Ian Roberts' Les Six Cols de la Conder p.m. of Monday 20th April 2020

Over the past two or three weeks my dear wife Pat has been giving me some grief; that my twice weekly, all day bike rides were too far ranging and beyond the spirit of lock-downs “permitted daily exercise”. I started to scratch my head for a challenging local route that would fit into half-a-day and I came up with this little suffer-fest:-

            Leaving home at 13.30, I cycled along Barton Road and Lentworth Drive to turn up Hala Hill, over the M6 and ascend Brindle Brow into a persistent headwind. There followed a steady descent down by Blea Tarn reservoir and through the Little Fell Lane X-roads, down the steeper Dam Head, where the eddying wind was quite disconcerting, across the River Conder to tackle the short, sharp challenge of Thorn Brow. A slight down hill through the Long Lane / Kitt Brow Lane X-roads lead into a very maneageable uphill to the Bay Horse Road X-roads which I crossed to enter Procter Moss Road; initially an easy gradual incline until the climb to the barn, followed by a gentle descent to cross Damas Gill then climb steeply to this road's high point at G.R. 523562 (Col #1).

            I about turned and retraced my route through the three X-roads, descending Thorn Brow and ascending Dam Head en-route, up past Blea Tarn Reservoir to the summit of Brindle Brow at G.R.   

494587 (Col #2). At this point I observed that my bidon of water had been left on the draining board at home! Hey-ho lets press on.

            Again an about turn, to descend to Little Fell Lane X-roads where a left turn had me heading N.E. towards Caton. At the X-roads with Langthwaite Road I turned right to descend the Conder Brow 'S' bends and climb through Quernmore and ascend Quernmore Brow to gain the (locked) entrance to the Jubilee Tower car park (Col #3).

            A third about turn saw me descending through Quernmore to climb Conder Brow, through the Little Fell Lane X-roads, up past Ivy Bank Farm to the high point of this road at G.R. 503601 (Col #4).

  My penultimate about turn allowed me to descend to Little Fell Lane X-roads and turn left (N.E.) towards Caton. At the first junction on the right I descended Stock-a-Bank, crossed Postern Gate Road and ascended Askew Hill to follow Littledale Road past Baines Crag to just across the second cattle grid, immediately prior to “The Cragg” farm on the r.h.s. at the high point of the road G.R. 548618 (Col #5).

            The final about turn of the day lead into a wonderful descent with immaculate tarmac from the Rigg Lane X-roads all the way to Postern Gate Road, followed by some very patchy tarmac for the ascent of Stock-a-Bank. A right turn at the top; a left turn at the Give Way, followed by a further left turn had me cresting the small rise by the house “Overdale” G.R.503611(Col #6).

            Continuing down to turn right at the Give Way on to Langthwaite Road saw me pedalling up Golgotha for a final flourish; then along Coulston Road for home, where I arrived with my watch registering 16.29.

            There had been a very persistent and gusty S.E. wind for the entire afternoon; as a headwind on the longer, tougher climbs on the S.E. side of the valley (Cols 1, 3 & 5); it proved very disconcerting on all the descents bar from Col #5. Conversely Cols 2, 4 & 6 were wind assisted ascents.

            A challenging ride, all within the parishes of Scotforth, Ellel and Quernmore.

            I can verify that the new drivetrain and the modified gearing on the sportive bike is A1. (What- no fixie?. Ed.)

Ian Roberts