm doing a club run on Sunday, will keep eyes open for you Colin!
Incidentally, if you leave Puddleducks and go west on the road through Dunsop Bridge, you go over the bridge and turn sharp right up the bridleway by the war memorial than there is a marvellous ride up the Dunsop valley for about 3.5km to the fisheries weir at Footholm. It's paved all the way and pretty flat, there's just the occaisional speed bump IIRC. Hardly see a car on it as only the utility company and people living up that road can use it.

 

[ColinJ]

There is an old club in Leicester called The Ratae which has been around for ever, they do a reliability ride, half of which is on A roads. We did this ride a couple of years ago and never again, yet it would have been so easy to plot a very similar route using quiet lanes. Some folk are very resistant to change!

I did the full NWP in 2007 but took one look at the route and decided that it wasn't for me. A long stint on the busy A65, for example, is not my cup of tea. I rode down it from Settle to Gargrave one wet Sunday evening and I have never been that scared on a bike. Visibility was awful with heavy spray from traffic. Many people were clearly returning to Yorkshire from a weekend in the Lake District. Coaches, cars towing horse boxes or boats, juggernauts, white vans ... All were thundering past just inches from my right elbow, often swerving out at the last moment when the drivers saw me emerging from the mist. Very, very scary!

So, I plotted my own route for the NWP between Gisburn and Longridge, taking quiet roads wherever sensible options were available. It added a few kms to the route and some extra climbing, but I managed to avoid a lot of busy roads. Not the climb of the A682 from Barrowford, however. I don't know if it still holds, but in 2007, the A682 held the title of Britain's Most Dangerous Road!

Britain's most dangerous road is a section of highway linking Lancashire and the Yorkshire Dales, a survey says.

The 15-mile stretch of the A682 has had almost 100 deaths or serious injuries in the last decade.

Not the most desirable choice of route for an audax, one might think?

Still, perhaps the report was exaggerating the dangers?

Or, perhaps not ...!

I rode the 200 km North-West Passage audax on February 17th this year and that goes up the A682, 'most dangerous road in the UK'. I'd heard of the reputation of the A682 but was prepared to see for myself. Here is part of an email I wrote to a friend about what I saw that day:

"I thought the A682 was a nice road scenically, but I'm afraid that the traffic certainly lived up to its awful reputation... I personally saw some examples of stupid speeding, and reckless overtaking, but what I heard about later would take some beating. I turned left at Gisburn for my lanes route to Settle, to avoid further time on the A-roads. I spotted some toilets there so I stopped to refill one of my bottles. Just before I remounted, a group of about 6 fellow audaxers appeared - they had obviously decided to minimise time spent on the A-roads as well. One older guy was really agitated, and was cursing a farmer whose vehicle had just collided with him! Apparently, the farmer decided that it was perfectly okay to overtake on a blind bend. That was bad enough, but made far worse by the fact that he was towing a big livestock trailer with a cow in it. Suddenly a vehicle appeared from the opposite direction, so the farmer swerved left to avoid a head-on collision. His trailer side-swiped the old cyclist and pushed him off the road. Clearly, the outcome could have been much worse than the bruised arm he'd suffered. The group's combined shouts had no effect on the farmer who merely carried on his way as if nothing had happened..."

So as far as I'm concerned, from what I saw and heard in just one ride - yes, due to the stupidity and/or death wishes of many of the drivers you may encounter there - the A682 can be a dodgy place to spend a Saturday morning!

My safety tips:
(1) Take an alternative route!
(2) Drive a tank!

As for folk being resistant to change ... When I got to the control at Kirkby Lonsdale, I had a word with the organisers. They had been worried that I'd taken so long for me to get there from Settle. Had I suffered mechanical problems? I explained that I'd been meandering round the lanes rather than dicing with traffic on the A682 and A65. The guy looked at me as if I was a crazy man and asked me what was wrong with the A65!

I spoke to an old cyclist in Hebden Bridge once. He'd been riding in this area for over 20 years and the only route he ever did was Hebden Bridge - A629 - Keighley - B6265 - Cross Hills - A6088 - Colne - A56 - Nelson - A682 - Burnley - A6114/A646 - Todmorden, Hebden Bridge! He had never once ventured up onto the glorious local hilly minor roads. It's sad.

I met another man who only used to ride from Hebden Bridge to Todmorden, to Walk Mill on the A646 and then turn round and ride home.

I really don't get those people! Still, it takes all sorts ... My forum rides are an attempt to get people off the A-roads and to do some exploring that they otherwise might not have done.

 

[totallyfixed]

Can't wait to take you on one of our rides, when we did the 50 mile last weekend I would be surprised if more than half a dozen cars passed us. Sometimes when we are out you might get 4 or 5 cars coming past one behind the other and we make comments like "where did all those come from". We are truly spoilt [but not complaining].
You had better list your other rides coming up.