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At the tail end of October, my club Middleton CC had their monthly club ride. As with other club rides which seem to have become a bit of a family affair – usually just myself, the brother Paul, Joe and his son-in-law Steve as the other members are either working or just generally can’t be mithered- this one turned out to be the same, only this time it was just me and Paul.
The weather was nice with a hint of a chill, but no need for anything more than arm and leg warmers and a thin full finger glove to keep me toasty warm and I set off to the arranged meet point with no expectations for the ride. I like the rides when they’re just the two of us as Paul knows I’m happy to delve off road onto tracks, even though I only have a roadie, whereas the other club members really hate it even if it is on the well surfaced compacted Transpennine trail.
The outbound route was our fairly straightforward route to Uppermill as we passed through Daisy Nook and got caught in the traffic light contraflow around the road works although thankfully the uphill start for us wasn’t too difficult although we were a little worried we might be holding up the traffic trying to come down the hill; a needless worry as the lights were still in our favour as we crawled passed the top of the road works. Hurst came by in a haze once we’d gotten along Broadoak and then came the first decision – do we head down Darnton Rd and up Wakefield Rd or head up Mossley Rd which is a longer climb – we opted for the shorter, but steeper initial climb of Wakefield Rd and were soon pootling through Mossley and for some random reason when the road heads skywards through Roaches it feels really hard to get up it. Up it I got and both of us stopped to admire the views across the fields opposite the Royal George – the River Tame, the Huddersfield canal, flood plains, ponds and grazing sheep and horses.
After a brief chat we made the decision to stop in Uppermill rather than head further into the hills as this was the first ride Paul has had since hurting his ankle on a club ride in August and it was still a little tender.
When we approached Chew Valley Rd, Paul pointed out the TPT trail that runs through the area and we didn’t need to think about turning off onto it. The first section is on sandy tracks through parkland before it turns into roadway for a teeny section and then back onwards onto compacted sand and gravel strewn with wet leaves and the occasional horse manure pile. Here the trail looks really pretty and country despite there being houses and vehicles merely metres away. After passing a sports field and another tree-lined section, Paul showed off by riding down a steep bank alongside some steps leaving me to dismount and walk down them – I would’ve tried riding down the bank if I had knobblies on, but slicks and wet mud don’t make good bedfellows! A final descent brought us into Uppermill proper where we stopped at Saints for some nosh.
Feeling refreshed we headed over to the Brownhills centre to see if there were any photographic exhibitions on – there wasn’t, but we had a lovely chat with the ranger there, sharing war wounds and tales of falling off bikes/horses. After letting the ranger get back to work we plodded off to unlock our bikes and lug them down the steps to the canal bank.
The canal was just ours and the ducks as we sped down the descent under the viaduct, but all too soon the dreaded humankind started to appear and the going got slower as they didn’t hear us calling out to ask if we could pass. Stray dogs and toddlers mixed in made things worse – how parents can let a toddler wander along a canal bank without holding its hand or having some form of control is beyond me!
After a brief bit of aggro from someone who told me I shouldn’t be yelling several times – if they ain’t listening when I ask loudly and politely, nor when I shout if I can pass them (I don’t wait until I’m literally on their heels like some cyclists do, but make sure I have plenty of room to stop if they suddenly stop), what else am I meant to do? Bells have no effect on people either most of the time – we finally got passed them and on to the bridge carrying the towpath from one side to the other. A steep slick cobbled descent brought me with a skid onto the towpath again for a mud bath session until we hit tarmac near Carr Lane.
We continued our hunt of short steep descents with the switch back road alongside Greenfield Station and swooped our way back along Chew Valley Rd to where we first got off road. We didn’t think the TPT travelled far off road in the direction we were now headed but we got on it and after a bit of parkland we were back into tree-lined trails crossing the river and climbing up out of the valley towards Station Lane and Oak View Rd. The trail looked like it carried on through Friezeland but as we knew there were stables and a horse arena down there we didn’t want to head that way just in case it didn’t and we really didn’t want to spook the horses, so we stopped our off-road fun and got back onto the black stuff.
Heading back along the route we got into Mossley the going was easy aside from dodging furry Exocet missiles and the poor unfortunate flattened hair brushes (hedgehogs), and seeing as though we were having it easy, we thought we’d try to make our legs fall off by heading up a steep road. The road runs alongside a park and climbs over 0.3 of a mile. Not very long you may say. And with a max gradient of 7.5% it’s not too steep either, you may say. It’s a bugger. Cars line one side of the road. Wet leaf litter takes over a lot of the other side of the road. A hospice is plonked on an avenue off this road too, so traffic can be an issue. So, a steep, single lane, slick road, and we decided to climb it. And climb it we did. My skills at climbing totally left me after the shoulder injury (not that I was a great climber anyway) so, for me, it was hard enough to do. Having cars get impatient with me as they were stuck behind us made me lose my temper. Flicking the bird at the honking idiot behind me, I had a strop and carried on climbing on the pavement instead of the road as, if I really desperately need to stop pedalling, I’d really rather not get flattened when I do so. As it was I didn’t need to stop and got all the way up in one go. And I didn’t lose sight of Paul either, which has happened a lot on climbs this past year – in the past I’d be off the front on any kind of terrain, but since the shoulder injury I’m not so far in front on the flat and falling off the back on climbs. Descents are still my domain though – I still fly down them, so long as it’s safe to do so.
After a breather at the top of the climb, and some stretching for my shoulder, we remounted and hauled ass in a homeward direction albeit a slightly wonky homeward direction. Heading back through Hurst and along Broadoak, where we played at being a time trial team (invariably with me flying off the front), and then shouting boo as we passed each other we soon found ourselves in dire need of a mug of tea, so stopped at Daisy Nook for a refreshing cuppa.
There seems to be something about going to Daisy Nook that encourages us to then ride back into Droylsden along a very rough track alongside the old disused Hollinwood branch canal – a canal which in parts is bone dry, in others so full of reeds you can’t tell if there’s any water in there – and boing along this route we did; bro on his rigid mtb with knobblies, me on my steel roadie with skinny slicks. We arrived at the farm at mid-point of the trail, very shaken about, but grinning like idiots. A tree-lined tarmac section led us to the super skinny bridge over the railway – definitely no room for error there or it’s skinned elbows all the way – and then through a lovely clough before skirting football and cricket pitches and the reservoir before popping back out into civilisation near Droylsden town centre.
A mere mile later the bro and I parted, and I was home, glugging a pint of milk and chomping my way through a bowl of weetabix while nursing a grumbling shoulder.
Blurbage: route can be seen here
26.5 miles
1310ft climbed
12.3% maximum gradient
01:55:23
