Final cycle route research round beautiful Church Stretton on a glorious sunny day. All I need for the article is a local pub to recommend, so my work isn’t quite yet done before the train home leaves later this afternoon.
Author: Rob Ainsley
Church Stretton 1: Ludlow and the alps
Gorgeous winter-spring day researching cycle routes round Church Stretton and the Shropshire hills.
Dundee 2: Out of this world
Today’s ride was out of this world. Not to Ceres the dwarf planet, though. To Ceres the village in Fife.
Dundee 1: Scone in Scone, and bad poets
More cycle route research, this time in Dundee, home of marmalade, Desperate Dan and bad poetry.
Ingleton 3: Like a limestone pavement
Final day of research in Yorkshire Dales. Glorious weather, and wonderful views all day, such as the Queen’s Arms about five miles from nowhere. I’ve never enjoyed a cycling day more.
Ingleton: Peak blinders
So. I was cycling round Ingleton, nestled between the Forest of Bowland and the Yorkshire Dales 50 miles northwest of Leeds, exploring routes for a well-known bike magazine. If you wish you could make a living doing this, well, so do I. Surrounded by spectacular limestone landscapes, the village is a centre for groups walking…
Ingleton 2: Making a Dent in the Dales
More fantastic cycling round the Dales doing route research. Sadly, camera conked out, so can’t show Sedbergh’s library bus shelter, the most amazing view from a UK rail station, or 37 different views of mist from clouded hilltops. But can show this…
Ingleton 1: Highest point in Belgium
Researching cycle routes round Ingleton, one of the best bits of the Yorkshire Dales, along with all the other bits. Gloomy, wet and grey, but that’s enough about me.
Calder 2: Dewsbury to Castleford
Day 2 of the River Calder ride featured three aspects of Yorkshire: world-renowned sculpture, a traditional Leeds welcome, and riverside rubbish. I stayed in a cheap and cheerful pub room in Dewsbury. It’s said to be one of England’s most divided communities, and not only by Brexit: just over the river in an area called…
Halifax: Calder mobile
Halifax (pic), home to almost half Calderdale’s 190,000 folk, is not short of associations. Cat’s-eyes; Quality Street; the eponymous bank; the Eureka family attraction; victim of gratuitously infernal slander along with Hull. For telly viewers it’s the setting of comedy-drama Last Tango in Halifax, while for cyclists it’s the venue of Shibden Wall, a famously…