Lashing the Snake

Yesterday being such a lovely sunny day I was dying to get out on my bike. I did decide as I was a bit tired to turn down the chance to cycle from Hyde to Macclesfield first thing in the morning as we went down to the Treacle Market in Macc to have a look. The Market itself was fabulous and a real experience. The kids loved it too and I even managed to buy myself one of the most unusual thing I have ever bought, Zebra Burgers!!! that is burgers made from Zebra meat in case you were wondering. I haven't eaten them yet and think it will be interesting to try at least once.

Anyway once we had got back home had dinner put the kids to bed and done all the other jobs around the house, Lynne sat down for a World of Warcraft epic battle online with her dad and I decided to go out for a little ride.

The weather wasn't too warm as it felt like it was earlier on but not too cold either and the wind had dropped, plus for once it wasn't raining so I took advantage and donned Lycra and headed for the hills.

My hill of choice for today was a local mammoth of a climb that I have been thinking about doing for a long time. So I headed up Matley lane which is a great warm up and gets the heat and lungs going plus you can feel your legs working up this cat 5 hill. Then after a fast(ish) run down the hill to the Gun Inn and right at the lights heading towards Glossop. I am sure somebody has put Glossop higher up on the Map since i cycled there last as it just seemed like uphill all the way. Even on the downhill bits!!! Well by the time I got into Glossop town center I had realised that either my rear wheel bearing or my bottom bracket bearing must be going as it was making a real grinding noise and things seemed a lot more sluggish. I thought about this and just decided it would make for better power training up the hill so cracked on regardless. The soldier on voice in the back of my head just whispered in my ear "Keep going or else its screaming time!!"

I got to what I can only say according to all the Strava segment details is really the start of the climb as I went past the Royal Oak pub and headed up past the Snake Pass. As I got to the Snake Pass sign I dropped to my lower ring on my pedals then immediately nearly fell off my bike as my chain jumped off the inside of my chain set just as I was starting to apply the power. Arrrgh! not a good start to a arduous climb indeed. As the hill started to steepen and the effort got harder I dug in and even managed one of two bursts of speed (or at least in my mind I was traveling faster). AS I turned each sweeping corner the road just carried on up and up ahead of me. Its about 6 miles in all and took me 28 minutes to ride up.

The view from the top was impressive

I spent 5 minutes appreciating the view then it was warp speed captain back down the road at a scary 45MPH in some sections. In all it took about 6 minutes to get back down to Glossop again and I wasn't even pushing it! Not a record by any stretch but it was fun and had the all requires WEEEEE factor to go with it.

It was great fun and I am going to be looking for my next big hill to climb. Plus I am wanting to get some more of the top 100 knocked off too. Surprisingly the Snake isn't one of them!!!

Still got a few good ones lurking at the back of my mind that I want to do. I will post again soon.

Still looking for the all important sponsor too and had nothing for all my efforts thus far.