Halton Gill

After the exertions of yesterday's trail race and numerous trips on the bike down to the cricket club to catch No.1 son playing in a match in the afternoon, plus another late night working, it required an act of great will to join the Earlybirds at 7am on their Bank Holiday Run to Halton Gill. All the core members were out: El Cid, Cacophony, Gizzajob and Harry Quinn, so it was clear from the start that it was going to be a good ride. I was pleasantly surprised to feel no real after-effects of the two weekend races. Indeed, I felt positively frisky on the first few sharp climbs of the day.

The wind got up very strongly yesterday and the same was forecast for today too. They weren't wrong. As we rode on the Easterly wind grew stronger and gustier, fantastic fun along the stretch from Greenhow to Grassington, where the big lads touched 50mph, although there is always that nagging feeling that you know you will pay the price at some point! We retraced the start of the Etape du Dales route to Conistone, and then went up the north side of Littondale to Halton Gill, opposite to the way the event last weekend finished. It is odd that I've not been up through Litton and over from Halton Gill in many years. For Cacophony it was over 20 years since he's been this way. I always seem to do it in the opposite direction. The climb was easier than I expected, although that might have been largely due to the wind. We enjoyed a fantastic free ride across the tops with fabulous views of Penyghent to the right and north, before descending Silverdale, which seemed to go on and on. It was no wonder, with that Easterly wind, that I struggled up here last Sunday.

We then took the left turn to Malham and joined the White Rose route, which we will all be riding in two weeks time. Things now got quite hard and it was a battle into the wind for most of the way back home. The effects of the running seemed to work their way through to the muscles and I had to concentrate quite hard. There wasn't much conversation. Gizzajob had left us at Arncliffe, feeling the after-effects of a cold and a hard ride of his own the day before, so El Cid and Cacophony, our team leaders, buried themselves on the front, and even then I struggled at times to hold a wheel. I tried to dig in to keep up with them on the very final push up Nesfield Hill, but there was nothing there again. They left me for dead, with El Cid not even out of the saddle. Awesome gentlemen!

It felt great to be back in Ilkley for midday, 4hr 47mins on the road for 73.5 miles at over 15mph, which in those winds today was good going. I wish I'd been able to put my feet up and relax for the afternoon. Sadly, another act of will was required to get back to the computer and carry on working. Not easy!