85 miles 2225 metres
Moira and I headed down to Yorkshire to cycle the medium route of the White Rose Sportive. We joined in at lunchtime at Dent after a nice lunch, and avoided the black clouds and rain that had appeared earlier. A couple of miles of warm up along Dentdale and then we were up Deepdale and Kingsdale for the first of the "double arrow" climbs along this lovely valley, a total of 1000 feet. A fast swooping descent took us down into Ingleton, then Clapham and Austwick along nice country lanes. There was a lovely section next along to Helwith Bridge and Langcliffe, near Settle. We had another double arrow climb out of here up on the the moors to Malham Tarn, and another one along the way to Arncliffe. Kettlewell provided a nice lunch stop at half way, before the dreaded Park Rash double arrow, which had me giving it 100% effort just to grind my way up in the granny ring.
A long long descent then followed down to Leyburn, where the drag against the wind to Castle Bolton and Hawes took it out of us. At Hawes we headed up the lovely Widdale valley to Newby Head Moss, our final climb before descending into Dentdale. Thinking last food order were 9pm we hoofed it as best we could getting back into Dent at 8.40pm, only to miss out on the 8.30pm food deadline. A pint of ale and packet of crisps kept us going till we could get to Sedbergh for a Chinese carry out. Another hour in the car took us to our lovely pub in Low Row for a sound night's sleep and hearty breakfast next day. A fab day's cycling in amazing scenery, but boy do you have to work on those hills!
White Rose website
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