Yorkshire Cyclocross Todmorden

Finlay Pushing!

Sometimes it's pretty tough being a parent, asking kids to do something that they struggle with, but that's life! The kids are now regularly going to Cycle club on Saturdays and we've talked about cyclocross a couple of times. The Todmordon event was the last Yorkshire round of the season, so my idea was to give the kids a taste of what it's all about, so next season we can do more rounds. Jack should really have used his Islabike with nobly tyres but we don't have the tyres, so he used his mountain bike. Finlay didn't have a choice having only one bike!

The weather was appalling it had rained for weeks and the ground was completely saturated, it was also very cold. It was very straight forward to register, the kids paid on the day and it was only £1 each. Jack was in the under 12's and Finlay I the under 10's, so they were both pretty young for their groups.

We watched the under 14's race and it looked pretty hard going with all the mud. After the race Jack and Finlay had the chance to do a couple of warm up laps. Neither were that chuffed. Finlay couldn't get his head around pushing his bike through the mud, but he soon got used to it. Many of the Dads were helping the little ones get around the course, but I kept outbid the way and left them to it.

Finlay raced first and he did okay his race was lasted 15 minutes, some of the kids are very good even at such a young age, but Finlay did his best and finished near the back but not last.  The poor little guy was wet through, covered in mug and freezing cold. He went straight back to the car to get changed.

Jack doing his best.

Jack was up next his race was for 20 minutes, he struggled. The heavy bike with large tyres and his lack of experience made it very difficult for him. He was soon knackered struggling. He redoubled his efforts and made it to the end but he was flat last. He got a huge cheer from the people running the event as he crossed the line, but he was very disappointed. 

There was a TV crew at the event taking quite a lot of footage. We'd no idea which station they came from or when there might be aired. To our surprise the footage was shown on Look North, Finlay was famous for all of 5 seconds and Jack was on screen briefly at the start of his race, so here was some positives from the day.

This whole episode takes me back to the beginning of my gymnastic career as a 12 year old. I did the Yorkshire Championships after recently joining the Calderdale Gymnastics Club. I not only came last but recorded the lowest score ever in the competition. This just made me try harder, and ultimately I became a great gymnast representing Yorkshire and England, Travelling abroad and becoming a national tumbling champion, you've got to stick at it!

Finlay on Look North!

Ryburn - Baitings Reservoir Walk

Lots of water coming over the dams

We needed to get out of the house and let he kids burn off some steam, some of our friends had the same idea. We didn't want to go too far as he weather was pretty poor, low cloud and rain.

We've walked around The Baitings reservoir several times but never been around Ryburn Reservoir. We followed one of our friends through Ripponden and were surprised when we turned down Nursery Lane and headed down to the car park by the reservoir dam. Normally there is only a small amount of water spilling over the dam but with it raining every day for 3 weeks the waterfall over both dams was impressive. 

We headed over the dam and followed the lake edge, crossing a bridge and then following the path away from the lake and out of the woods. The dogs were running around enjoying freedom, our friend Labrador  picked up a large branch and insisted on carrying it. It was quite funny watching Archie clonking into things as he trundled along with his trophy!

The change in landscape was surprising and within moments we had gone from secluded woodland onto barren moorland. After passing a farm we headed still higher and soon saw a great view of Baiting dam. From here we headed over to the second dam of the day. From here we could have walked around Baitings reservoir, but today we headed straight across the dam.

Next we followed the path down the wall side in front of the dam. The path headed down into the bottom of the valley, we then followed the water course back down to Ryburn Reservoir. There was lots of mud on this side of the lake, it was surprising that the kids stayed on their feet and didn't end up wet and muddy. As we neared the car it started raining again!

Before we headed home we walked down the steps to the foot of Ryburn dam and enjoyed the raging torrent of water. It might be a while before we see this much water coming over the dam.

Off-roading with Jack

Spot the pint of bitter!

For a while now Jack has wanted to go off-roading. Andrea has done it with Jack a couple of times, he always complains that 'Mum always tells me to slow down an be careful'.

We set off along the main road towards Halifax, at the end of swalesmoore we headed up the track in front of Rose Temple. The muddy hill was pretty hard work, we'd both were soon out of breath. Once we climbed the hill we headed along the top of swalesmoore, it was good fun heading down the strap track back to the road by the ski Centre.

From here we headed along the track just below the Sportsman pub, this section is great fun, heading downward with good clear wide sections. There's plenty of mud, but it's pretty straight forward to make good progress. You pass a couple of farms. The path turns into the wider Turner Lane, an unmade road. Here we turner left down Jerwood Hill Road, a very steep track. 

Turning left again we headed along  Horley Green Lane, this quickly becomes very narrow and steep, Jack has happy to charge down the track sending rubble flying everywhere. The track opens back put and we headed down further to Shibden Mill Inn. It didn't take that long to get here, but from here it's all up hill to get home.

Time for a drink before the long haul up Blake Hill, Jack doesn't have enough mussels to make consistent progress and has to keep stopping. I kept waiting for him, and we kept talking to take our minds off the pain! Still this is much easier than trying to head home on the muddy paths!

Good fun to spend time with Jack doing this. Only a few months ago he'd have cried off all the uphill peddling!