Ronde 2011 - updated final bits

Welcome to the Ronde 2011 

UPDATE 31/3/11 - 95% of the route is now signed with yellow arrow stencils on the tarmac.  Watch out for them as you ride along. The final 5% at busy intersections or urban areas will have an arrow on lamposts etc.

Pic: Dave Haygarth

Here are a few bits of information for you if you planning on riding…… Enjoy!

Parking – please park responsibly. There could be a fairly large turnout and there is unlikely to be enough space in the public car park at the Heritage Centre, so you may have to find alternative parking nearby. Park up somewhere safe and ride to the Heritage Centre car park and join a group setting out. There are no official start times - just set off when you want to, from 10am onwards. A final group will leave at 10.30am

Signage – as the route is quite complex, I have decided to sign in most places. Cobbled sections and some junctions are signed as follows:

Most other road junctions will have a similar yellow stencilled sign on the tarmac.

Please do not rely on the signs as they may disappear overnight, merely use them as an aid to your own route finding. There are a number of people riding with Garmin downloads – please seek them out and join a group so everyone can ride and help each other route-find.


Tip: I have put together a 1 page PDF Cue Sheet. Scroll down to the post below for details.

Roadworks – there are roadworks/pipelaying work on the section of the road from Heptonstall over Widdop Rd to Colne. I understand that the works are midweek only and the road is open at weekends. Either way, be prepared to walk this section as the road closure order indicates that pedestrian access is to be maintained at all time. It shouldn’t affect us all getting over to the cobbled sections in Colne.


Update 29/3/11 - Morrisons Utility Services assure me that Widdop Rd will be open on Saturday and we can ride through without hinderance.

Supporting the Ronde – local photographers Sportsunday are supporting the ride, not only with great shots from their spot in Heptonstall village, but also with a cake and drink stop just after there too. This comes after the hard climb up from Hebden and before the long trek over Widdop Moor. Look out for their home baked delicacies and cheery banter. And save me a cake….

Also I have been lucky enough to have been given a test set of handbuilt Major Tom tubular wheels by Jonathon from Strada Wheels Those who rode last year may fondly remember my #epicfail in completing my own ride as my cheap carbon rear broke a spoke and disintegrated completely on the vicious descent into Hebden. Not so this year...

If you are into cyclocross, or even fancy some tough, light road wheels for tubs, do catch up with me and have a look at them. Very nice.

Please remember this is an unofficial, unsanctioned ride and also that as cyclists we will all be judged on our behaviour toward other road users.

Disclaimer:

All individuals riding Ronde van Oost Lancashire 2011 do so entirely at their own risk.

Ronde Cue Sheet pdf

I have put together a handy 1 page Cue Sheet for the Ronde, complete with numbered climbs and cobbled sectors.


Handy 1 page Ronde Cue Sheet -

Or go to the link and print - PDF link

Simples.

Ronde van Oost Lancashire approaches

The Classics season is already underway in Flanders and over here, in a little corner of Lancashire, the cobbles are coming into season too.

Remember - April 2nd for cobbles, chat, cake, pics and some lanes and roads I bet you didn't know about.

Infomercial over.

UPDATE 8/3/11 - map and cue sheet refined and updated      http://ridewithgps.com/routes/258806
Please replace any previous version you may have downloaded/printed

Sporza TV mini review of the cross season

Click here: Sporza Review

Everybody sing 'Zdenek Stybar'......

Hit the North 2.5

Image: Jo 'Hanglebad'


Don't read this - read these accounts..

Dave Powell aka twinkyldave

Dave Haygarth

Organiser Jason Miles aka Mr Terrahawk

Oh and a whole hard drives worth of photos from David and Laura at Sportsunday here and here.


For the record, I rode it, and it broke both me and my bike. And I loved every slick, rutted, rocky, boggy, out-of-control, greasy, cobbled, slurried moment of it.

Jason's unique race is now an institution. And a great example of how to do things challenging, competitive, social and just plain fun all in the one package.

Anticipation

The cobbled classics are nearly here. Not sure that Acqua Sapone will be a major player but here is a taster for the forthcoming Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, in the form of a 'behind the scenes' with the Italians at last years race. They look slightly out of their depth to me....

2011 Ronde van Oost Lancashire - 2nd April

Artwork: Duncan Astle


Date: Sat 2nd April 2011

Start: Pendle Heritage Centre car park, Barrowford, Nelson, Lancashire, BB9 6JQ

Time: start riding from 10am up to 10.30am with a faster group going out at 10.30am

Photos and cake from Sportsunday....

Route details available on the links over on the right of the page.

What started off as my grump about not being able to go back to Flanders after a riotous Ronde sportive weekend in 2008, morphed into an absorbing and eventful group ride for about 35 of us last April.

Using some beautiful Lancashire lanes, hills and leftover cobbled climbs from a past Industrial era, the Ronde van Oost Lancashire seems to have taken on a momentum of its own now.





Word of the fun day we had last year seems to have spread and I have had fairly frequent requests to hold the ride again. So, book a pass out for April 2nd and come and see what we have here in a tucked away corner of the North West.

The parking opposite the Pendle Heritage Centre can be a bit limited (Honesty box provided) so further parking is available a few hundred metres further down the B6247, just near Barrowford Locks, right over the canal flyover.

Some of the climbs are very steep and I would recommend a minimum gear of 36 x 25 or similar if you have it. Road tires are fine, but the roads are rough and the cobbles rougher so if you have fatter tires then use them. Cross bikes with Landcruisers work well too.





Some of the route is over exposed hill country and I would take a windproof/racing cape. The weather on the route can be lashing down, very blustery or lashing down and blustery......

The winter of 2010/2011 has been a little hard so far and the roads reflect this. There are some spectacular potholes in places, often where you want them least. Please warn others behind you by pointing them out, making sure you have avoided them yourself first of course!

There is a good cafe at the start and finish (in the Heritage Centre) and food stops available at Padiham, Townley Park (Burnley), Hebden Bridge and Coldwell Activity centre near Widdop. There are also bike shops in Padiham (first cobbled section) and Hebden Bridge.


Update:

Regular local cross, sportive and running photographers Sportsunday have offered to come and capture the ride, and just as importantly, or more, are offerering a cake stall mid ride. Mint.

All participants ride this route entirely at their own risk.