Rochdale to Blackpool ride

[potsy]

I will put ColinJ in charge of the route, he is more savvy with that than I am.

8:30 am on sat 21st

No doubt we will go on discussing the route but in the end should the decision be Fluffy's? It's his ride, after all!

Think you have an answer in Fluffy's quote

 

[ColinJ]

Fluffy - since we will have to wait for Fiona to arrive by train, how about changing the meeting place to Rochdale railway station so we can set off as soon as she arrives? It also means she won't have to try and find her way to the town hall.

Fiona - there are a lot of trains from Victoria to Rochdale so even if you just miss the 08:22, there is one at 08:30 and another at 08:48 so we wouldn't have to wait that long for you.

Mark (amrushton) -  I know the shortcut round the back of the car showrooms at Whitebirk. A local rider pointed it out to me on the Northwest Passage. I also like the idea of going through Inglewhite rather than Broughton to get a few more kms of traffic-free roads in. I've just been hunting around for info on the Grane Road. I'm sure I remember somebody on here (or Bikeradar) mentioning a serious accident involving a cyclist there last year.

And then I found this: ( )

The Grane road is well graded and a surprisingly easy climb but yes, the traffic can be bad and it's an accident black spot, which is why there's sometimes a "safety" (aka revenue raising) camera van parked by the Packhorse down at the Elton end of the road. In the 5 years I've been using it twice a day I've seen easily a dozen accidents. 

  
And then this:

£300k safety work on Grane Road as restrictions fail to cut crashes!!!

Okay folks, since Fluffy has delegated the selection of the route to me, I hereby declare that the Grane Road is out! I'm sure it would be a lovely climb, if only we could be assured that there weren't going to be any speeding drivers on it, still over the limit after their Friday nights at the pub!

We'll take the Haslingden Old Road instead (sorry Globalti!). From Haslingden, it isn't much of a climb and is mostly downhill. We just need to watch out on the crossroads on the descent - another accident black spot.

We can take the little shortcut mentioned by amrushton to avoid that monster roundabout at Whitebirk.

I'll choose some roads that you might not necessarily choose, to get away from traffic for a while, even if it adds a few minor hills here and there and a few kms to the distance.

Oh, for the first part of the route, I tossed a coin to decide between Owd Betts and Whitworth and Whitworth won!

I'd like to ride out on the B6377 to Healey Dell just because I want to see what it is like. We can join the A671 further out of Rochdale.

I don't like the road through Waterfoot, so we'll take to the hilly back road that takes us round past the ski slope at Rawtenstall and eventually drops us down into the far side of Haslingden. There are a couple of steep little climbs, but it all adds variety doesn't it!

From Longridge, we'll take to quiet roads to get off the B5269 for a while. So, Inglewhite, Bilsborrow, then the B5269... (just after) Inskip, Elswick, Singleton, B5266 Normoss, A583 to Blackpool seafront.

Globalti: I like Crown Point Road, despite having the climbing prowess of a slug! As for the A646 - it's a necessary evil. It's good for getting back to Hebden Bridge when tired but even back in 1986 when I first started using it to go to work in Burnley, drivers were treating it like a race track and things haven't improved since.

It's getting late - I'll plot a route map in the morning.

I'm looking forward to this ride now and hoping that we get good weather. I'd like it dry, 18-22 degrees with a gentle breeze.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

erm, whilst most of your post makes sense, please re - consider the bit going past the ski slope. there is going to be a few of us and it's narrow bendy and tight at the top near the halo. then there is a right hand turning. it will be quite busy at that time on a saturday morning, then we have to cross over a busy main road emerging from a dodgy junction. it will be a lot lot flatter and safer just going round the hill and joining the old haslingden road.

with sounds of it, the route you are planning is going to take us thru or near to town centers on the busiest shopping day of the week, or have i got it wrong?

 

[Globalti]

OK, by going over Haslingden Old Road you climb to around 300m rather than the 350m of The Grane. That puts you at the eastern end of Blackburn, which is better for avoiding the hilly westerly end as you leave the town. That black spot crossroads you mention has been tamed by turning it into a roundabout.

Agreed with Shaun though on the ski slope; that's an unnecessary climb then a tricky descent when you can just take the gently climbing A681 round past the hospital then pick up the A680 northwards. By the way, as you come through Rawtenstall you will pass Ride On cycles, which is an excellent bike shop and Fitzpatrick's herbal health, the temperance bar, which might be a good spot for me to meet you. Anybody who is thirsty can nip in for a hand-pulled pint of sarsaparilla or dandelion and burdock.

Not sure if I would worry about busy shopping days Shaun, every day is shopping day nowadays even SUNDAY (splutters with rage and opens bible) and at least on a Saturday there shouldn't be any big trucks around. You will see more traffic around shopping hotspots like Trashy Park and Deepdale in Preston than in town centres, where all you find is charidee shops and estate agents.

 

[ColinJ]

Okay, scrap the ski slope idea (I don't think steep climbs and narrow roads are necessarily a problem but dodgy junctions don't sound good). I don't like the valley road much but let's face it, the road basically goes gently downhill for 8 km to the roundabout with the A682 so we will only be on it in for about 15 minutes.

with sounds of it, the route you are planning is going to take us thru or near to town centers on the busiest shopping day of the week, or have i got it wrong?

You haven't exactly got it wrong, but you know me Shaun - I wouldn't go near a big town centre if I didn't have to! The trouble is heading out of Rochdale to go to Blackpool and back, you either have to go through or close to town centres or you'd have a ridiculously long detour to do to avoid them. I'm going to be doing well over 100 miles as it is, even without riding to the start in Rochdale. Fluffy just wants to get a 50-odd mile ride in. If we go by any long big-town-avoiding route he'd never even get within sight of Blackpool! We have to go through part of Blackburn, but we will be skirting around the town centre. Beyond Blackburn - Longridge isn't a big town and all the other places on the list are just small villages.

Fluffy hasn't replied yet about the change of meeting place, but I tell you what - my route takes us from the railway station past the town hall anyway so I can meet Fiona at the station if the rest of you prefer to wait at the TH. All things being well, I'll be arriving at the station 5 minutes before Fiona. If both our trains were on time, we'd be getting to the TH at about 08:45.

Okay, I've plotted what I hope is the definitive route. It is 88.6 km (55 miles) from Rochdale station to the seafront at Blackpool. Here it is on Bikely.

Is that okay with everybody? Point out major problems only please, or we'll be quibbling about details until after the ride! I reckon it's a good set of compromises taking into account traffic, total distance and so on. It's never going to be the prettiest of rides because of where we start and where we are going to. Normally, I'd just head for the Trough of Bowland from Longridge and not go anywhere near most of the built-up areas!

 

[Fiona N]

Thanks for the note about the trains to Rochdale, Colin, it certainly takes a load of my mind to know that a late train into Victoria isn't catastrophic And meeting at the station would be good as I've not been in Rochdale for a while so it would probably have taken me 10 minutes to get oriented and find the Town Hall even with a map.

Definitely looking forwards to the ride now, although I hope the weather's better than South Lakes today; I managed to get wet three times in just over three hours on a little local tootle. I'm 'coming back from injury' at the moment. I was supposed to be doing the Galashiels 400km this weekend but managed to pull a muscle in my inner thigh a week or two ago (gardening is a very dangerous sport, I find ) so riding has been rather curtailed, at least on uprights, as sitting on the saddle gives me grief and causes nasty cramps in my adductor muscles. Today was better but the muscles still seem on the verge of cramping on every steepish hill which is making my normal sloth-like uphill progress even slower. Still I've got two weeks to recover some 'form'

 

[ColinJ]

Thanks for the note about the trains to Rochdale, Colin, it certainly takes a load of my mind to know that a late train into Victoria isn't catastrophic   And meeting at the station would be good as I've not been in Rochdale for a while so it would probably have taken me 10 minutes to get oriented and find the Town Hall even with a map.

I've just been looking at online maps to work out how to get to the TH too! Paper maps don't necessarily show one-way systems so I like to check online. Hopefully everybody else will come to the station and then someone who knows the way can get us through the first few junctions. I'm fine navigating by GPS outside of town centres but I'm not so keen in heavy traffic when I should be keeping my eyes on the road. If I have to do it, I can though.

I'm 'coming back from injury' at the moment. I was supposed to be doing the Galashiels 400km this weekend but managed to pull a muscle in my inner thigh a week or two ago (gardening is a very dangerous sport, I find ) so riding has been rather curtailed, at least on uprights, as sitting on the saddle gives me grief and causes nasty cramps in my adductor muscles. Today was better but the muscles still seem on the verge of cramping on every steepish hill which is making my normal sloth-like uphill progress even slower. Still I've got two weeks to recover some 'form'

My cycling in 2010 has been drastically down on recent years. Because of the long, hard winter I didn't do enough short rides early in the year so going out and doing several stupidly hilly 60-80 mile forum rides wasn't really a great idea. I ended up with a similar leg problem and haven't ridden much since then so the Rochdale ride will be a bit of a test for me. Hopefully, I'll get 5 or 6 20-25 mile rides in before then and maybe a hilly 50 miler or two.

I'm looking forward to the ride too because I don't do many flattish rides and I'm really too fat for the hills at my current level of fitness. If it goes well, it could give me a much-needed boost for the rest of this year. 

 

[Simba]

Rochdale Train Station it is then at 8:30?

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

i'm looking forward to this too. i've never done a flat ride, ever!!! pretty much impossible from where i live. even this ride will be hilly-ish but drops off after blackburn. any other sloths like me, aiming to ride back?

see y'all at the start.

shaun

 

[ColinJ]

Rochdale Train Station it is then at 8:30?

Yes please! Ready to set off once Fiona arrives. 

i'm looking forward to this too. i've never done a flat ride, ever!!! pretty much impossible from where i live. even this ride will be hilly-ish but drops off after blackburn. any other sloths like me, aiming to ride back?

I'll be riding back, and if you read back through the thread you'll see that there are quite a few others too! We could either stick together for the return leg or split into two groups - faster and slower.

If I'm still feeling energetic when we get up to Spring Wood picnic centre above Whalley, I'd quite like to ride to Padiham via the 'scenic route' to avoid that stretch of the A671 but it has a short steep climb on it so we might decide to avoid that and put up with the traffic instead.

 

[Globalti]

Pretty damned good route that!

When you get to the mini roundabout at the easterly end of Rawtenstall, instead of taking first exit straight down the bypass, take second left, which is straight ahead and will take you down old Bacup Road, past Ride On cycles and a quieter route than the bypass. I will wait outside Ride On. What time do you reckon you might be there, Colin?

 

[potsy]

i'm looking forward to this too. i've never done a flat ride, ever!!! pretty much impossible from where i live. even this ride will be hilly-ish but drops off after blackburn. any other sloths like me, aiming to ride back?

see y'all at the start.

shaun

90% certain I'll be doing this now,will be riding back too.
Still planning to leave the car in Rochdale as it's on the limit of my ability already without riding another 40 miles on top.
Are we all self sufficient or buying stuff on the way, food,drinks,etc?

 

[ColinJ]

Pretty damned good route that!

When you get to the mini roundabout at the easterly end of Rawtenstall, instead of taking first exit straight down the bypass, take second left, which is straight ahead and will take you down old Bacup Road, past Ride On cycles and a quieter route than the bypass. I will wait outside Ride On. What time do you reckon you might be there, Colin?

By the wonders of Google Street View, I've found the shop. I reckon we'll probably average a tad over 20 kph to get there allowing for the drag up through Whitworth, balanced by the downhill after Brittania and it's at the 19 km point so it should take us (say) 50 minutes. If we manage to set off at 08:45 and assuming no mechanical problems, we should arrive at 09:35, give or take a few minutes. If you arrive early and don't want to stand around waiting, you could always ride towards us, but be prepared to give us a loud shout because we should be moving pretty quickly down the valley and might not spot you in traffic.

Are we all self sufficient or buying stuff on the way, food,drinks,etc?

I certainly hope that everybody arrives at the start with enough to get at least as far as the shops in Longridge. That is after 52 km or (say) 2.5 hours. (I always carry a couple of cereal bars and two large bottles of carbo-drink so I should be okay until Blackpool.)

It might not be the best cycling fuel, but I might well buy some nice greasy fish 'n chips in Blackpool!

 

[400bhp]

It might not be the best cycling fuel, but I might well buy some nice greasy fish 'n chips in Blackpool!

Good source of carbos!

So, given the intention is to leave at 8:30, are we looking at a an 11:30 is arrival in Blackpool?

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

i'd say more like 1.30pm to 2.30pm at a guess