Day Trip to Lancashire



It seems a bit daft really; to be based in Yorkshire for a weeks cycling and to end up spending a day in Lancashire but there was method in my madness. The Jubilee Tower, Trough of Bowland and Cross of Greet climbs are all very close to each other and so it made sense to drive for an hour or so from Bradley where I was staying, start off with the Jubilee Tower climb and work my way backwards.

Jubilee Tower

The weather was perfect and near the tower of Jubilee Tower fame there was a handy car park so I parked up, set up the bike and largely free wheeled my way down to the start of the climb. The weather was amazing and the views were equally spectacular on the way down and it was nice to be hurtling down a decently surfaced road in good weather. It was even nicer to get to the bottom and not find myself wet through or frozen to the bike.

The view from the top was crystal clear in the fantastic weather

The Jubilee Tower climb is by no means one of the hardest of the hundred climbs but it does have a pretty long steep section that tops out at 14% near the start. My high speed descent had been great fun but on the lower slopes it was a struggle to get my legs turning over a decent sized gear. In short I started slow and it was only until I got to the mid point of the climb that I was able to start moving up through the gears although I never reached a particularly high speed. In fact I was passed by a chap in his sixties in full club gear and despite my best efforts to shift up a few gears and up my pace he was soon a disappearing spec on the horizon. Oh well, I did have two other climbs to tackle and it is important to pace yourself. That’s my story anyway.

 

 

 

The upper part of the climb has a fairly gentle gradient so spinning my way back up to the car park wasn’t too troublesome and I took a bit of time to take in the view and look at the Jubilee Tower itself. It was apparently constructed to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria but I’ve got to be honest and state that it is a fairly unremarkable building. It is square, squat and looks like it should have a public toilet housed within it. Mind you the views from the top are pretty good.

Surely even Queen Victoria expected something a bit more impressive to mark her diamond jubilee

After packing the bike away it was time to travel back down the road to the Trough of Bowland climb which I had been able to scope out on my way through earlier in the morning.