Herb Toasting

An Etape du Dales recce ride today for me, The Herb, Rick and Wood.  The other Harrowgays didn't turn up, so Wood had to represent the world of ladies' cycling (and slapstick comedy - more later) alone.

We met up in Hawes to avoid the first and last section of the EDD - it starts in Grassington and comes over Fleet Moss the "easy" way to Hawes.  We were therefore straight onto Buttertubs, which was a relatively mild introduction (if 3 miles of climbing can be described thus), and followed by a descent that left all of us glad we weren't coming up from Swaledale.  We then had a lovely ride down the valley to Low Row where the road went very steeply upwards over to Arkengarthdale.  Part way over there's a ford which riders in the EDD are warned about in dark terms, but we all seemed to manage to get across if without mishap.  Immediately afterwards is a steep couple of hairpins.

The Herb was clearly on form, as he was first up all the hills, and when we turned left after the descent we headed into the wind and he was a lot stronger than all of us.  I'm not sure if my problem was lack of cycling or a bit of marathon still in my legs, but whenever it got uphill or hard going I found it really tough to stay with him.

Eventually after 7 miles of climbing into the wind we reached the Tan Hill Inn, the highest pub in England.  Slightly depressingly we were only 24 miles out of a projected 61 miles in and I was feeling a bit jaded already.  I soon cheered up with a piece of pork pie and a gem of improvised comedy from Wood who glided slowly up to us, unclipped and fell slowly off his bike to our immense hilarity.

At least we turned south and downhill for a bit as we headed towards Keld.  This is a bit of the Dales that I've never been to, and it was certainly wild - more like Scotland in places.

At the bottom of this road it was another turn to the west and into the wind, and another episode of Herb chasing (and another comedy pratfall from Wood, this time when his chain got jammed as he went for an emergency gear change).  Never steep, this was another climb that went on for 5 or 6 miles and led us to a massive panorama across to the Lakes in the west and Hartside to the north.  A whooping descent, also of the "glad we're not riding up here lads" variety led to Nateby, a place that definitely counts as "North Pennines" to me rather than "Dales".

We then headed back towards more familiar territory, following the Settle-Carlisle railway south to Garsdale Head.  Another bit of road that's new to me, it was definitely gentler than the high  moors we'd been riding across and the wind had decided to leave us to ride for a short while without harassment.

At the Moorcock Inn we had a choice - left to Hawes and a shorter ride back to the car, or the joys of the Coal Rd and the climb out of Dentdale if we turned right.  I did make a half hearted attempt to see if someone would opt for the easy option but I think there was too much testosterone in the air, plus The Herb was gleefully waiting to kick our arses again. so right it was.

I've only ridden over the Coal Rd once before, and found it fairly easy, certainly not as tough as its reputation would suggest - but that time I didn't have a marathon and nearly 50 miles in my legs.  It was hard - not the hardest I've ever worked, but certainly top ten, and I was comprehensively dropped by the Herb.  This picture's about the last I saw of him:

At least my male pride was salvaged slightly by leaving both Wood and Rick behind, but by the time we descended to Dentdale my thighs were burning - and I knew we had one more climb to go.  We rode together to just below the railway bridge and then The Herb just disappeared - I've often wondered how TdF cyclists lose 5 minutes in the last 3 or 4 miles of a mountain stage, but he seemed to be moving twice as far as I was for each pedal stroke - Chapeau, tall chap.

I managed to stay ahead of Wood, who declared himself "gone", and Rick, who as usual rode steadily up without any histrionics.

All that we had to do now was ride 6 miles downhill to Hawes and the car - well that's how I remember it - in fact, whilst generally downhill, this road is undulating and requires (for me in the state I was in) several bottom gear grinds to get to the next relieving downhill stretch.

We finally hit Hawes and a well deserved pint with 61.6m on the clock in 4:45 riding time, an average of just on 13mph.  Quite how we'll manage the same ride with another 50 miles tagged on in 4 weeks' time I don't know - but I'm sure a decent rest and a weekend in Mallorca will help!