A nice quiet Cut Gate ride on Saturday. I’ve not ridden the route for 2 years and it used to be a bi-annual regular for me when living in Sheff waiting for the ‘right’ conditions. Forgot how good it is.
I love the climb back from Langsett although my usual no dab challenge failed at the paved ford crossing 🙁 I also now have unfinished business as I decided not to take the switchback option when descending Cranberry Clough and go straight on down the ‘stepped’ section. I didn’t manage to clear to my liking (the stepped left/right or roll off the slab line choices near the bottom) so I hope to ride the route again in the next couple of weeks.
Quite strangely only really noticed the heat and sun at Langsett and on the climb back up. We were blessed with cloud cover and a cool breeze in the morning when climbing out from Fairholmes.
Sunday I rode my old local loop out of Sheff, through the parks, Houndkirk then taking in as many descent options of Blacka Moor as possible. With no breeze at all and temperatures soaring to 27 degrees the 36km/1250m ascent route felt like a Tenko death march. I found myself soaking my feet and helmet 😯 in the stream at the bottom of Lenny Hill in between climbs/descents.
Bloody marvellous though 🙂