A week after the Tour de France graced these roads, the riders assembled for the start of the Yorkshire Classic's West Riding road Trial at the Guide Inn, Cullingworth. Tall landlady Lisa Little provided butties and drinks for the riders and officials as the skies lightened to make conditions ideal for the 75 entrants on their Pre1965 British steeds at round 4 of the Northern British Bike Championship.
One lap of 30 sections on a 30 mile lap had been set by Colin Pawson and his 'merry ' band of helpers. And it seems that they got it just about right. Only young Ben Butterworth on the full route together with Steve Cordon and John Palmer on the Clubman's route managed to stay clean for the day.
The first group of 4 sections were as usual in the brook at the bottom of sidecar ace Robin Luscombe's garden. Section 4 took more marks than any other from the hard route riders. The cross cambered climb out of the brook round a tree with rocky slabs to finish took several 5's with last year's winner Chris Haigh on his pre-unit Velo loosing his first dab here. The Clubman's version proved less troublesome but Simon Clarke on Andy Hesketh's immaculate rigid Matchless also lost the first of his two marks on the relatively easy 3rd section.
Manywells Farm came next where the loose rocks took marks from all but a handful of riders. Mick Grant lost the first of his 2 mark total here. Club stalwart Rob Lowther surprised everyone as he recorded his best ride of the day here for a clean.
A mile further along brought the riders to 2 new sections only 100yds from where the club was formed back in 1982 at The Flappit public house. Being dry despite the heavy overnight rain, the cambers didn't cause too many problems.
The first of two visits to Lord Lane featured two old favourites that gave good value being long and featuring drops and climbs in equal measures that didn't trouble the better riders
The crossing of the bog at Upper Slippery Ford was remarkably dry and it was the tight cross cambers of the second here that took several 5's including one from the unlucky furthest travelled Graham Howes on his beautiful Goldie.
The next two groups were the delicious filling in the sandwich. At Lumb Waterfall the first section a steep winding climb caught the unwary with only 7 cleans recorded on the harder route. Riders then descended to the excellent stream sections in the valley bottom. The jumbled rocks needed constant care to avoid the dabs. Cowling Beck was no deeper for its 4 sections after the heavy overnight rain and the sections were in benevolent mood for a change but Mick Clarke lost 7 here probably due to lack of sleep after his drive back from Italy the previous day.
The second section at Pinnacle, a weaving climb between large boulders troubled the hard route with several 5's being lost.
Lower Slippery Ford and The Turkey Inn at Goose Eye came before Branshaw Quarry where the old favourites had been lost to quarrying necessity and their stand-ins took few marks.
So it was back to Lord Lane with only Jacks garage standing between the riders and the pie and peas at The Guide. It was the first at Lord Lane that Tim Pawson having the ride of his life on the rigid Ariel dropped a second mark to lose the class win on the oldest rider tie break.
At the end it was agreed that the reduction to 30 miles from last year's 40 was a popular change and the weather had made for a pleasant round 4 of the Northern British Bike Championship in this part of the Pennines.