UKC

Anyone out? Hoping our legs have recovered from the Fred last Sunday - looking warm, the wind's not out of the west and they've missed out Lamps Moss due to a landslide - what's not to like? Well, apart from the Coal Road at 80 miles...

In reply to andy:

How was it? You got a gorgeous day for it but maybe too hot. We saw loads of you guys out while we were riding up Halton Gill and over to Settle. Even saw a couple of stragglers as we were finishing up at about 7 - they must have had a long day!

In reply to climbingpixie: It was fine - first time I've ever ridden up to Tan Hill without a headwind (lovely) and the first time I've ever arrived at a feedstop on a sportive to find no food (completely unacceptable - very, very poor - and yes, I was carrying my own stuff as well).

Headwind from Kirby Stephem to Garsdale was horrid on my own, and I even managed to find myself alone all the way back down Littondale to Kilnsey when I finally found someone to work with for the last 2 miles.

But a cracking week - Fred last Sunday, EdD today, and got well under my (undeclared) aspiration for both events.

In reply to andy:

Well done sir!

In reply to andy:


I've had a feed stop run out of water on a sportive I did - about 40 riders waiting for a van of bottled water to turn up. Organisers hadn't predicted it would be a scorcher of a day.

And then they decided to move a further stop from original location, as people were missing it, to further along the route - and were rationing water to 1/2 a bidon there.

In reply to andy:

For the second sportive in a row I had to pull out, this year seems cursed!

Riding through Dentdale, something started to go wrong with my right eye, it began to get really painful and the vision started to get really blurred. By the time I got to Ribblehead it was like looking through frosted glass and painful to keep open; I got as far as Stainforth by when it was agony and I pulled out. They called the medics on the radio and they thought I'd better go and get checked out as it could be a detached retina so I ended up in an ambulance to Airedale Hospital where they found I just had a bad scratch on my eyeball. Fortunately it's much better today.
Many thanks to my friends who sorted out picking me up from the Hospital, sorted out getting my bike back and then drove me to my daughter's in Sheffield; also to the marshals and St John's Ambulance who helped me.


Feed stops weren't up to the usual standard of the EdD.