Speaking of food, I’d only eaten 2 apples and a bottle of Fanta all day. I think the relaxed pace was only demanding fat for fuel, however I was noticing I was slower uphill which meant I needed carbs even if I didn’t feel that hungry. We stopped at Kirkburton around 90 miles in, our first proper stop of the day. We found a kebab shop and ordered peri peri chicken wraps, I then remembered I’m a vegan, so I settled for chips with copious amounts of salt and vinegar. By now the distance and time remaining was forefront in my mind. We had 60 miles to do in 13 hours, meaning an average of 4.6mph or faster. It sounded almost easy. Could we come in several hours early? Or were we massively underestimating the last leg? I’d heard rumours that the bit past Marsden over towards Todmorden was hard, but still – 4.6mph? Surely we would breeze it.
We set off confident, with warm food in our bellies, soon passing the campsite in Shepley. Most of the riders seemed to be stopping over, so they’d soon be enjoying rest, food and beers – if not a hot shower. They had another enjoyable day’s riding ahead, but what was in store for us this evening?
As we neared Holmfirth we were massively slowing. The hills were brutal and so was much of the terrain. Some of it was like a 1 in 4 (downhill) river bed completely full of rocks. You’d need a full sus MTB to ride it at anything over walking pace (we walked much of it). We kept yo-yoing with a group of 3, they were quicker over the rough stuff but one had cramp and kept stopping on hills, where we passed them. They were hanging on for Holmbridge where they were getting, wait for it…. a meal, a change of clothes and…. a change of bikes! They were planning to do 24hrs, I said in that case your luxury stop better not be too long!
We left the rolling tarmac and rejoined the gnarly bridleways on up towards Greenfield Road. It was my first time properly riding at night, and I was loving it. Good moonlight, no cars, not too cold. After what seemed like an eon crossing Wessenden Moor we rolled into Marsden just before 11pm. We now started taking longer at stops, given we had 8 hours in which to do 35 miles.
Immediately out of Marsden we were doing ‘hike and bike’ which means pushing/carrying your bike on unrideable terrain. This was all uphill across large concrete steps, our average pace on this section about 1.5mph. It was just endless, like going hill-walking with a bike, and just a little bit demoralizing. We passed a grumpy MTBer with a jolly hello, and his response was “this is completely ridiculous”. He wasn’t wrong, but we still believed we’d have plenty of time if we just kept moving, so we moved ahead until we could no longer see his light behind us. Nevertheless, I myself started to get a bit negative about the route. Wondering out loud why they said gravel bikes would be ok. This was just my frustration showing, if we got in on time all would be dandy. However I was starting to get fed up of the endless sections of difficult riding, and wishing I had a MTB. They say a good workman never blames his tools, but did the workman ever try riding over Marsden Moor on a gravel bike?
Glad to reach New Hey Road at Buckstones, we crossed more slow and steep terrain until we crossed the M62 with 28 miles to go. We were nearly home! We crossed over the moor through Lydgate and onto Halifax Road (below Blackstone Edge). The time was now nearing 2am, and our pace had slowed dramatically leaving us a bit over 5 hours to do 25 miles. As I checked the route over towards Cornholme, 5mph was now looking incredibly fast, and for the first time I felt doubt creeping in.
To be continued…
