A straightforward 40 miles via Otley - Bramhope - Alwoodley - Harewood - Weeton - Askwith. One down side was that the average temp. was 1 o centigrade which is a bit chilly on a bike.
The other down side is the outcome of the local council's fantasy that Ilkley is a Yorkshire form of a Mediterranean holiday destination. Wide pavements along which people promenade, between eating and drinking at the town's many cafes and restaurants, under a warming sun.
Thus the council use any excuse they can to close the main street - naturally being Ilkley this is called The Grove - which includes posh ladies fashion emporia, an excellent book shop and Betty's café.
Excuses for closure include concerts, a bike race, a gala, regular "Christmas" German markets, the monthly farmers street market, an "r" in the month,...
Now effectively there is only one main road through Ilkley from the west (Skipton, the Dales...) to the east (Otley, Leeds...) and so this is normally a crawl between four sets of traffic lights. But when The Grove is closed, as it was today, and all local town traffic impinges on the A65, the tail back stretches to a mile or more either side of Ilkley and tempers rise.
On might surmise that the council hate cars and their drivers. But that cannot be or they would not be planning to make the entire town (A65 excepted) a 20 mph zone and install 150 or so speed humps and antagonise every car owning Ilkley resident.
Why should I, on a bike, care? Possibly because of the angry driver of a vast SUV who suddenly pulled out of the tailback queue and startled hurtling down the "wrong side" of the road towards me anxious to escape the driver hell that is Ilkley's Yorkshire answer to St Tropez.
Except, that is, for the 1 o centigrade.
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