Day 8

Saturday, June 17
Clitheroe to Kirkby Stephen
90km

Best day of the trip so far.  Definitely one of the best days of cycling for me ever. Absolutely beautiful scenery and lovely weather.  Lots od tough climbing as well, including the toughest climb of the entire trip.

This was the shortest day of the trip, but it had almost as much climbing as our tough day through Devon.  Today was definitely a contender for toughest day of the trip.

It was full of steep, long climbs from start to finish.  From the campsite we took some small, twisty lanes to the picturesque town of Waddington, where we ate dinner last night.  There was tall grass on either side of the road, which made it feel like we were riding through fields.  Waddinton had old stone buildings and a small creek running through the middle of it.

First climb of the day was about 5km long, including 1.5km of steep uphill into the moors.  There were great views of rocky valleys and lots of piled stone walls that stretched into the distance.  They must have taken years to build...and most of them had nothing in them but tall field grass, little rocks and, ocasionally, a sheep or goat.

We had a lovely sweeping downhill from the moors, which was only interupted by my constant urge to stop and take photographs.

The second climb of the day was 3km of steady uphill across open fields on the side of a hill. You could see the road stretch out in front of you for miles, with the colorful dots of cyclists travelling along it into the distance.  The decent was even quicker than thwe first.  Sections of the road just fell away in front of you, as the terrain headed straigjh down.  Since we were so high up, and decending into a lush green valley, it really gave an amazing sensation of freefalling.  We were warned in advance that the sheep occasionally wander onto the road (which they did) and that thwere were closed gates halfway down the climb (which there were) so I ended up using the brakes a lot more than I would like.  Even so, my speed was in the low 70s.

Next, we stopped at a lovely bakery in High Bentham where I had a delicious brownie and Roe had a doughnut.

The third climb of the day was 3km long, including about 500m of steep incline to start it off.  Again there were sheep and gates to contend with on the decent down into Dent.

We had a big lunch at another small bakery.  We even let some of the other riders carry on before us while I took 5 minutes to digest before heading out for the toughest climb of this trip.  It was 1.6km of very steep switchbacks followed by 3.5km of less steep climbing.  It was the first mile that was really tough.  I was in my easiest gear and standing for at least half of it and it felt like it was 100 degrees out, even though the sun had gone behind some clouds as we started climbing.  At the top of the climb were more windy moors and views of two different valleys.  The decent was another thriler.  I hit 72 km/h on twisty, lumpy roads.  Great fun.

Overall, the scenery on this trip has been less spectacuar than France, but today was definitely an exception.  The landscape we rode through today was as magnificant as anything I've ever seen.

We did some laundry in the camp today.  Dinner at a pub next to the pub: steak & ale pie with chips and veggies.

Roe's comments:

I am now sitting in the pub waiting for dinner.  Dan ordered steak & ale pie and I ordered the fish and chips.  The portion sizes are much smaller here in england..  It is healthy, but after youi finish a hard day of cycling you need more.       

Today we rode along the Yorkshire Moors.  It was really beautiful.  The hills were tough.  My old Norco bike has three chainrings at the front, which gives easier gears.  However, my new Litespeed only has two chainrings.  That means that 've got to use harder gears on the hills.

I got sunburn on my shoulders today.  The sun was intense.  Looking forward to a good night sleep.  Dan had too many deserts at lunch and almost puked.  We're halfway done the trip and going into Scotland tomorrow.