Saturday was then SCCC Todmorden 2015 Ride which started at Hollingworth Lake. Andy met up with Neil and they cycled to the start but I got a lift to the start.

Just as we were about to set off, Tracy realised that her back brake had locked on which stopped the wheel going round. The boys all tried to free it off but unfortunately were not able to sort things out. It was a real shame as it was to be her first ride with the club in a long time (due to a knee problem) and she had been looking forward to it.

The ride set off from Hollingworth Lake and made our way to the Rochdale canal. We followed the canal, passing the locks up to the Littleborough Summit.

The rode into Todmorden and stopped at the Bridge Cafe  which was opposite the market, for a coffee break.

After the break we set off on the road, which effectively following the canal back as far as Warland, where we joined the canal again for a while.

As we approached Littleborough, we split into two groups. One group, led by Jim, headed back along the canal and then cycled round Hollingworth Lake. The other group, led by Neil, which I joined, took a slightly longer and certainly hillier route.

The views from the top of the hill were great. We could look down on Hollingworth Lake, where the ride would finish.

The route took us over the M62 and then back under it again.

We then made our way back down to Hollingworth Lake and cycled part way round it. The lake was very busy and cycling round it was quite difficult. The official ride, at least the version that I cycled, was about 18 miles. I was very pleased with how I got on during the ride, my foot had not caused me any problems.

Because I still felt good, I decided to cycle home rather than get a lift. There was a group of us that left the lake together – Andy, Neil, David, Miguel, Martyn, John and myself. David lead us as we cycled to the canal and followed that all the way down until we reached the edge of Manchester. From there we split into a couple of groups. Neil, Andy and myself then went a slightly different way with Neil pealing off a little later leaving Andy and myself to complete the ride by ourselves. I have to say that I found the ride home quite hard. The pace was a little faster than I would have liked (due to my lack of fitness), which meant that I was riding as fast I could to try and keep up with the rest of the group. The last 10 miles were therefore very hard for me and i felt totally exhausted when I got home!

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/sccc-todmorden-2015.gpx”]

In total I cycled 41 miles and had climbed almost 1400 feet. Given that I have only been cycling again for just over a week after two months of no exercise at all, I was quite pleased despite my exhaustion. I have cycled 104 miles in the last 7 days, so a great start to my comeback into cycling. I reckon it will be at least another week though before I can start running again, still one thing at a time.