Rochdale to Leeds Saturday 11th June

 Rhide participants: Granville Davies, Steve Graham, Dave Goodman, Matt Simpson and Jason Hudson from the Leeds office joined by John Drabble and Pete Websdell from Rochdale.

All in good spirits

As the sun rose up over the Pennines, Team Rochdale began to gather at the office for the start of the Rochdale to Leeds leg of the RHide for Stuart.

Unfortunately the third member of the Rochdale office in the team was unable to make it, due to an incident whilst training the previous weekend (getting lost in the Peak District and being rescued by Mountain Rescue at 04.00!).

A hearty breakfast was enjoyed by all, provided by the Rochdale office; before the Manchester office crew set off (they had joined us at the start but were now heading off in the opposite direction, on their route to Manchester and Liverpool).



Manchester, Leeds and Rochdale “bikers” enjoying a hearty breakfast at Globe House.

    



Bye bye to the Manchester crew (as John Clark in the background takes down the flag)




And we are off too….

The beginning of our journey was reasonably flat taking us through Rochdale and Littleborough to the first climb and worst of the day, up Black Stone Edge, some 377m high, this is when the weather decided to help us along our way, by pouring down and eventually hail stoning into the bargain. Our support vehicle (manned by Rosemary McKay) was waiting for us at the top, oxygen mask at the ready!

…Phew ! Made it….  Just wait for the others.


Our rest at the top of the hill was short lived when an apparition was spotted on the opposite side of the road, we thought it was time to get moving, you hear such stories…..




Umm….. 

 A closer look and a bit of detective work by Rosemary, we believe they are a church group!



A Welcome break

Our journey continued up and down dale, with some hair-raising parts through the busy town of Brighouse, especially for those of us now not sure of the route, a case of follow the leader.

Approaching Leeds we were doing great, although the team had got separated.  The support car was waiting in a lay by on the dual carriage way, Rosemary was counting us in on the final stretch to Gelderd Road, five of us went past,  two to go, two to go, two to go,

Ah, here’s Granville… but where is John Drabble?  He had unfortunately lost sight of the pack and taken a wrong turning, so managed to do an extra 3.5 miles, his worried wife and daughter who were waiting at the finish were relieved to see him come cycling up the road.

Made it !

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable ride, especially with the thought of the sponsorship money we were raising to help Stuart, spurring us on.  We thought a well earned pub lunch was in order.



Leeds office and finish - lets head for the pub.

Rosemary McKay, On behalf of the Rochdale and Leeds Offices