As we´d planned James got to my place
and the coffee was ready. A big dose of caffeine was going to be needed on this
day.
Today, it was cycling, we had arranged
this ride a few weeks before, and as expected it did not disappoint.
After having sorted a few things
out we were off. It was approximately 9:15am and the weather wasn´t too bad, it
was quite cloudy, although the temperature was fairly mild for the beginning of
November.
We started cycling quite fast as
you would expect, and in less than half an hour, we got to Otley. By this time,
the rain had arrived and we were pretty wet, not a good start I would
say. Fortunately, the rain stopped and the route became stepper and stepper
which helped dry the clothes out quite fast. We kept cycling at good pace,
enjoying the turns and the down hills on the Askwith Moor Road towards Pateley
Bridge. The views were absolutely stunning, we were in the middle of the country
side, approaching the Yorkshire dales, and it hadn’t rained since we left Otley,
what else could we have asked for??
The road was starting to have more
ups and downs as we were getting closer to the Yorkshire Dales. Suddenly we got
to a crossing with the wanted sign post, “Grassington 10”. After, an extra 10
miles of up and downs we approached the lovely village of Grassington in the
heart of the British Yorkshire dales. Our next stop was Burnsall, just a few
miles from Grassington and with the nicest tea room I have ever been to. The
delicious soup of the day and home-made cakes were waiting for us along side the
very friendly ladies that run this tea room.
After having had a fabulous brunch,
and hearing some interesting stories from the ladies we were off on the bikes
again. On our way back to Leeds and just 15 minutes after having left Burnsall
we cycled past the ancient and iconic Bolton Abby.
The head wind had now arrived and cycling
back to Leeds was starting to become a hard task. The long up hills on the A59
were not helping either, and the legs did not know what was happening to them (especially
mine). James was cycling like there were no up hills or head wind. This moment
is when I began to think about my Iroman and realised that throughout my race I
will be having a lot of moments like this one. My legs were trying to give up,
but obviously my brain was sending messages to them saying- What the hell are
you doing? We´ve got to keep going and you are not going to give up! Fortunately,
after a few more ups and downs we were off the main road and onto a nice quite
and FLAT road. Although, my legs were tired they seemed to accept the fact that
we still had at least 20-25 kilometres to go and that they had to keep moving.
Soon, we got to Pool in Warfedale
and 15minutes after to Harewood house. Here we hit the last hills, which left
us in a bad state, where I had to stop and stretch my legs off a bit to avoid
cramps and James was feeling sleepy as his levels of sugar were touching the ground.
We had done more than 70 miles so far and our bodies were struggling. Resting for a bit did us good and after a 5
minute break we were on the road again and less than 4 miles from home “sweet
home”.
After, 76.8 miles (122km) 5,861ft
(1.722m) of elevation and 5 hours and 5 minutes riding, we finally got home.
For anybody based in the Leeds area and
wanting to do a great ride on the bike, I would highly recommend this route.
For those that want to spend half a day driving a car or riding a bike on
country side roads and having a lovely lunch in a great tea room I would also recommend
this route J
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