Mountain Biking 3 – Granville Haigh

 

Rather unfortunately I was one of those people who had to work between Christmas and the New Year. However, business was slack as you might expect, so I arranged to have the Thursday off and go for a ride.

 

Early Thursday morning I looked out of the window to find snow falling and everywhere nicely covered in the white stuff. I dressed quickly, had breakfast then rang Nick Bentley (District Auditor) and asked if he was up for a ride. It was barely light when I left home, but the winter weather looked nicely set for the day. The main road was covered in snow due to the small amount of post Christmas traffic and the snowy side roads added a bit of fun to the start of the ride. I met Nick and after a quick discussion we set off in the general direction of Denholme. Rather gingerly we descended a steepish, snow-covered road and turned into the grounds of a local school. We made our way across the school grounds and entered Cottingley heading for March Cote Farm. We passed through the farmyard and ascended a rough track for about 500m. Now we had gained a bit of height the snow was falling quite heavily, and after covering about a mile of road, we headed down a narrow technical single track with lots of boulders hidden under the snow. We turned left into Wilsden, then right and climbed a steep hill that took us up onto Wilsden Hill. We were both glad we had previously fitted new tyres with the amount of snow now on the ground. A contouring line took us to a narrow country lane and we descended this to Hallas Bridge. The steep climb out of the bottom proved a non-starter in terms of riding it, but a few minutes uphill push saw us at the top and time for the first coffee stop. People were now starting to appear - no doubt hoping to walk off their excess Christmas food! The route from here took us through Cullingworth and onto a stepped and rutted bridleway that saw us off the bike and pushing a few times but eventually we reached the Five Flags Hotel. Unfortunately, neither the view nor the smell is the best hereabouts in that we passed the local rubbish tip on the way. Having said that the snow covered countryside was indeed spectacular. We were now at the high point of the route and the depth of snow was quite considerable, especially the narrow deeply rutted track, which led us downwards towards Flappit. This section incurred much dabbing of feet and the occasional endo. A short ride along a snow covered road brought us to the top of the moors overlooking Haworth. Turning right we followed a bumpy single track and descended to Cross Roads. Dodging traffic we dashed across the main Keighley to Halifax road and began a long measured climb towards Harden Moor. This road had been gritted so every time a vehicle passed by (usually a 4x4 at speed) we got splattered with slushy snow. Eventually we reached the summit x-roads and turned off road again. This area is very popular with people flying model aircraft but today we were the only ones around. After crossing the moor we navigated a couple of fields and followed a track between old gritstone walls to a point high above St. Ives. By now we had got used to cycling on snow and our speed had started to increase on the descents so the next section of bridleway saw us hacking along with the odd rear wheel slide to up the interest factor. We turned quickly into St. Ives estate and, after manoeuvring around walkers, steadily descended towards the Twines near Bingley. We skidded rather alarmingly through the trees hoping to stop before reaching the main road! We then crossed the road and nipped down to Beckfoot and onto Cottingley Bridge, crossed the main Shipley to Keighley road, and rode onto the Leeds and Liverpool canal towpath. A quick bash along here, through the woods and cemetery, and a few minutes later were back home in time for lunch.

 

This is a route I often do for training and is about 18 miles in length. There are several steep ascents and in general the route is one of ups and downs. If you don’t mind hills then give this one a go – the views are good and there are plenty of places for refreshments along the way.