This is snow joke. Fed up, yep. Both me and Ric have struggled a little with training due to the weather and I'm just gald I bought the Turbo Trainer as there would be no chance I could complete the mega ride from the bottom of the country to the top.
Good Friday, Ric picked me up to try to climb the toughest 2 hills in the country ( alledgedly ). 6:30am and -4 degrees. Cold but the good thing was, by the time we got to Newby Bridge the roads where still quiet. Not often the roads around Cumbria are quiet, especially on a Bank Holiday!!
And so we set off. 12miles in and we would be attempting Wrynose Pass and HardKnott Pass. These 2 killer hills are on a 10 mile stretch of road that once on, you can't really turn off. The bends are that tight that cars struggle in 1st gear to get up them! Oh, heck!
Having had to spend a penny and multi-tasking I took this shot of some hills further up. Looks nice!
Then we came across a sign that had us concerned. I thought I'd routed us over the easy way up the 2 climbs. If this was the easy way up, god help us!
Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse and once we got above 500feet the road was impassible. With another 800feet to climb we opted for the safer option of re-routing our ride to stay away from the slippy tricky roads.
Turning down a road that had a Ford signpost on it soon became a bit of an adventure as the we were cycling on a rough track - should have been on a Mountain Bike not skinny 23mm road tyres! Luckily there was a bridge to walk over ( albeit slippy ). On the other side I couldn't clean my cleats as the compacted snow had frozen and I couldn't lock them in my pedals. It took ages to sort. More off roading through Atkinson Coppice ( I think ) and then back onto the more normal roads.
It was then a brisk pace past Coniston to loop round back to Newby Bridge as we had to be back at lunch.
A shorter route than we had planned but a word of warning to anyone not familiar to the area. The A590 stretch is mega quick for cars. Stay off it if you can. Or push those pedals hard like you're doing a Time Trial !!
We have both spent the weekend riding as well in preperation for the long ride soon approaching. Short rides but still taking the approach its time in the saddle on consecutive days that we think will be our downfall.
Sore backsides no doubt! Good job we've got tubs of Udderly Smooth to help!
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