A Sunday ride with a Harrowgay

That's Harrowgay in the singular...  Wood is apparently lurved up and about to move to That London, and the Gym Bunny had a callout at work, so it was just me and Angry today.  We'd decided to do the short route of the White Rose Challenge, which is basically a very lumpy way up to Grassington, then back down the valley with Langbar as the sting in the tail.

We set off up Norwood Edge, with my gears playing silly buggers from the start, which didn't augur well for the horrid steep stuff around Thruscross, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good my legs felt considering how little cycling I've done, and how alarmingly large my belly has become.

Fewston looking a bit empty...

A blast down past Fewston reservoir suggested we might not be too far away from a hosepipe ban over here (as they've just brought in in Cumbria of all places), then we had the only unpleasant bit of the ride (in traffic terms) as we did a mile or so down the A59.  Up towards West End and there are a couple of vicious little climbs that had my gears jumping about all over the place and led to a stop for uninformed twiddling of screws and adjusters that have no effect but make you feel manly and useful.

 Tough going towards Grassington

On up to Greenhow, which we reached in what felt like reasonably quick time, but we then had 7 miles into the teeth of the wind.  Tim struggled a wee bit in places along here, but in the main our paces were pretty well matched.  A quick pie stop in Grassington (which we reached slightly quicker than we did on the White Rose last year - although I had stopped for a puncture that day!) then it was a turn for home, which we expected to be a wind-assisted whizz down the valley.  In the end there were sections where it felt like the wind was in our faces, but Langbar was definitely easier with a tailwind.

We arrived back in Otley after 3 1/2 hours of riding, with a fairly respectable average speed of just under 14mph, which considering there was a bit of hanging about on the windy bits is ok.  Really enjoyable little trip, showing we must get back into the habit of regular rides with the lads.