Greenhow Hill

This climb really didn’t go to plan. The idea was to ride Park Rash and then take on Greenhow Hill all before lunch. Unfortunately I took a bit longer riding Park Rash than planned and then, when trying to drive to Pately Bridge I found that the most direct route was closed for road works. That meant a fairly sizeable detour on an already very hot day. I took the decision to break for lunch before reaching Pately Bridge. Having lunch meant I got to the start of the climb fuelled up but the heat had been rising over lunch time and into the early afternoon and in a car without aircon I started my descent feeling very warm. Hot weather had always been my Achilles heel and as soon as I started pedaling back up it was clear I was going to suffer.
 

 

 

 

Greenhow Hill goes up in a series of steps, each one with a gradient slightly less than the one before. I managed to blow a gasket on the first steepest section and never really got on top of the climb. It was only when I reached the upper slopes where the road was more open did I get a chance to cool off a bit but by then the damage was done and I was locked into full on grovel mode. The very top part of the climb has only a very shallow gradient and I did manage to knock the bike up a couple of gears but it was by no means a stunning ride by me.

An old kiln just below the top of Greenhow Hill. I was took knackered to explore the rest of the old industrial site.

 

The drive back to the holiday cottage in Bradley was done with all of the car windows open as fast as I could in order to get some cooler air blowing through the car. I wasn’t worried about just myself; the dog had been having a hard time all day in the heat and really didn’t seem too happy at all.

With an equally hot day forecast for the final day of my trip to Yorkshire and with fatigue potentially becoming an issue I was going to have to give my plans for the following day some careful consideration.