A Summer of Cycling - Saltaire to Ilkley via Hawksworth

2014 promises to be the biggest year for cycling we have ever seen. If you are inspired by the Tour de France and want to do more cycling or join a group of women on regular bike rides, today’s rides could be for you. In Saltaire, Breeze Champions (Female British Cycling Qualified Ride Leaders) will be running rides from the Village. Meeting at Vicars on the First Saturday of each month there will be rides for all abilities. This ride is the road ride, there will also be a flat easy ride of anything from 7 to 25 miles on the canal path, check out the list of Breeze rides for information. There will be a couple of leaders on this ride so we will be able to go at a pace that suits the group. This is a social ride starting from Vicars cafe in Saltaire. The route is on a mix of main roads and quieter lanes, so you will need to be traffic aware. There are some hills but don’t let that put you off – getting up the hills is much easier in a group, we will go at a pace that suits the group. We’ll leave Saltaire and head towards Hollins Hill for our first climb, making use of the new bike lane which is quite wide with a great surface to cycle on. At the top of Hollins Hill we take a left towards Hawksworth and then across the moors to Ilkley Moor. We'll make a cafe stop at the top of Ilkley Moor and then head down the Cow and Calf (don't worry - we won't be cycling back up it!). Once we're in Ilkley we start to head back to Saltaire using a mix of lanes and main roads. The route is suitable for all types of bike, road tyres would be best, mountain bike tyres won’t stop you getting round the route, you may find it a little more challenging than using smoother road tyres. If you’ve never cycled up Hollins Hill then come along and have a go today, it is definitely the gateway to some great cycling routes.