After yesterday's poor effort on an easy day. I was not going to make the samended mistake today. Shrigley Hall (seen below) provided an excellent breakfast, fried bread hmmm
Rachel update at breakfast wasn't great. Overnight she had had a nasty reaction the yesterday's insect sting. Face was very swollen. Off to the pharmacy in search of some very powerful antihistamines. She was back before we all left and was ready to ride, even though she was feeling some what sorry for herself.
Despite getting up early we seemed to pfaff a little this morning. John was ready to go and had to wait for me and Jordan. It wasn't too long but John did get cold waiting around. Eventually we clipped in and were on our way. However it wasn't too long before we started a chain of events that marred the start of today's stage. Leaving the hotel Jordan's brakes were making nasty screeching sounds. Possibly oil on the blocks. We rode on dropping down away from Shrigley Hall. I would like to add at this point Jordan is a confident descender. We approached a tight left hand bend Jordan applied the brakes nothing happened initially and the wheels then locked up. Despite crossing the white line in a "controlled" skid he missed the car coming up the hill. The excitement of the incident then lead us to miss our turning and we continued to ride down the hill. About a mile later we realised we were going in the wrong direction. Looking back up the hill we all agreed it would a marvellous idea to find a way round this and get back to the designated route. We tried a couple of options but nothing worked, so it was back up the hill. This was then promptly followed by Jordan having a very Paris - Roubaix moment across some gravel at the side of the road. By now it was noticeable that John was not going to have a good day. All this and we'd only gone five miles from the hotel. Two of which were in the wrong direction. With the possibility of bad omens hanging over our heads time to relax a little and take it easy.
Today was a hilly day. 6000ft in 66 miles (see what I mean about omens). So for John not to be feeling up to his usual abilities was a bit of a blow. We made the first feed stop without any further incidents. After abstaining yesterday I made sure I filled my boots today. Cakes, biscuits, sandwiches everything was consumed. Refuelled we set off for part two of the day. It wasn't long before our next climb was in sight. Jordan road off quite happily, quiteam uncustomary for him. I rode with John for a bit but he wasn't firing on all cylinders. So I decided to set off after Jordan. We slowed and on the descent John caught and it was agreed by all that on the next climb John would ride at his own pace and we could go off and have fun.
It was good job I ate all that food as a certain Mr Noble had found his racing legs. The climb out of Hebden Bridge (1034ft over 4.4miles) didn't present him with any problems. Someone had been transformed overnight! Beryl was passed the way up, he had left the feed stop early Jordan and I met at the top and then the race was on. Not between me and Jordan but to beat the rain that we could see coming in over the hills. I have to say that I lost the wheel more than once on the run in to Skipton. Looking at the garmin I did notice that we were still around 600ft short of the predicted elevation gain. No need to worry as Martyn (company owner and route designer) had organised two cracking hills before the end of the ride.
The view from Bradley's Roth, Keighley
We made it to the hotel an hour before we were supposed to. The owner still allowed us to check in and put our bikes in the rooms. It wasn't long before John arrived and we all went to get some cokes while we waited for the van and our bags.
Overall felt really good today and enjoyed the immense views from the hill tops. In other news Pat had a front tyre blow out. Earlier in the ride he had scuffed the side of the tyre against a kirb, causing a weakness in the side wall (this is why the van wasn't at the hotel). Rachel finished the ride, face looking slightly better (sorry no pictures wasn't allowed to take any) plus meeting a very strange person in Hebden. Beryl made the entire day without his heart rate going above 120bpm and an average of 105bpm. Outrageous! Oh and the rain never came.
A wash and brush up and then down the pub for a pint. Followed by an Indian meal and a ton of laughs. Great day!
Tomorrow another big day 95 miles and we go over Fleet Moss (Yorkshire Dales) and Hartside (North Pennines). Once we complete the first 30 miles of tomorrow's ride we will be half way to John O'Groats.
No comments:
Post a Comment