Monday 21st July, Settle to Leeds

43 miles

Today was a special stage cycling form Settle to Leeds via Airton, Burnsall, Bolton Abbey and Otley Chevin.  We got a civic send off in Settle which was fantastic. I grew up there and still feel that it’s my home town.

As a special treat I decided that we would take the difficult road out of town, up If Hill, which rises 500ft almost vertically. No-one had, had a chance to warm up and within two minutes 50 per cent of people were walking. I’m pleased to say that none of the walkers were anyone who had been cycling all the way.

The weather was glorious and the Dales countryside was as beautiful as anything we had seen so far. We enjoyed lunch at Bolton Abbey and at Otley stoppedn for an ice-cream before heading off up the Chevin, which again tested some riders. It was a stonking day and memorable for all the right reasons. Jane was omnipresent for Rebecca and I throughout the day.

The public part of the day ended at Leeds Met riding under a finishing banner. Sadly we are actually only half way. The fours of us, Mick Graeme, Rebecca and I, then had to cycle through Leeds in the rush hour traffic which was grid-locked because of an accident by the Merrion Centre.

As a special treat for the motorists I managed an undignified fall from the bike when my foot got caught in the pedal. It was one of those moments when you know you are going to fall and there is nothing you can do about it. At least it cheered up some passing drivers.

Mike.

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This entry was posted by Mike Tomlinson on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 9:52 am and is tagged with Jane's Appeal and is posted in the category Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.