Sunday 9Th August Phil got to my house with his bike in the boot, put the wheel back on and by 7am we set of from Gomersal on a 55 mile training run, for anyone wanting to do this follow the road from Birkenshaw fire station towards Bradford, turn left after about 2 miles down towards M606 and B&Q, at the end of here you pick up the Spen valley green way which is designed for us cyclists, you can follow this in ease, no cars Lorry's and buses, right down to the Calder and Hibble canal, see the link, once you pick up the canal you can follow this through Horbury bridge right to Denby Dale.
From here you have to follow the road into Wakefield, through the centre and pick up the route for Stanley ferry, you continue to an estate near Bottom Boat and pick up a track down into Methley where you meet the river and canal near Castleford, follow this now to Leeds, once in Leeds you can pick up the starting point of the Leeds Liverpool Canal, this is the hard bit, from here you follow Geldered road up to Guildersome, 2 very steep hills which after this run very difficult, however once at the top you follow the Driglington by-pass to the 1st roundabout, left turn and all down hill back to Birkengshaw fire station and a final left turn down hill again to Gomersal. 55 miles of good hard training.
16TH August We decided after meting in Leeds at 7.30am to do the same trip but the other way round with a few deviations of Phil's doing a bit of cross country, climbing walls and fences and navigating around a Field of sheep, this was a great run and had plenty of hard bits similar to the Leeds Liverpool canal, I slipped off home after about 58 miles and Phil had to carry on to Pudsey from Birkenshaw. Monday morning at work we looked at each other and said that's it, we are now ready for the big challenge on Friday 21ST August and very confident with all the training we have done we will succeed.
ks.raw@sky.com