Woah nelly, did I misjudge this one.
It started out as a pretty straightforward ride. But that climb up Mellor Brow was absolutely no joke. It’s really unfortunate that I didn’t get a video of it, as it is pretty hard to describe with words.
When at the bottom I was almost going to try filming a little bit of it. Thank God I didn’t.
It got steep. Fast.
There were two hard parts to the climb for me.
The first was that I went too hard initially. Not overly so, but hard enough that my pacing was off, for sure.
I kinda wish I could see my 3s average watts on the climbing screen that the Garmin brings up automatically. Having the hands to start changing screens when dying on a hill is not easy.
The second hard bit was when I covered the first stretch, and then as I rounded the bend, an even steeper section loomed in front of me. Hitting 14% I was at a crawl.
And two thirds of the way I up I was really starting to worry that I’d have to stop for a breather, or worse… take the roll of shame back down and abort. If I had stopped, I don’t think I could have got going again. Not up hill, anyway.
Once at the top, the views were stunning. Even on a very overcast and grey day, I could see for miles. Lots of interesting looking hills to explore on future rides.
The other interesting part of Mellor hill is that there are (at least) four routes up. Four different climbs to try. That’s decent.
I messed up after the climb, and took a wrong turn. That led me down to Langho, rather than cutting through and immediately into Ribchester. No big deal, this detour actually worked out well for me, pushing my ride distance up from 45km to over 50km. Nice.
The one other thing today was that I saw plenty of cyclists out in groups. I’d say more groups than solo riders.
And I want to get into a group.
I’ve joined a club on Strava, but I want to get out there in real life and meet some like-minded cycling people, and do routes with them. Not sure how to go about this. Guessing Facebook is the best bet?
Opens to suggestions on how to find a group. Please leave a comment! Thanks.
