Kirby Lonsdale to Reeth and Back

Centreville cycling trip in the Yorkshire Dales, report by Nick Holmes

The week before the trip Dave Grogan looked at my 30 year old road bike and asked “Is that the bike you’re riding next week?” I knew straight away  he was referring to my classic Campag Victory 42, 52 Chainset. I also new time was running out to obtain an inner ring that matched my athletic abilities. I consulted a 30 year old copy of Richard Ballatine’s book of the bicycle. Current set up, lowest gear 43.5. Ballatines recomendation, 34.6. CTC recommendation for heavily ladened tourists, 32.7. I contacted Gary Lake and he said, “Get a triple!” I asked Gary “Do you use the 30 Ring”, he said “yes”, things weren’t boding well. The middle aged Campag fan club had been on a spending spree and thus there were no chainrings  with less than 37 teeth, thus the the lowest gear this heavily ladened tourist had access to was 38.42. Based on Daves description of the route being “lumpy” I thought I should be OK.

To the ride. Rick Clough was the organiser and leading a group comprising, Jon Dance, Dave Grogan, Gary Lake, Ray Brown and myself. We set out from Kirby Lonsdale at 10am with our Carradice Longflaps fully loaded. The weather was great, sunny, warm…. and surprise, surprise, a tailwind. In Kirby Lonsdale I experienced a mechanical, a stiff link, thankfully I was able to sort this “quickly while the others caped up,” the sun didn’t last.

The route out to Appleby was great, nicely undulating with a tailwind, the views are beautiful, life doesn’t get much better than this. Despite economical quantities of baked beans, the cafe stop in Appleby was most agreeable. Just as we were about to leave the Cafe Dave cried “Sabotage!” He had a puncture, but moreover two of his fully matured inner tubes had also been violated. He was now riding on borrowed time without a spare he had to rely on the tactic of “Group Riding!” to avoid being stranded. We set off full of beans to Tan Hill and England’s Highest Pub at 1732ft above sea level.

The Group shot off up Tan Hill leaving me in no-man’s land plodding away on my 37×26, with Gary Pacing Ray up a minute or so behind. With around a third of the climb to go Gary and Ray caught me. We arrived at the pub at dusk,  Rick informing us there was only 11 miles of downhill to go. I still had a Mars Bar to call on if necessary so I was feeling good!

This was no 11 mile linear descent, it was a rolling descent with a sting in the tail, 1.00 Mile from Reef was the Cat 4 Rawbank Hill,  where we had all managed to re-group. Once again John, Rick, Gary and Dave kicked, while Ray and I kept plodding, but what happened next was a surprise: Dave Grogan blew! Ignoring Dave’s advice to “Never Look Back,” Ray and I kept looking back to see if Dave was OK but this was one occasion where my additonal weight was an advantage and as we entered Reeth there was still no Dave, could it be he had punctured and he was using the last of his energy reserves to stuff his tyre casing with old leaves?

TO BE CONTINUED