ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
As promised (threatened? 
) My 'Ride Today', from yesterday ...
Local forum member @Littgull and I met quite a few years ago on one of my forum rides and we have ridden together regularly ever since, on forum rides and also on rides that we don't post on CycleChat. There is some great riding round here, but we do tend to end up doing the same routes over and over again. So, what we sometimes used to do was for Brian to drive our bikes out to somewhere else and do a ride from there. That came to an end when he came back from a ride to find that a dozy driver had written off his parked car ("It wasn't my fault - I couldn't see where I was going because the low sun was dazzling me..."!!!!!
)
Brian was coming up to retirement and wasn't fond of driving anyway, so he decided not to replace the car. I don't drive. That means that we now have to either start and finish all of our rides locally, or catch trains to other ride venues. Catching multiple trains each way is a bit of a pain, especially when stupid rail company bosses cock up new timetables and alienate their workforces by trying to impose new work practices! (Cancelled services, late trains, non-bike carrying rail replacement buses ...)
But ... one good development on the local railways has been the restoration of 'Todmorden Curve'. For some unfathomable reason, a 500 metre length of track had been removed 40 years ago between Todmorden station and the line to Burnley and beyond. It meant that anyone travelling from Littleborough (Brian!) or Todmorden (me!) would have had to change trains at Hebden Bridge in both directions to get on or off that line - a right pain! With the reopening of a direct route came new services. Once the new timetable has been restored we will be able to catch direct trains to Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley. For now though, we can make do with getting on and off at Rose Grove, between Burnley and Padiham. Doing that eliminates 32 km (20 miles) of lumpy, busy A-road from our rides. That distance can then be added back in on nicer roads to the Yorkshire Dales, the Forest of Bowland, or the flatlands of the Fylde and Wyre districts near Blackpool and Fleetwood.
That is the background to yesterday's ride! I wanted to test a new route which will be used for next March's annual forum ride to Conder Green/Glasson Dock. I had come up with a route which was exactly 161 km (an imperial century) from Rose Grove Station to the Cafe d' Lune at Conder Green and back via a stiff climb which I had only done a couple of times before, around 12 years ago.
So, I caught the 07:35 train to Rose Grove and (as planned) found a chirpy Littgull on board with his bike. It is only a short trip on the train but it made such a difference not having to ride up and down the A646 yet again!
Unfortunately, the recent glorious weather had come to an abrupt finish. It was peeing it down when we got off the train at Rose Grove. Brian was on his touring bike which has full mudguards. My bike didn't even have its 'Ass Guard' (which had been transplanted onto my singlespeed bike and not returned to my Cannondale) so I was reluctant to set off immediately. We sheltered for about 15 minutes until the rain abated, and then headed off down the Padiham Greenway. There was a lot of standing water, so I was riding slowly to avoid spraying too much over myself. The weather gradually improved during the day, although showers returned for a while later on.
We did our usual route via the Old Roman Road to Spring Wood visitor centre above Whalley, where we often arrange to meet up with other riders, and then down the hill into the town itself.
Normally, we head off towards Mitton, but my new route took us on an interesting variation ... We turned left at the mini-roundabout in Whalley and soon left again to take us up a pleasant, gradual climb to the hamlet of York, where we turned right and descended through Langho, over the river Ribble and then turned right just before Ribchester.
A pleasant, not too-gruelling 4 km climb took us to Longridge Fell, and an undulating road took us along the top of the Fell to Longridge itself.
After that there was a descent and an easy flat ride for 32 km (20 miles) into the Fylde district, then back up to Whitechapel, just below Beacon Fell. We ascended to the west of some big Fells, with glorious views towards Lancaster and Morecambe Bay.
A rapid descent through Oakenclough took us via Galgate to our stop at Cafe d' Lune, Conder Green.
After a good break there and a chat about various deep and meaningful subjects, it was time to head back.
The cafe stop had been at 96 km (60-ish miles) so we had a much shorter ride back, but we still had the toughest climb ahead of us, from Quernmore to Jubilee Tower. There was a good descent to Lower Lee, a short climb to Higher Emmetts, then we began to ascend again from Marshaw to the summit above the Trough of Bowland.
We stopped at the top to take a few photos. The one of Brian and our bikes was a blurred mess - notes to self: focus camera, hold still when taking shots, check pictures afterwards! A couple did turn out though ...
We had been seeing warnings of the fire risk. Car parks were shut, notices everywhere ...
And tributes to a couple of long-gone cyclists ...
A rapid descent took us down the Trough of Bowland into the valley below, where Brian asked me the stunning question "So, when do we get to the Trough of Bowland?" Given that we had (a) just done it and (b) that is unmistakably big and scenic, it seemed impossible that he hadn't even noticed it! Maybe he has got so fit that steep hills don't register any more ... I pointed out his error, and he slapped his head in horror - "My God, how could I possibly make a mistake like that!" Old age, Brian - old age ...
I suddenly realised that we were coming to a short steep ascent that always used to catch me out. Not this time, baby. I slammed the bike into bottom gear, leapt out of the saddle and began my grovelling gear sprint up the ramp, only to discover that it felt way harder than it should have done. I must have been more tired than I thought I was. It was almost as though I were riding my singlespeed bike. I battled with my bike all the way to the top, looked down and realised that I had sent the chain the wrong way on the cassette - instead of selecting an easy 28/30 gear, I had inadvertently selected a much harder 28/12. I slapped my head in horror - "My God, how could I possibly make a mistake like that!" Old age, Colin - old age ...
We went past Dunsop Bridge, climbed up through the woods after Whitewell, descended to Doeford Bridge, then climbed to Walker Fold on the northern flanks of Longridge Fell.
We descended from the Fell road, and returned to Rose Grove via Mitton, Whalley, Spring Wood, the Old Roman Rd, Padiham and the Greenway, getting back in good time for our return train.
We liked our new travel arrangements. The 32 kms/20 miles on the A646 were not missed one little bit. A Very Good Day Out!
) My 'Ride Today', from yesterday ...Local forum member @Littgull and I met quite a few years ago on one of my forum rides and we have ridden together regularly ever since, on forum rides and also on rides that we don't post on CycleChat. There is some great riding round here, but we do tend to end up doing the same routes over and over again. So, what we sometimes used to do was for Brian to drive our bikes out to somewhere else and do a ride from there. That came to an end when he came back from a ride to find that a dozy driver had written off his parked car ("It wasn't my fault - I couldn't see where I was going because the low sun was dazzling me..."!!!!!
)Brian was coming up to retirement and wasn't fond of driving anyway, so he decided not to replace the car. I don't drive. That means that we now have to either start and finish all of our rides locally, or catch trains to other ride venues. Catching multiple trains each way is a bit of a pain, especially when stupid rail company bosses cock up new timetables and alienate their workforces by trying to impose new work practices! (Cancelled services, late trains, non-bike carrying rail replacement buses ...)
But ... one good development on the local railways has been the restoration of 'Todmorden Curve'. For some unfathomable reason, a 500 metre length of track had been removed 40 years ago between Todmorden station and the line to Burnley and beyond. It meant that anyone travelling from Littleborough (Brian!) or Todmorden (me!) would have had to change trains at Hebden Bridge in both directions to get on or off that line - a right pain! With the reopening of a direct route came new services. Once the new timetable has been restored we will be able to catch direct trains to Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley. For now though, we can make do with getting on and off at Rose Grove, between Burnley and Padiham. Doing that eliminates 32 km (20 miles) of lumpy, busy A-road from our rides. That distance can then be added back in on nicer roads to the Yorkshire Dales, the Forest of Bowland, or the flatlands of the Fylde and Wyre districts near Blackpool and Fleetwood.
That is the background to yesterday's ride! I wanted to test a new route which will be used for next March's annual forum ride to Conder Green/Glasson Dock. I had come up with a route which was exactly 161 km (an imperial century) from Rose Grove Station to the Cafe d' Lune at Conder Green and back via a stiff climb which I had only done a couple of times before, around 12 years ago.
So, I caught the 07:35 train to Rose Grove and (as planned) found a chirpy Littgull on board with his bike. It is only a short trip on the train but it made such a difference not having to ride up and down the A646 yet again!
Unfortunately, the recent glorious weather had come to an abrupt finish. It was peeing it down when we got off the train at Rose Grove. Brian was on his touring bike which has full mudguards. My bike didn't even have its 'Ass Guard' (which had been transplanted onto my singlespeed bike and not returned to my Cannondale) so I was reluctant to set off immediately. We sheltered for about 15 minutes until the rain abated, and then headed off down the Padiham Greenway. There was a lot of standing water, so I was riding slowly to avoid spraying too much over myself. The weather gradually improved during the day, although showers returned for a while later on.
We did our usual route via the Old Roman Road to Spring Wood visitor centre above Whalley, where we often arrange to meet up with other riders, and then down the hill into the town itself.
Normally, we head off towards Mitton, but my new route took us on an interesting variation ... We turned left at the mini-roundabout in Whalley and soon left again to take us up a pleasant, gradual climb to the hamlet of York, where we turned right and descended through Langho, over the river Ribble and then turned right just before Ribchester.
A pleasant, not too-gruelling 4 km climb took us to Longridge Fell, and an undulating road took us along the top of the Fell to Longridge itself.
After that there was a descent and an easy flat ride for 32 km (20 miles) into the Fylde district, then back up to Whitechapel, just below Beacon Fell. We ascended to the west of some big Fells, with glorious views towards Lancaster and Morecambe Bay.
A rapid descent through Oakenclough took us via Galgate to our stop at Cafe d' Lune, Conder Green.
After a good break there and a chat about various deep and meaningful subjects, it was time to head back.
The cafe stop had been at 96 km (60-ish miles) so we had a much shorter ride back, but we still had the toughest climb ahead of us, from Quernmore to Jubilee Tower. There was a good descent to Lower Lee, a short climb to Higher Emmetts, then we began to ascend again from Marshaw to the summit above the Trough of Bowland.
We stopped at the top to take a few photos. The one of Brian and our bikes was a blurred mess - notes to self: focus camera, hold still when taking shots, check pictures afterwards! A couple did turn out though ...
We had been seeing warnings of the fire risk. Car parks were shut, notices everywhere ...
And tributes to a couple of long-gone cyclists ...
A rapid descent took us down the Trough of Bowland into the valley below, where Brian asked me the stunning question "So, when do we get to the Trough of Bowland?" Given that we had (a) just done it and (b) that is unmistakably big and scenic, it seemed impossible that he hadn't even noticed it! Maybe he has got so fit that steep hills don't register any more ... I pointed out his error, and he slapped his head in horror - "My God, how could I possibly make a mistake like that!" Old age, Brian - old age ...
I suddenly realised that we were coming to a short steep ascent that always used to catch me out. Not this time, baby. I slammed the bike into bottom gear, leapt out of the saddle and began my grovelling gear sprint up the ramp, only to discover that it felt way harder than it should have done. I must have been more tired than I thought I was. It was almost as though I were riding my singlespeed bike. I battled with my bike all the way to the top, looked down and realised that I had sent the chain the wrong way on the cassette - instead of selecting an easy 28/30 gear, I had inadvertently selected a much harder 28/12. I slapped my head in horror - "My God, how could I possibly make a mistake like that!" Old age, Colin - old age ...
We went past Dunsop Bridge, climbed up through the woods after Whitewell, descended to Doeford Bridge, then climbed to Walker Fold on the northern flanks of Longridge Fell.
We descended from the Fell road, and returned to Rose Grove via Mitton, Whalley, Spring Wood, the Old Roman Rd, Padiham and the Greenway, getting back in good time for our return train.
We liked our new travel arrangements. The 32 kms/20 miles on the A646 were not missed one little bit. A Very Good Day Out!
Last edited:
(he saw me, acknowledged me, but elected to stay there).
.
) so it's all good.
