Way of the Roses review, part 3

Day Three, Ripon to Driffield

Cake at Beningborough Hall

Leaving the big hills behind, day three rolled us down to York via Boroughbridge and Linton-on-Ouse, through the grounds of Beningborough Hall where we had elevenses at the National Trust cafe and picked up sandwiches for later.

York Minster

Then on to the minster in the ancient city of York via the riverside cycleway along the ings of the Ouse. Out of York on the disused railway line, we headed for the wolds and encountered our first bridleway of the day, east of Dunnington.

Following the bridleway to Stamford Bridge

Having had a picnic on the way to Pocklington, we stopped there for coffee before tackling the only significant hill of the day as we climbed through the Yorkshire Wolds in Millington Dale.

Pasture Gate in the Wolds

Possibly the best descent of the whole Way of the Roses route for me was from the top of Pasture Dale where Pocklington Lane starts a 500ft descent through Huggate becoming Driffield Road and ending in Kilburn some seven and a half miles later. It's the sort of hill you can pedal down and really enjoy. From there, the lanes took us to Driffield where accommodation is available, but not easy to find.

Day three stats: 79 miles in around 8 hours and 1920ft of climbing.

Day four consisted of the remaining 23 miles that included a detour via Rudston and Boynton because of works on the roman road Woldgate. We had a brew on the front with a number of other groups that had just completed the route and then made our way to the station, picking up fish and chips just before departure - sweet reward for a great few days cycling.

Bridlington Station buffet

Way of the Roses is a superb route with plenty of variety, challenges and interesting scenery - highly recommended!

Way of the Roses review, part 2

Day 2, Settle to Ripon

If you've done your Way of the Roses research, you are probably aware of the hill out of Settle. Long before the full English breakfast has settled, Albert Hill gives a foretaste of the challenge that lies up ahead on Scosthrop Lane. The only tips I can suggest is stick to muesli and a banana, reward yourself with a late second breakfast on arrival in Airton and do a couple of laps of town to warm up. It's all very impressive and gives a great sense of satisfaction having attained the summit.

Second big hill of the day up from Skyreholme

The next section passes through some lovely Yorkshire villages and renowned eateries, but there is more climbing to be done, so choosing where to refuel is important. It's a great temptation to call in at the Craven Cruck Barn in Appletreewick, which is where we noticed some other WOTR riders entrenched. The problem is, if you stop, you'll not want to get going again and as soon as you do, you encounter the steep uphill out of Skyreholme and onto Craven Moor past Stump Cross Caverns. If you can wait, refreshments are available there or down in Pateley Bridge, which is where we had lunch. A word of caution: The descent from Greenhow Hill is a classic but does involve four steep gradients so it is too easy to let the bike run away before you realise what speed you're doing. It is an accident black-spot and has already claimed a few WOTR riders including two airlifted to hospital last October.

Looking back to Pateley Bridge and the Nidd valley

For us, this was the day with the most effort required, as we still needed to get to Ripon, which involved some more climbing out of Smelthouses onto Brimham Moor. On the one side you look down into the Nidd valley and then, on attaining the ridge of Hartwith Bank, a huge vista opens up east and you know you've crossed the divide of the Pennines.

The view of Knaresborough from the top

It's not quite down yet as the route follows round Brimham Rocks with the expansive views over the flatter end of Swaledale and the wolds. Descending to Fountains Abbey and a trip through Studley Park with its impressive driveway, to finally emerge through the gates into Studley Roger and Ripon itself, was our remaining work of the day.

The main drive of Studley Royal deer park with Ripon cathedral in the distance

Day two stats: 42 miles in around 6 hours, ~4560ft of ascent with two cafe stops and max speed held to 40mph down Greenhow hill - that was near the top, it was considerably less on the steeper lower slopes.

Way of the Roses review, part 1

Day 1, Home to Settle

It seems plenty of cyclists will be tackling the Way of the Roses coast to coast route over the Queen's Diamond Jubilee bank holiday weekend. We're off to try Lon Las Cymru but I thought it might be nice to look back at our experience of the WOTR route last September with a few pictures to whet the appetite for those tackling it in the next few weeks.

I persuaded our happy troop that trains would take nearly the same time as cycling to the start in Morecambe from our base in Blackburn. Following Lancashire Cycleway NCN 6 up the Lancashire Coastal Way from Conder Green meant we could refuel with elevenses at Cafe d'Lune, overlooking Morecambe Bay. Because of that, day 1 of the official WOTR route started just before lunchtime so we planned to spread the hilliest sections of the route over the first two days, with the third day being the longest mileage. Day four would be a short section and return home. Our stopovers were booked in Settle, Ripon and Driffield.

Crook O'Lune

From the traffic free start in Morecambe, the Lune Valley Cycleway takes you to country roads and the first hills of the day, these essentially being a detour to avoid the A683 between the end of the cycleway and Hornby.

Climbing up from Halton Green

Lunch was taken at the Bridge House Farm Tearoom in Wray, and can be recommended. From Wray,  passing Bentham toward Clapham, one senses the geology changing and the transition from Lancashire into Yorkshire. From Clapham the way gets interesting as the need to avoid the busy A65 takes you off-road onto some classic ancient tracks.

Whilst a verge path along the A65 will in future be another option, it is well worth the effort to trudge up through the tunnels above Clapham and onto Thwaite Lane, as it is then that you really start to get an idea of the beauty of this route.

Thwaite Lane

Isolated, away from traffic and towns, you know you've entered limestone country with stunning views of Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent on the way to Stainforth and, finally for us that day, Settle with views of Giggleswick school as we passed by.

Pen-y-ghent

On a recent visit to Settle we were treated to a tour of the Settle Water Tower at the station. This featured on the television series Restoration Man. If you are lucky, Mark Rand and his wife may be working in the garden and offer a visit around in return for a donation to the Friends of Settle and Carlisle Railway. Be warned though, visitors may get featured in the water tower blog.

At the end of day one we'd covered around seventy miles in nine hours and climbed about 4140ft including the thirty five miles added before the official start. This section of the Way of the Roses was thirty four miles, took about five and a half hours, ascended around 3000ft and including two cafe stops.

Next time....tackling the big hills and danger.

Lost World

Lost World

Sunny lunchtimes are too good to miss out on having a quick ride. I decided on the cycling equivalent of a photowalk, the photoride.

Within a short distance of work there are some interesting places, such as the few mill buildings that stand as reminders of Blackburn's cotton industry heritage.

Way of the Roses

We were hoping for some good weather this week as four of us take a trip across the Pennines on a 3 day mini cycle tour along the Way of the Roses (WOTR). This new Coast to Coast route joins the red rose of Lancashire with the white rose of Yorkshire in a 170 mile route inaugurated in September 2010. It runs south of the other C2C routes along an west-east line between Morecambe in Lancashire and Bridlington in Yorkshire. Last year we rode the northerly C2C route, Hadrian's Cycle Way. On that route, at the end of the first day we we're still on the west coast with more of the Solway coast to do on the morning of day two. It was a very enjoyable and interesting 'Roman' themed ride. There were the usual strange Sustrans detours but on the whole a great route.

We're anticipating a nice (leisurely) few days on the Way of the Roses. This isn't going to be a daft dash like some folk. We've planned to do it over 3 days,  but because Morecambe is relatively near home, we've decided to make it more interesting by adding 35 miles to day one in order to ride to the start. I figured that after we'd cycled to the station, waited for the train and ridden from the station, there wouldn't be much difference in time and by riding there we get to have a brew and some cake overlooking Morecambe bay at the Cafe de Lune. The others went along with the suggestion but I suspect it may come back to bite me by the time we reach Settle and the bigger hills. This might come either from Puffing Billy, who is in denial about needing to be fit for the trip, having hardly ridden a bike since last year's C2C outing, or Crasher Sid who's been training just a bit too hard and is carrying the wounds of her latest crash to the start (she managed to hold out until the second day before crashing last time).

Tracklogs for the route are ready for downloading to the GPS. I just need to get a few bits together for my saddlebag and give the tourer the once over and we're good to go.

Voies Verte

Green ways in France - the traffic free parcours velo. Like most European countries, France is actively adding traffic free routes for recreational cycling called Voies Verte. We tried a number on our recent tour. My favourite was the Voie Verte de la Moselotte, which starts in Remiremont and ends in Cornimont-La Bresse. It's part of the Voie Verte des Hautes Vosges utilising an old railway track taking you past steep sided gorges, wood mills, granite quarries and old settlements with weaving mills. It's very quiet, very beautiful and best of all it climbs gently into the heart of the high Vosges mountains.

Gammy leg

A picture might be a step too far, rather like a medical journal. I'm disappointed this week, having got into shape after daily touring miles in the last weeks, to end up with a bad leg. Whilst cycling along the Canal du Marne au Rhine, I was stung near my ankle by something going in the opposite direction. It must have objected to being stopped in its tracks, so to speak. The sting was big enough to be removed with fingers suggesting it was a big blighter, whatever it was.

Normally, I don't react badly to stings and bites and everything was alright for a few days - just some mild irritation and localised swelling as might be expected. A week later however and my ankle is raging with an infection, making riding difficult and not advised. Good job I'm not on the TdF - I wouldn't pass doping rules now!

Good to be out

What fine weather it was for a ride at the weekend. A bit cold, but the brightness was welcome.

40+

In the two miles of the A666 I cycle on of a morning's commute, you can see over 40 marked up potholes identified for repair by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.

Those are only the holes earmarked for fixing, there are plenty more that didn't make the cut. Scale that up to borough or county level and you can easily understand why potholes are big news and why Blackburn is fated to always be remembered for its 4000 holes.

Some potholes get marked more than once because of the way this council goes about its repairs. In marked contrast to neighbouring Lancashire, who seem to visit a reported pothole within a couple of days with material and fill in the hole, Blackburn uses a two-step process.

Firstly someone surveys the problem
and if they decide it is a hazard or worth fixing, marks the limit of the repair with white paint. Later someone comes along with tarmac to fill the hole.

This process often breaks down as it can be months between reporting a hole and it eventually getting repaired. Sometimes the markings just disappear through weather and wear and tear.

This pothole has been marked twice:

First in February

and now in March.

In contrast, this is one of Cumbria

County Council's marked up holes:

Some local roads are breaking up so badly they're beyond repair - they are either a continuous series of patches or the metalling of the road is just falling apart.

The only solution is to properly re-surface but that's likely to happen in only the most severe cases given the current economic climate.

Avoiding potholes on a cycle whilst riding on roads with motorised traffic is not easy, when you can see them - in the dark it's even worse.

A fireman from Nelson fell foul of a pothole at night and is lucky to be alive. Here's hoping things improve soon before more people are injured on the road.

Ride safe and keep reporting those holes.

Anyone for Raclet?

When planning cycling tours, I've often wondered how difficult it would be to carry all the gear needed for camping. It seems someone has the answer - a camping trailer. Not what you might call a lightweight solution.