Last night was my second #June100 ride and I was going to make up as much mileage as I could. There was no avoiding it – I had to ride up Rooley Moor; it was hot sticky and the air was very still.
I swapped the tyres over to my trusty 2.0″ Michelin Country Trails as a prior downpour looked like it could have been a muddy ride but fortunaltely the dry period we’ve had meant that the rain just soaked away and the tracks were still relatively dry.
I decided not to ride straight up the cobbles at the start of the climb and fork off towards Prickshaw before doubling back onto RMR. Purely to add extra mileage of course! *cough*
As ever the climb was relentless and I used ‘stopping to take photos’ as an excuse to have a rest.
View back towards Rochdale and the 7 Sisters clearly in shot. I kept slogging away and it was a slow slow climb last night eventually getting to top o’leach about 30 minutes after i’d set off.
Very hot, sweaty and not photogenic!
Cycling up past the ruins of the old Moorcock Inn I saw a fairly large owl flying near the track. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a photograph of it. Nor, did I take a photo of the lower section of a lamb’s leg. Poor thing must have been got by foxes.
As mentioned previously, the air was still and all of the wind turbines sat still. It was a strange feeling looking at the magnificent structures.
I carried on and soon I was at Cragg Quarry
All I can say about this place is, it’s FANTASTIC! I only had time for a couple of loops around it, but it tested me. This can only be a good thing! I managed to do the descents that I aimed to do but failed on 1 which was very gravelly and due to a not clipping in in time/picking a good line resulted in a comedy ‘stuck’ moment where I couldn’t get off the bike as my foot was slipping and the bike was slipping. I had to reach behind me and release the seat post drop it and hop off the back of the bike. Oh well maybe next time i’ll get it right.
The key to that place is definitely momentum and choosing theright gears to attack the sections.
After that I carried on towards Edenfield and dropped down Sand Beds Lane
The worn cart tracks made for interesting riding as the back of the bike kept slipping away and I had to constantly correct the bike. A bone shaking ride down Gin Croft Lane and then a cautious ride back along ‘Owd Betts’ Edenfield Road.
15.71 miles
2hrs 25 mins
No idea what average speed was as the sports tracker software cocked up again mid ride.
Riding The Moor 
Well done mate – seems that the June100 is getting the less regular cyclists off their arses
Cheers!
As for less regular – I’m regular as clockwork thank you very much!! Dont’ ride as often as i’d like though..
I think you’ve got the hardest earned miles in this challange.
Is the path from Cragg quary to Lee quary in place yet?
It was hard work, but I loved it. There was some really challenging parts that made me really concentrate hard.
The link isn’t in place yet.
And yes, I totally agree those were the hardest earned miles!!
Going to redo them tomorrow in daylight, might be able to get the GPS to behave itself too! 😦
That sounds like an amazing ride! Shame I don’t own an mtb nor can I actually ride one for very long otherwise I’d be up there like a shot.
Being the geek I am, those turbines look amazing even though they’re motionless. They just have this air of potential movement when you least expect it.
It was the furthest ride over there since last year. When I did it last year I didn’t ride for the following 6 weeks as it nearly killed me.
When I was in the quarry, one of the turbines started to change orientation and I was convinced it was watching me! Spooky.
Freakishly funny 😉
See, your fitness has increased dramatically for you to be able ride that route again without flaking.
I rode it with 4 other guys, all who were on £2.5K full suss bikes and used to riding it. I was just starting with a cold and afterwards it just turned into a full on chest infection. Hence if you look at the graph for last years stats there’s hardly anything in March and April.
It has an additional benefit in that I can hit obstacles harder and faster instead of crawling over them at 4mph and falling off. Makes for such good fun when your out there.
I can definitely see the advantage of having a full suss bike though. Took quite a pounding in places last night.
That quarry looks like fun, we have one similar in Cannock Chase which is where you get humiliated by small boys on BMXs doing stunts you wouldn’t even imagine is possible.
Looks like it’s just me and you doing a 100 on proper bikes the hard way… 😉
I agree. Everyone else is doing road miles or flat stuff on their mountain bikes! 😀
@clive/ RMR:
My ride(s) this weekend were on a MTB and anything but flat so you’re not on you’re own.
(Expect the blog post Mon/Tues)
Glad to hear it! Will look forward to the post
Great riding sir! Loving the photos too.
With the June100 as inspiration, I’m off our for a quick loop now (not far) but I need to get up to Cragg Quarry, it looks properly ace.
Thanks.
Cragg is great. There’s splits In the track so you can choose the severity of the descent you want to go down.
Well worth a visit!