The Mary Towneley Loop forms part of the 205-mile Pennine Bridleway, and passes within a stone’s throw of grit.cx’s office front door. We’ve all done our time on its lumpy, bumpy and in places cobbly trails, and now you can too thanks to a new cyclocross sportive: the Mary Towneley Loop Cyclocross, which takes place on Sunday, 9th August.
Event website
They say:
“Lady Towneley had a horse, however we’re challenging you to complete the loop on cyclocross bikes. A challenge indeed with the cobbles, setts, packhorse tracks and wild open moorland. Not for the faint-hearted, this is a challenging route; steep descents will test your skills and your bike’s.”
We say: pack your inner tubes – and we hope they’re doing it clockwise…
Entries open today (11th March) and are £25 in advance, £30 on the day.
It’s for a worthy cause too as a percentage of the entry fees are being donated to National Trails to buy sprung closures for the 50 or so gates on the route. No word from the organisers as to whether or not they’ll have someone opening those gates for riders on the day, though…
