..of embarrassment at having my legs ripped off by 70yr olds?
60 miles & 7700ft+ of climbing around Calderdale, riding the 17 miles to the start as well.
I can & do ride that distance but as my first organised road event i predict I’m going to suffer!
Top tube bag ready stuffed with jelly babies for rolling refuelling 🙂

A mate of mine, who has never ridden more than 105 miles in one go, and not done anything longer than 90miles this year, is signed up to the full 180miles and 12,500ft of Liege Bastogne Liege in two weeks time.

You’ll be fine. I suspect he will not!

7700ft of climb in 60 miles is a lot mind…have you made a will?

Good luck. Let us know how you get on (if you can find the energy to type, after)

Just remember to smile cheerily as the guy on a trike overtakes you 😉

Its the amount of climbing that worries me – did 7000ft over 59 miles the other week & it nearly killed me!
Eating everything in sight now..

Remember it is not a race, enjoy the range of people and bikes you will see along the way and eat proper food at the cafe stops.

The comment about being overtaken by the old guy on a trike is painfully familiar though – climb to Elton on Roaches Revenge a couple of years ago. And the guy on the trike had turned back after the first mile with a mechanical and then still caught us before halfway.

Should have been on the 150k ride from Tamworth today but MrsMC has had an operation on her broken finger.

Well that were fun! 😀
The route was actually 73 miles & with the ride there & back ive clocked up some 104 miles & 9100+ft of climbing.
Really well thought out route & the amount of food available at the end was staggering – proper feed the 5000 stuff. I think I’m going to join Audax UK tonight.
I’m shattered but I’ve had a great day out.

I felt obliged to join AUK after my first event. Still not clear how you get such enthusiastic organisation, good routes and free food at the end of a ride from a £5 entry fee, but I wanted to support the whole thing.

And were you overtaken by an old guy on a trike? Or by a couple on a tandem with a fresh pheasant strapped to the rear rack?

Seemed a bit blowy going up Cragg, and I was in a car 🙂

Well done Si!

proper feed the 5000 stuff.

An unfeasibly small amount of bread and fish?

Saw the guy on the trike as we passed him on the first climb up to Peckett Well, but didn’t see him again. Saw a couple of couples on tandems but no pheasants unfortunately!
The amount of cakes, sandwiches, hot food & drinks & cold drinks on offer was amazing – especially given the paltry entry fee.

The wind was horrible on the return leg, the final climb up out of Oxenhope over to Peckett Well was brutal, the wind definitely picked up later in the day. Even though it was the final descent i couldn’t wait to get off the hill as my front wheel was wandering all over the place!

Well done fella. We rode it today as our Sunday club ride (Hudds Star Wheelers) too. I clocked 108 miles door-to-door in 6.53. It was a day of purgatory chasing the fast lads up hill and down dale. Luckily (for me) the club skipper blew badly at Oxenhope so I was on chaperone duties to get him back over Pecketts Well into Hebden. Like you said, what a fantastic spread at the end. A top day in the saddle, but my legs are shot to shit now. In hindsight, perhaps 3 hours on the MTB yesterday wasn’t the best preparation…

Ouch! Stayed off the bike yesterday, i’ve clocked up 186 miles in the last 7 days so i needed a break. Some seriously fast club riders & the old guys on old touring bikes were deceptively strong, just plodding on at the same pace regardless of the incline.
You were pretty fast then, i did mine in 7:48, the plod back along the valley towards Rochdale was pretty slow.

It looked fun & a great route. I may have passed (or been passed) by you then as I was just on a ride that way and saw loads on the run (I was riding a Black & Orange Trek Domane, wearing yellow helmet). I passed a guy on a Bromptom upto Oxenhope and the guy on the trike twice – second time on one of the *ard climbs after Stanbury he was working amazingly hard standing on the pedals just to keep it moving – felt like giving him a clap but needed my hands at the time. I turned left at Laneshaw Bridge and headed back over Widdop and Cragg and that was plenty in that wind. Well done, I’ve saved the gpx file of that route and plan to give it a go myself.

Its worth it, definitely aim to do it again in the summer – minus that sodding wind! The cafe at Bolton Abbey does great cakes & coffee as well.

just looked at the route like the idea of past Widdop and Bolton Abbey

– the 600km 2 coast / doss on the floor overnight event looks well ‘ard

Blimey 108miles? Nutters

I’m hooked, going through the distances, more to see how things work. Did my first 300km last weekend and a 200km the week before so I’ve just booked a 400km for May amd a 600km in July that starts in my town.

I’m very very tempted to hang up my racing wheels to do more.

London – Edinburgh – London in 2017 anyone?