Reasons to be cycling: 1, 2, 3.

There are three main excuses that I use to avoid cycling.

1. My bike weighs too much.
2. It’s raining.
3. I’m out of shape.
4. I don’t have the time.
5. It’s too hilly.

You may notice that I found a couple more excuses while I was writing that.

I’m working on excuse number one and the Raleigh Alaska’s days are numbered.

There’s not a lot that I can do about excuse number 2 (although Tour de France entrants have been known to cope with a little precipitation).

Excuse number three becomes less valid every time I pull on the lycra and start pedalling.

Number four is silly. I do not have a lot of time midweek in the winter but I could easily and safely cycle without lights until after nine on a summer’s evening.

Number five is vaguely true. The house is within half a mile of the Ribble Valley and some delightful scenery. Unfortunately, the valley sides consist of a couple of long hills. I don’t do hills. Back when I was a teenager, I used to cycle down to Old Leigh regularly. I would then have to return via Leigh Park Road— a street which, near its junction with Hadleigh Road, has an almost vertical gradient. Ever since then my knees have had a morbid fear of steep hills.

Anyway, I’m practising.

Today I explored a stretch of the Lancashire Cycleway between Longridge and Beacon Fell. The ride out to Longridge is gentle enough. Between the leisure centre and Millennium City Park (an industrial estate) I was on one of Preston Council’s irritating cycle routes with barriers every quarter of a mile to prevent anyone actually using it for its intended purpose. Eventually, this route should lead all the way to Longridge. Frankly, I think life’s too short to bother with that one again and I was pleased when the route came to an end, jettisoning me out through an eight-inch wide gap (or the width of cycle and one pannier) on to the B-road through Grimsargh.

Said road has two things to recommend it: it’s flat and wide so that there’s no need for lunatic drivers to try to push me off the road. The views aren’t bad either.

At Longridge I faced the choice of continuing to Clitheroe or heading towards Beacon Fell. I wimped out of doing a proper cycle ride (it’s another 12 miles to Clitheroe) and headed north-west to Inglewhite. This route takes in a stretch of the Lancashire Cycleway and undulates gently for several miles, giving fine views of Beacon Fell, Sykes Fell and the Bleasdale Moors.

Cycling back in to Preston I was cut up by a mobile-phone-using driver (yes, K 70 WEY, I mean you) who claimed she was just looking at the time. Clearly her grey BMW was the cheap model that comes without built-in clock.

Total distance, somewhere in the region of 23 miles. Total time: 90 minutes or so. Average speed: somewhere around 15 mph.

Hmm… Maybe I’m fitter than I thought. I shall have to see what I can do when I have a lighter machine.

Technorati Tags: bike, Tour de France, cycle, Ribble Valley, Old Leigh, Lancashire, Cycleway, Inglewhite

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