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.