For the energetic 100 climbs rider there is always the option to combine Buttertubs Pass and Fleet Moss into one ride as they are so close together. In fact the climbs I rode on the 21st June are all very close together so it would be very easy to plan an epic day out on the bike bagging climbs.
Hawes was busy getting
busy for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France which was due to take
place on the first weekend in July and the place was full of
colourful banners, bunting and seemingly every conceivable variation
on using the bicycle as street art. It was great to see.
The climb up Fleet
Moss, as with so many I ride, started with a descent. The top part of
Fleet Moss is a almost dead straight 20% ramp. Riding down it from
where I had parked the car was as thrilling as it was dicey; the road
surface is a bit rough in places and even my ever capable Uncle John
was getting bounced all over the road. Not sure how fast I was going
as I no longer ride with a bike computer; the speed I do uphill is so
slow its depressing to see it displayed and when going downhill I
reckon if you have time to look at a little screen on the handlebars
you clearly aren't going fast enough.
You have the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere at the top of Fleet Moss
Once at the bottom of
the climb the first section on the way back up was a 17% gradient
ramp up from the valley bottom. It is only a short uphill section and
once you reach the top of it you are greeted by a nice rolling bit of
road that tracks the edge of the valley. The day was starting to warm
up nicely and it was a really pleasant bit of road to cycle along.
This easy section goes on for about a mile but before long you are
greeted by the site of the 20% section of road stretching out ahead
of you over the landscape. Got to hand it to the road builders of
Yorkshire, they don't bother with pansy hairpin bends; they just
build their roads straight up and over anything that gets in their
way!
At this point in the
climb I stopped briefly to activate Ass Cam TM before
tackling the really steep stuff. At this point I was passed by a
couple of cycle tourists enthusiastically trying to spin their
pannier laden bikes up. As the gradient got steeper they started to
get slower and then eventually decided that pushing their heavy bikes
was the only way to get up the climb. This presented me with a
problem. As regular readers of this blog will know I'm pretty damn
slow on the really steep stuff and once I hit bottom gear things get
even slower. There was no way in hell I was going to risk getting
passed by a couple of cycle tourists once I had passed them ( I
really do ride that slowly) so I had no choice but to keep the bike
in a higher gear than usual and keep on cranking the pedals round. It
wasn't pleasant and sent my ever fragile right knee into a painful
spasm but there was a point of pride to defend. I did manage to keep
a decent gap over the tourists behind me but I got slower and slower
as I ground out the pedal revs. The slackening of the gradient at the
top of the 20% section was very welcome and I found the rest of the
climb pretty straight forward from that point on. The top of the
climb feels very bleak in comparison to the lower slopes but the two
final bends aren't anything too taxing and I had a fairly easy ride
back to the car.
Pretty much every stretch of road in Yorkshire seemed to have cyclists on it, a lot of them tacking the hills with a full touring set up complete with panniers.
I had to chuckle once I
got back to the car and started putting the bike away; the two people
on tourers crested the top of the hill and said 'well done' to me.
They're the ones who hauled panniers up the climb and yet they were
telling me well done. I of course told them well done and said I
hoped that they had a decent days riding ahead. My next challenge was
the climb up Oxnop Scar and my right knee clearly hadn't appreciated
my efforts to push a bigger gear up Fleet Moss so I would have to
take it easy.
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