We got up earlier today as we knew we had probably our toughest day in front of us, and were away before 9am. I had mapped this ride online and expected it to be horrible dual carriageways for the first 15 miles. In fact the A roads weren't too bad and we made good progress and soon got onto more rural roads.
Soon the scenery became excellent and whilst the wind was north easterly yet again, it was fairly light. In seemingly no time we had done 30 miles and as we passed a great looking pub, we pulled over. The pic shows the view from the pub patio (Spread Eagle at Mellor) where we had lunch. As we sat there, I saw a cyclist on the main road and yes, it was Darlington Dave. I shouted, but he didn't hear me and carried on his way.
The ride was now following the Lancs Cycleway (Routes 90 and 91) and it was great. Then after about 40 miles we started climbing. This carried on for a while and after we'd climbed 700 feet I realised this must be the first big climb we knew we had. As I got to about 1,000 feet of climbing, the hill ramped to 15% and then ended. Ian arrived shortly after and we stopped and chatted to a couple of workmen who were sat at the top, clearing the area.
The bike kept accelerating and I hit my fastest ever recorded speed of 46.8mph. This was with little pedalling and a bit of chicken braking going on. It was a really exhilarating descent - one of quite a few we had today.
At the bottom of the hill, I saw a patch of vivid red poppies. This really made me think of Wendy who loves them, so I had to stop (again) and take a pic.
It had been beautiful all day and right then the sun was very hot - sweat streamed off me as I worked my way up the hill but believe it or not, I was loving it. I stopped at the top and chatted to a hill walker and a cyclist from Preston who stopped. The picture shows the descent which followed as my shot of the hill doesn't capture what we saw.
The descent was very fast. Ian went first and I watched as 6 sheep wandered onto the road about 50 yards in front of Ian doing about 45mph - I watched as the sheep scattered in all directions and then circled back on themselves, Ian got through, just and as soon as I knew he was okay, I nearly fell off my bike laughing. By now of course I was doing the same speed and the sheep ran back across the road, but luckily they were thoroughly spooked and kept going.