The 80 Mile Sportive Ride
The Routes
Both routes start and finish in Skipton at the event HQ: Craven Cattle Mart: Click Here for HQ map location.
The 80 Mile Sportive Ride
This ride follows the 2014 Tour de France Stage 1 Route out of Skipton and up the stunning Upper Wharfedale Valley. You will ride up the B6265 to Threshfield and then carry on up to Kilnsey and ride under the famous Kilnsey Crag. From there you ride up to the beautiful village of Kettlewell and then Buckden to the start of the Kidstones Climb.
The Strava segment has this climb categorised as a Cat 3: 2.9km. The average gradient is 6.3% with some sections of 16% to gain 185 meters – see how close you can get to the Pro riders who have done sub 7 minutes on this climb!
From the summit you drop into Bishopdale, one of the remotest dales in Yorkshire, which then joins Wensleydale at Aysgarth. This is mile 28 and is the first feed station for the sportive ride where you can fill up on Food, Energy Drinks & Energy Bars etc…
No ride in Wensleydale is complete without heading through Hawes, the home of Wensleydale cheese. This is where the sportive ride splits from stage 1 of Le Tour, heading on the B6255 up through Widdale (a climb of 180 meters) towards the iconic Ribblehead viaduct. You’re now right in the middle of the famous Yorkshire 3 Peaks with Whernside towering above the railway line. Turning left at Ribblehead, the ride follows the B6479 all the way down through Horton in Ribblesdale (the 2nd Feed station) that nestles under Pen Y Gent Mountain.
The final leg of the ride carries on down into the pretty market town of Settle, before you tackle the 3rd and last climb of the day. Appropriately named is High Hill Lane, which ramps out of Settle at 24.5%. You climb for the next 4.4km gaining a total height of 238meters. Only one rider has managed to climb this in under 12 minutes and he’s the 2013 National Hill Climbing Champion!
After all that effort, you will be rewarded by one of the best descents in the dales with a fast swooping road into Airton in Malhamdale. From Airton you follow the Pennine Cycleway and Way of Roses route over to Hetton and then Rylstone. Turn right onto the B6265 and the route brings you back into Skipton.
The total amount of climbing on this route is 5409feet or 1649meters according to Map my ride.
The 2014 route is a Strava Segment:
TheScenic Ride
The rides start by heading into Skipton along Gargrave road to join the Tour de France route at Grassington Road. From here you will follow Grassington road (B6265) out of town and across the A65 – there will be traffic management to help you across this roundabout. From there the rides head north following the B6265, straight into the Yorkshire Dales National Park. You will ride through the picturesque villages of Rylstone (made famous by the Calendar Girls), Cracoe, Threshfield, Kilnsey and up to Kettlewell. From here you turn back down the valley on the back road to Grassington.
The feed station is located in the lovely village of Linton to refresh and refuel riders. The ride continues heading south down to the stunning village of Burnsall and onto Bolton Abbey along the B6160. Your return to Skipton is along the gated road over a cattle grid (Caution), through Embsay Village and back up to the Auction mart.