Ride Reports

Saturday 4th February 2017

A Ride to Dent by Paul Baillie
'It's pretty much 45 miles downhill all the way home'

That's how I'd described the route to any doubters who didn't really fancy a 90 mile ride in the first week on February. The reality was ever so slightly different. Yes it was about 45 miles, but downhill all the way? No chance!

6 of us left Garstang just after 9am. Myself, Sue Taylor Michael Birchall Ian Tunbridge Paul Whaley & Eric Hall making steady progress along the flatlands towards Cockerham and Galgate where we were joined by Rachel who was in training for 'The Fred'
We cruised along to Caton then Halton and up Green Lane to pick up the Kirkby Lonsdale Road which is where we last saw Whaley for a while, as he wanted to ride up to Bullpot Farm and met us later at the Cafe. After a re-group at Kirkby Lonsdale Eric & Sue decided to head back, leaving 4 of us to ride up to Barbon and on to Dent for a nice pub lunch with the open fires being used to dry out wet socks, gloves & even shoes! We all knew it was a long drag out of Dent towards Newby Head but we would be rewarded with a nice swooping downhill towards Ingleton. The group split up on the hilly stuff as everyone rode up the hills at their own pace. This meant that I was at the back as I turned right at Newby Head and had to work hard to reel in the rest of the group. The downhill seemed to have been replaced by a false flat and a headwind! Not how I'd planned it all! As we approached Ribblehead I had caught up to Mick and noticed he was being overtaken by a tricycle then it looked as it he was hiding behind it! Turns out the 3 wheeler was motorised but it would have still made for a good picture, if could've been bothered taking a snap! Another regroup in Ingleton and we were soon on our way home via Burton-in-Lonsdale and then Hornby and Caton. Rachel and Paul W left us here and the 3 of us, very tired by now, crawled along the usual route through to Quernmore and then along Bayhorse road and a final flush of energy meant a bit of a sprint into Scorton which was the end of my ride, leaving Ian to roll to Gartsang solo. A good ride out in changeable weather with plenty of climbing over the 90 miles and just over 15mph average speed. Not a bad effort for the first week of Feb!

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