Thursday 28 January 2010

Rochdale Road Route


With the cancellation of Chieveley, Rochdale is the first event of 2010 for us. So this morning, Myself, Mike and Keith dusted off the road bikes and our legs headed off into the hills. Now, coming from down south where it's been mild for the last two weeks, it was a bit of a suprise to see patches of snow still lying on the tops. The first time you encounter this is at the top of the first climb through Cragg Vale which starts by the "Cragg Vale longest consistent gradient in England" sign.


It's not as bad as it sounds, I used small ring for about a mile and big for the rest and I'm sure the fitter among you will just go up in big. At the top of the climb in the patchy snow will be the drink sation and split, with the Medium and Long going off to do a further loop and two more climbs before returning. From this point the Short and Medium loops descend down into Rochdale on a fast, eyewatering stretch or tarmac. Actually today it was more "eye freezing"! The Long loop, however, descends Cragg Vale which means going down the "longest consistent etc" for 5 miles :-)

Generally, the roads are in good condition but look out for the occasional hole, the weather is looking ok , Jon will be there handing out free Gore windstoppers to use for the day (and he's baking cake tonight - yum)

Cheers
Dean



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to the Beeb the weather looks good, but chilly.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/4278

Anonymous said...

Is the event still on given the snow fall? I'm in Manchester and it's not thick but I can imagine it could be at higher level