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CCA TOUR de YORKSHIRE, 5-7th July 2013
Anyone up for the challenge of doing both the 'Yorkshire Le Tour stages 2014' back to back in June/July this year ?
It was very much a Parcel Yard idea amongst many but seems to be the thing I want to do most around that time of year.
Suggest back up vehicle to carry overnight gear from start to finish (my knee will thank me) but not necessarily on route.
If you haven't seen the route, well they're both gritty and hilly as you'd expect. But you will be rewarded with proper beer each evening.
Up for the challenge and the laugh?
So three days maybe a long weekend...
STAGE 1
Leeds to Harrogate: 190KM
STAGE 2
York to Sheffield: 200KM
link
It was very much a Parcel Yard idea amongst many but seems to be the thing I want to do most around that time of year.
Suggest back up vehicle to carry overnight gear from start to finish (my knee will thank me) but not necessarily on route.
If you haven't seen the route, well they're both gritty and hilly as you'd expect. But you will be rewarded with proper beer each evening.
Up for the challenge and the laugh?
So three days maybe a long weekend...
STAGE 1
Leeds to Harrogate: 190KM
STAGE 2
York to Sheffield: 200KM
link
Comments
Alistair
Can we detour to Wigtwizzle on the way to Sheffield? (Just because it is a great name)
Daniel
Tom
And the idea of getting the train there and back and using a postal system for our extra kit.
Makes good sense... unless we use the trailer and we have two drivers one for each day (one stage each ride the other). This we can talk about after nailing the date and numbers etc
Fri 5th July to Sun 7th....
Work for everyone?
Alistair
Stage 1 starts in Leeds and finishes in Harrogate. Stage 2 starts in York, goes through Harrogate and finishes in Sheffield. If we based ourselves in Harrogate and instead start stage 1 from here wed have our stuff for the next day. For stage 2 it would be little sacrifice to miss the York-Harrogate section as this is all on the A59. We would then have to solve getting our gear from Harrogate, but there are several solutions to this.
This is going to be a great trip!
Daniel
Two stages of the tour in glorious Yorkshire countryside.
Can't wait....
So travel on friday 5th July to Leeds. Do stages one and two on Saturday and Sunday - come back to Ashwel from Sheffield on the 7th. Then enjoy the Cambridge to London stage (with other CCA riders if they want to) on Monday 8th July. Just like the pros will exactly a year later - but not quite as fast! Few beers in the parcel yard.... bikes on the train after 7pm. Happy days.
But still I managed a happy face for a photo!
So - if you are a definite for this - please let us know.
This Tour is for open to every Club member who maybe wants to see the best of Yorkshire [no. 2 in Cycling Weekly's best places to ride a bike. No. 1 was somewhere nowhere in Scotland]. Or maybe just get some serious miles in and some fresh air. We'll be sticking together. And there's always the opportunity to short cut if need be. And - come next summer - you'll be able to watch the Pro teams on the telly and say - I remember that hillock.
The basics t.b.c.;
FRIDAY 5th July
Get to beautiful Kettlewell, the Ashwell of the Dales, and base for our Tour that's in direct line of fire for the official Stage 1 route. We'll have vehicle support for lugging bags for anyone getting the train [Stevenage-Skipton approx 3hrs. Skipton to Kettlewell, approx 15 easyish miles]. Or if numbers are high, we can think about a minibus/trailer?
There is also the option of riding the 'Prologue'. On Friday morning, I will be having a stiff espresso in the Manchester Velodrome cafe and then setting off to Kettlewell, via "Wiggins training ride territory" and a few of the Top 100 Hill Climbs in Lancashire, Bowland and the Dales. Approx 80 very steady miles maybe. Nothing too brutal. With vehicle support to carry bags etc. Note: MK to Manchester train, approx 1.5 hrs.
Kettlewell accommodation best price is £45 per night, inc breakfast, sharing a twin room.
SATURDAY 6th JULY
The best of Stage 1 TdF 2014. Likely, the Tour Du Dales route. One large loop, approx 100 miles, at laughing group inclusive pace, of course. Overnight in Kettlewell again.
SUNDAY 7th JULY
The best of Stage 2 TdF 2014. We'll cut out the big A roads and keep it glorious. Route tbc. I suspect around 80-90 miles - so all done by late afternoon and in time for people to get back in the evening. Trains Sheffield-Stevenage, approx 2hrs 15mins, unless there's a better way.
There will be a special CCA Tour t-shirt to buy, bien sur!
So - please let us know if you are up for this so we can book rooms ASAP and confirm logistics on travel. So far, definites;
Martin L - Prologue, Stage 1, Stage 2.
Robbie - ?
Daniel D - ?
Daniel D - Prologue, Stage 1, Stage 2.
please consider me for selection for this years squad at LE TOUR de YORKSHIRE.
Peter G - Prologue, Stage 1, Stage 2.
Please consider me for all stages.
Lance
Alistair
Just got to check whether I can get the time off work, but I'm up for this.
Do I have to bring a whippet and flat cap?
I'm going to make an initial room booking call on Wednesday.
I count a cracking group of six so far. I take it you'll want a single room Jane if you confirm?
WT - it'd be good if you can confirm by Wednesday.
Am sure there'll be rooms left for a while if anyone else wants to jump in at a later date. A reminder: this will be a tour where no one is left behind and all that - so any one who's ever done a club run is very capable and most welcome.
I had a vision last night watching Milan-San Remo highlights, as they got off in the snow and got on the buses, of a sheep's head with handlebars for its horns. I think that'll be the Tour logo. I might stick a flat cap on too.
To follow soon: the proposed Prologue route.
martin@ccashwell.com
I am in for all stages.
Thanks
Martin
We'll set off from Manchester Velodrome. Pap a GB teamster. At here or at the train station, the support car can take what you like and off we go.
The first maybe 10 miles are a bit commuter grubby and all about getting out to the edge of the West Pennines and to surprisingly nice Ramsbottom [Dickens is said to have been inspired by its high street when writing Christmas Carol] to climb The Rake. This climb is really the 'start' and an icon to tick off in cycling life; often the National Hill Climb hill, like last year.
At the top, a great final view south with Greater Manchester, the Pennines, the Peaks and over we go. There's soon a detour up one of the highest tarmac-ed roads in Gtr Manchester if we want to get a nice photo [cos it will be clear and sunny y'see]. And up over the West Pennines and down we go. There's a short bit of deprived Lancashire to negotiate and then we turn for cute Whalley - these days ram ajam ading dong full of MAMILS sipping coffee having dipped into Bowland nearby. Not for us just yet though: as we turn east up to lonely Sabden towards scary looking Pendle Hill and all its stories of witches. Here we'll 'do' Nick O' Pendle - another classic climb - made harder because it's straight and you can see the pain in front of you.
We then drop down sharply, maybe making a short detour to get a photo next to Pendleton village sign to bring a tear to Max's eye. Next up, into charming Bowland, the UK's largest AoNB that's not a National Park. We'll get ourselves to the edge of the Trough for a glorious view before plummeting down into the Inn of Whitewell - the pub from the best episode of The Trip - and for many people in the area the best pub around - for a halfway stop-off/support car rendezvous.
Then we'll snuffle through the Trough and claw our way out to see the Dales in front of us. We'll enter through Malhamdale and climb past the Cove and surrounding bizarre limestone flats, the location from a thousand rubbish low budget sci-fi films.
We are then just dropping down for Kettlewell, going near the area Emmerdale Farm used in its bizarrely melancholic opening titles in the 70s. Approx 88 miles, though totally editable if conditions against us.
If we're up for it, we could enjoy a final hurrah climbing nearby Park Rash a mile on from Kettlewell. I've never cycled up this, but I've driven down it and found it like a scene from Air Crash Investigations as I struggled with the wheel in a near vertical dive, screams, terror, explosive decompression, bits of paper flying everywhere, air hostesses tumbling around, children hugging teddy bears, my face squashed against the windscreen. This one is steep.
Either way. It's soon recovery time, carb loading, twittering all our fans, doing a team harlem shake and talking tactics for the next day's Stage 1.
Route link here.
Looking forward to it all.