Out again on the Boardman this morning to take advantage of another dry and sunny day.
bit chilly first thing and my sadly out of condition legs felt like lead as I wended my way up Coal Road, but I kept with it and found myself heading for Shadwell via the A58 and Whin Moor Lane.
Spotted a dog walker in front, walking away from me, so rang the bell as I approached - nowt, rang the bell again, this time the dog looked round, nowt from the one on the other end of the lead. Moved as far to the right as I could, slowed down a fair bit and said "Morning!" at which point she jumped about 3 feet in the air! No harm done though.
Through the village and up to Slaid Hill lights which were on green (I've noted this on my calendar), so right, through the dip and up onto Tarn Lane along the ridge to Ling Lane where the recently resurfaced bits are lovely and smooth and the bits in between aren't.
Back out onto the A58 for over a mile of descending to Bardsey, where today there were more temporary lights, but I hit these at green too and was able to carry all that lovely speed through them and up to the lights at East Keswick which were on red. Oh well!
More generally downwardness to Collingham, a dogleg and over the bridge into Linton where the motorised moron of the day gave me a ridiculously close pass on the climb up from the bridge in her two tone Fiat 500.
Anyway, the lumps of Linton were dispatched and right for the road into Wetherby, where I cut through the town centre and down to the Wilderness park for a quick bite to eat and a couple of pics:
The more eagle eyed of you will notice that my saddlebag is making a bid for freedom in that top pic. I didn't notice and wondered what was wobbling about on the steep climb out of the car park. An easy fix at the top of the ramp but thanks to the Velcro for doing it's job round the seat post and preventing it falling off..
Anyhow, over the A1(M) bridge and out past the racecourse, then the first turning down to Thorp Arch, over the bridge and up into Boston Spa, where a wiggle along the High Street saw me to the Clifford Road which took me, oddly enough, to Clifford.
A bit of up through the village is rewarded with a descent down into Bramham, which is then punished with a climb back out of there.
Over the A1(M) again and more climbing up past Bramham Park , before taking the right before Wothersome and heading out through the lesser of the dips and more climbing (into the wind now as well) to Milner Lane.
Past Hetchell Woods where a group of at least 20 very friendly MTB-ers were getting ready to set off, then the descent off the ridge and slight climb into Thorner. My legs were grumbling again now, so I abandoned any remaining idea of a metric half and took Carr Lane as the least worst climb out of the village up to the A58, then Coal Road and local roads down to home.
26.85 miles (43.2km) in
2h 6m at a leisurely average of
12.7 mph with
1,410 feet climbed and an average temperature of
11.7°C
It's all good, and despite quite a stiff breeze it was a fair bit warmer than yesterday. Lots of cyclists out too, in addition to that large group on MTBs.
I've noticed on downloading the ride that today's ride puts me past 3,000 total miles on the Boardman so I'm quite chuffed with that.
And to end, the map:
I turned right on the wrong road towards Gateforth. I should have taken Mill Lane which is about 500m further on, instead I took:
