Skew Bridge incident

Tonight, on the way home the A666, Whalley New road was blocked by an articulated trailer that had become wedged under Skew Bridge.


Police were on hand to help sort it out whilst traffic worked its way round the obstacle.


Skew Bridge is one of the many low bridges that occasionally catch out higher vehicles. Often it's double decker buses that are prone to hitting the lower bridges although this one is just about high enough for them.

Temporary lights 1

In my July summary, I mentioned a couple of temporary traffic lights that are on my route. One of them is where they are repairing the wall alongside the River Blakewater on Beechwood Road. This where the vehicle crashed through before ending up on its roof in the water. There's no way round this one so we just have to wait, although sometimes, cars run the red light.

Events in Pendle

Locally, we seem to be coming to the climax of cycling events for the year. Recently there was the Grand Prix in Blackburn, which was part of the Celebrate Blackburn holiday festival. A week earlier was the Colne Grand Prix. This Sunday, the 3rd August, is the Pendle Cycle Show and Pendle Pedal sportive. The cycle show is part of the Pendle Cycle Fest and aimed to showcase cycling with displays, stunt riding, live music and numerous bicycle related activities.

Pendle Pedal Sportive, sponsored by Eric Wright Construction, offers a choice of routes between the main ride at 160km and a shorter option of 100km. The route passes through some of the most beautiful rural scenery in the country and includes many of the tough climbs used on bigger cycling races. Pendle, Ribble Valley, Lune Valley and Forest of Bowland countryside will be linked with famous climbs such as the Trough of Bowland, Waddington Fell, Salter Fell (MTB option), Tatham Fell and Nick O'Pendle. Entry is still possible on the day from 7:30-8:30am and 8:30-09:30am for the 160km and 100km routes respectively. The start is at the Rolls Royce sports ground in Barnoldswick.

We may just be out that way somewhere on the bikes so hope to see some of the riders.

A week later, on the 10th is the Tour of Pendle. An altogether more serious race over 90 miles, starting in the centre of Nelson and taking in three laps of a circular route around Barrowford, Gisburn, Chatburn, Whalley and Padiham.

Photo: M J S

July report

Some of the blogs I read contain a small summary of the mileages ridden, weather and other assorted information. It's quite interesting to see, especially if you know the person is training for an objective such as an event. I'm neither training for an event or fastidious enough to record that level of detail. I do know roughly how many miles I've done and July being a good month, I'm proudly displaying my stats today.

Commuting has been pleasant, wearing shorts every day. The route has not been as fluid of late with 2 sets of temporary traffic lights, but during the holiday period, now the schools are off, the roads are much quieter so that makes up for it and makes for a more leisurely ride. I know July has had some wet and cool weather locally in the North West but I've managed to avoid it by having a touring holiday in Germany - more detail to come...I've a lot of catching up to do since things have been so busy of late.

There won't be many months I will ride more than two or three hundred miles, but now I have, it's something to aim for again.

Commute: 63 miles
Leisure/training: 107 miles
Touring: 502 miles
Weather: warm and sometime wet

Blackburn Grand Prix

Last night Blackburn town centre hosted a number of criterium races around a half mile course around the shopping centre. The public were encouraged to have a go before the official races got underway. It's good to see local events like this encouraging participation.