Mini North-West Passage Audax Ride

It is still only February and I have cycled more miles this year than I can recall having done before. In January I completed an imperial century by riding 100 miles to the south of Manchester; today I completed a metric century with a 100km ride to the north of the same city. The ride today was based in Rochdale and headed north through a series of once great mill towns, such as Todmorden and Nelson. For me though it was more a case of dark satanic hills as we pushed on through torrential rain  for the first two hours. At times it became unpleasant as the roads resembled rivers. However after 50km or so the rain stopped and the sun even came out for a while; the scenery looking towards the Trough of Bowland is certainly memorable. It was not a day to stop so our first break did not come until three and a half hours of riding in a small but delightful Lancashire village called Waddington. Part of the ride took us into the West Riding of Yorkshire. The return to Rochdale was uneventful, although the temperature had dipped significantly by the time we reached the end. The West Pennine Cycling Club did a great organising the event; at the end we all received an enormous plate of pie and peas.

The total distance covered was 120km in a little over seven hours. The average speed of less than 20km per hour may not seem impressive, but we had countless delays as we cycled through the many towns and villages. All in all, a great experience in a fascinating part of the world.