It was a case of the sublime and the ridiculous today. Firstly, the weather was sublime. 25 degrees, sunny, little wind. When you get this weather in the Yorkshire Dales, it’s hard to beat it. With the National 100, five days away, I wanted to do a good five hour ride. I decided to do part of the first tour de France stage for 2014 – Ilkley, Grassington, Kidstone Pass, Hawes. I did think about riding on the A roads to Skipton, but thought better of it. The minor roads through Bolton Abbey and Burnsall are much more cycle friendly for the majority of cyclists who can’t expect closed roads, every time they get on a bike. It’s a great cyclist road, there’s no joy going on the A road to Skipton.
At Buckden, the tour will take in the first climb of the 2014 tour – Kidstone pass.
Compared to the Mont Ventoux’s and Alpe d’Huez the tour will tackle in later stages, Kidstone pass barely registers as a blip on the altimeter. But, whatever your fitness, it’s still a good test of your fitness. It climbs about 150 metres from Buckden to the top of Kidstone Pass where there are simply wonderful views in all directions.
It’s a shame the Tour can’t stop for a cup of Yorkshire tea to admire the scenary. That’s one good thing about being an amateur, you can stop if you want to. There is then a nice fast, non technical descent to Asygarth before turning left along Swaledale towards Hawes. At this point in the ride, it was turning out to be one of those great rides, everything clicking into place. I was tanking along on my time trial bike and looking to set a good speed to Hawes. I was in confident mood, and a vague sign about some resurfacing barely registered.
I should have known better, because the next 5 miles were torture. North York council in there great wisdom were plonking a ton of gravel and tar onto the road, and it was spilling all other the place. Before I could turn round and do a u-turn, my time trial frame was severely scratched by stones getting stuck between tyre and frame. I resorted to walking with bike, but the damage was done. Even after the so called road works finished, there was literally miles of loose stones and gravel dotted around the road. I half mentioned something to a workman, but he appeared to fully prepared for complaints, and rather briskly said, you’ll have to take it out on North York Council. It was a fair point, but I can’t see North Yorkshire council offering to repaint a time trial frame. Finally, after the third cleaning of the wheel (to get rid of stones and tar) I was free to get back to riding. At Gayle I turned left (just before Hawes) and headed up to one of my favourite climbs – Fleet Moss from the north side. It’s a shame the Tour couldn’t take in a real Yorkshire classic climb. It may only be a cat 2, but it would set up a thrilling stage (unless you prefer a Cavendish sprint banker stage)
On a time trial bike, Fleet Moss is no joke. After a long climb, it gets up to 20% and it was a case of making a huge effort on an overgeared 39*25.
Any climb has its compensation and the descent down Fleet Moss is great, especially the long gradual valley descent towards Buckden. However, it was in Buckden that the gravel experience probably came back to haunt me. Rear wheel puncture. I’m not sure if it was directly related to gravel, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I couldn’t find the source of the puncture which is always a worry. I prefer a nice big thorn any time. The worst punctures are when you don’t know where they come from.
Alas, it was on stopping that I realised my mini-pump was not in my small saddle bag. It had been transferred to another bag for a race, and (as it is easy to do) I’d forgot to put back in. A classic school boy error, easy to do, but a real pain. Fortunately, if you’re going to have a puncture without pump. Buckden on a nice summers day is just about as good a place as any. I took advantage of local shop to buy some water and ice cream. The cold water was incredibly good – making me aware I was more dehydrated than I thought. I went back for more. I never knew cold water could be so enjoyable.
I got a new inner tube in and waited for a passing cyclist to ask to borrow pump. Quite soon a tourist obliged. Alas, I later noticed the inner tube squeezing out of the side, I had to deflate the tyre and sought out the inner tube. Fortunately, another three cyclists were passing and stopped and I could reflate for second time.
After 45 minutes cycling the thought popped into my head ‘you’re always most vulnerable to get a puncture when you’ve just had one’ Alas, my thought soon came true. And near Grassington I was again stranded in a small village. This time the tyre was incredibly difficult to put on. (I had a Shimano Ultegra tubeless tyre wheel and 25″ gatorksin) It took 25 minutes, and I was close to giving up before finally squeezing it on. Cyclists, here were a bit more infrequent, so I knocked on a door which was already open. It was answered by an 85 year old lady, who told me with great confidence, ‘you should always carry a pump when you’re cycling. I always carried a pump when I used to cycle for 12 years back in the 1950s.’ She had a good point, but unfortunately, she didn’t have a pump any-more. As interesting as it was to be given a lecture by an 86 year old former cyclist, it wasn’t really helping me to get home. My patience was still there, but slightly stretched after already losing an hour. I thanked the lady for her kind words and promised to listen to her advice.
It was at this point that I had a real stroke of luck. Two passing cyclists saw my plight and stopped (David and Jo). They didn’t just lend me a pump, but seemed to see my problem as their problem. For some reason, my wheel was really misbehaving. When I blew up the tyre with their pump, the inner tube was popping out all over the place. I tried to put back in. But, tired by 90 miles and 1 hour of puncture repair, and two blisters on my thumb, I wasn’t making much headway. They obviously took pity on my plight, took the wheel off me, let out all air and started from scratch. Their job was a good one, and with suitable sense of gratitude was able to make the last 20 miles home. I narrowly avoided having to ring the taxi of Mum and Dad.
It was a good day all told. I was touched that 6 cyclists all stopped to help another cyclist caught short. I’ll remember my pump next time. But, it was a good experience all told.
The only thing is I assume when the Tour de France goes hurtling down Swaledale in 2014. they won’t be contending with flying stones and tar. Those loose chippings are a real pain. If you see them do a u-turn whatever the cost!
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Hey Tejvan,
Just today in work I was chatting to some colleagues and said that I’d love to try some of the Yorkshire bits of the 2014 Tour start, but was aware that a lot of it would be on unappealing A-roads. Being a southerner I don’t know any of these areas at all, but was hoping to get to the area sometime this year or early next year for a few days to do some riding.
You don’t happen to have this route saved as a GPX do you?
As for cyclists stopping to help, it’s one of the things that I enjoy about cycling. If I see someone stopped I will always ask if they have everything they need…. funnily enough I find my chain tool most often comes in handy as not many people carry one!
Hi Rob. I’m afraid I don’t have it saved as GPX, but it’s relatively straight forward from Ilkley, might try make a map.
Yes. Always carry a chain tool!
Thanks for the reply Tejvan – I’ll try and join up the villages you mention using quiet roads… at the very least you mentioning the villages/roads that are worth visiting is a great start when you have zero knowledge of the area.