Saturday Club Run Midsummer Special to Langsett

That’s the one over the hill (or two or three) in the county of Yorkshire.

It was twenty wheelers plus one guest rider, Bob from a county darn sarth, who set off from Water’s Green, frustratingly  minus your correspondent who was busy having to do an unexpected tyre change at 10- o- clock ☹️.

Playing catch up solo was ok with a good push from the tailwind it was all quite painless. At Hope roughly half the riders had carried straight on but I found a few in the Courtyard Cafe and after a quick stop set off again with just Mick and Fozzy,  as well as the big first group, Richard and Boardy were up the road ahead of us and Becky, Simon and Mark were still eating in the Cafe.

Hope to Langsett could be described as the queen stage of the ride as it incorporates Mortimer Road and what's theoretically the toughest climb - Strines. It was tough enough 😤 but once again there was  noticeable and welcome help from the strong wind, the only trouble with that is you know it’s going to be pay back time later🥸 .

Ten minutes after topping out Strines we were at the Polka Dot Cafe to continue the relay of wheelers refueling there. It worked out well as the first group had already eaten so no que for us, then some very early starters on gravel bikes soon arrived and the latest starter of all on a road bike, Woody.

As anticipated it was a bit blowey climbing over Woodhead after the break, what wasn’t anticipated is it got even more blowey 🌬️🌬️🌬️ and very much the wrong and unhelpful way when we started to descend the other side. Despite that all groups got back between 5 and 6:30 PM ish, a good proportion to the King Head for rehydration and to compare notes. The general consensus was; climbing up hill Rushup Edge easy peasy, descending downhill Woodhead very very hard. 

In conclusion, last Saturday Yorkshire was easier to get into than out off.

https://youtu.be/VAq69iKSQHQ