Round The West Riding Perm (200km), 3rd June 2006
Last year this ride was a calendar event starting and finishing in
Denshaw. This mean it had about 60km of hills at the start and 40 at
the end with some of my favourite cycling roads in the area. For our
permanent we decided to start and finish in Otley giving us about 100km
of hills at the start ! Got our first control at 08:19, the receipt
said 06:51 though. We rode to the start, already 25km in the bag for
me, our starting route retraced our path for the first few kilometres
then it was onto the route proper and the first climb up an over
Bailden Moor. Up and down on very quiet roads to Bingley, up again,
then down again to the first info. control at Oxenhope. The headwind
and the hills made the route harder than it could have been but I was
going well, my companion was slower. Then up my favourite local road,
the A6033 over Ovenhope Moor then down to Hebden Bridge. I elected not
to turn off the fast descent and take the back road but to continue to
the valley and do the mile on the main road to Mytholmroyd, I know the
road and today we'd have a tail wind, the traffic is not a problem on
this road. Right over the railway, left and up again to Sowerby. Down
and round the moor to Triangle, nowhere near Bermuda, it's near
Ripponden. Up again to parallel the M62 just before it drops down into
Lancashire, still up past the mast then down to Denshaw. Phew ! a bit
of flat to Uppermill and the first proper control, time for lunch. I
was feel good so far, my companion was starting to feel better so all
looked good.
We departed and started the climb over Standedge, great views to the
West then a fast main road descent to the East, a bit of sheep dodging
was required though. It was the middle of the day with the wind behind
us I was getting quite hot. Up towards Meltham, down again then up
again, I was starting to struggle with the heat, a headache, hot and
sore feet. My companion was going better than me now, leaving me to
chase her. I ran out of water with 10km to go to the next control, in
my confusion I miscalculated the distance, partly due to the route
sheet not having distances per turn and us not starting at the place
the route sheet started at. We finally arrived at Newstead Garden
Centre, I was glad to get in the shade to eat and drink. The place was
deserted, much to my surprise, not actually deserted, the ladies
working there were there and working. They signed our brevet cards and
gave us a till receipt, wrong time again though, only an hour earlier.
I took the opportunity to calculate the distances between the next
controls and write the on my route sheet so I could avoid the
uncertainly on the second half of the ride. I
It was pretty flat from here on in, our speed picked up and it felt
cooler. Probably just me recovering after getting too hot earlier. I
felt better mentally as we started to pass through familiar places,
soon we arrived at Beal for the next info. The route sheet had a slight
error in the placing of the turn relative to the question. At the turn
there was no pub, so we wrote down the name of the one before and one
after. I was calculating all the time and forecast a 20:00 finish that
would be 19 minutes short of 12 hours, that's OK for me. It took me
10h 35 mins last time, who cares though, its not a race ! Another short
stop in Sherburn then onto the final stretch to Collingham and
Sicklinghall for the last info. It was cooling down and I was feeling
better all the time. My backside was hurting still but my feet were
recovering and my headache not getting any worse. Left onto the A61
then we ignored the right and took the main road to Otley arriving at
20:00 as predicted. The receipt at the garage said 20:13 ! Even if the
times on the first and last receipt are used we'd still be within the
time limit with a 14.3kph minium average.
As we ate out last food and prepared for the 25km ride home, Sir Jimmy
Saville walked up and had a nice little chat with us about cycling. Not
every day one finishes a ride and gets greeted by a celebrity and
Knight of the Realm. I went better on the way home, arriving at about
21:20 after 255km. The route included 3200m of climbing for 1.25 AAA
points.