4 man wolfpack

The 4 man wolfpack got up to see once again more rain out of the windows, but luckily over breakfast as predicted the clouds cleared and the sun broke through. We got on the road just before 8:30 and headed towards Harrogate. The rain was holding off and the short sleeved shirts were on. Our bikes were feeling good after a brief service by yours truly, however there were mechanical problems just around the corner. 

We cruised through Harrogate and onwards towards Bradford. There were two almost vertical climbs towards the airport which started to sap some energy but spirits were high as was our average speed. 

Once we'd navigated the streets of Bradford's city centre after some fast descents our next urban destination was Halifax. Again this came and went in a flash as we were maintaining a high cadence. Then we hit a large climb. There was about 15 miles before we reached Oldham and where we'd planned our lunch so true to form the roads began to make life difficult for us. Although the hill was not the steepest in gradient it's duration made cycling tough. We were climbing for almost 45 minutes and as I made my way towards the peak I began to hear an odd clicking from my back wheel. Once at the top I had a quick look over the bike and found that from the sheer power I was generating with each stroke from my now huge quadriceps I had broken a spoke. Not only this but I was now running on just one brake as my rear pads were worn. Not great when you're about to descend 500m! 

We drove on towards Oldham where we now had a planned lunch AND cycle repair stop. We got to within 4 miles of this and Martin found he'd got a puncture which slowed progress once more. When we arrived in Oldham we made our way to the nearest bike store to get all issues ironed out and give Dave and Ed some shopping time before heading to Subway for some footlongs!

The food really made the difference as we were feeling strong after lunch and only had another 30 miles to go through the centre of Manchester. We rode like 4 New York City couriers weaving our way between traffic and squeezing past busses. Dave wad feeling particularly risky as he had a number of near death experiences on a few Amber gamblers at times or were they just plain red? 

We had a couple of busy A roads to fly down before eventually reaching Martin's house just outside of Northwich where he and Lisa are kindly hosting us for the evening. 

Tomorrow we move further south to Kidderminster, however it looks as though the wolfpack will be back down to 3!