Onix Twitter Ride

The Trough of Bowland

If you've never ridden through The Trough of Bowland, in the Ribble Valley, then stick it on your list of places to ride.  An absolutely stunning part of the world, rolling roads, beautiful scenery and a delightful landscape to roll through.

It was the scene for a ride hosted by Onix Bikes today and a great opportunity to test the old fitness after an up and down winter.  Conditions were lovely, a clear blue sky showing off the Ribble Valley to its optimum, some wind which picked up on the back twenty miles and no rain!!!  Huzzah.

Setting out from Pro Tool Cycleworks in Waddington who build the bikes for Onix, from the aptly named - Twitter Lane - around 80 cyclists turned out to take on the route which featured around 2.5k ascent within the 45 mile ride. 

Within that group were former professional Rob Hayles, who is Chief Test Pilot for Onix, former footballer turned charity fundraiser - Geoff Thomas, and actor - Dean Andrews of Life on Mars TV fame.  All rode Onix RH bikes.

Today, I planned to just ride it without limiting my heart rate to 75%, I did wear a monitor as I wanted to understand what intensity I ended up with when I got back.  With the London to Paris 2013 coming up in June, it's a good yardstick to understand how hard I need to work to make it into a higher group.  

Returning back, it showed 85% of maximum mainly down to the climbing and pushing the pace a little faster on some of the flats, it felt good to be whizzing along at 24mph at key points when the road flattened out.  

Ride average was 15.5mph (25km/h) across the profile, which is OK for me.  Major action is to lose some weight, having seen some riders effortlessly fly up the climbs, it's the one thing which will make a big difference to my ride and heart rate averages.  With four months of training still to do, I should make the cut no problem for L2P.

Onix Twitter ride route profile

One thing that stood out today was the friendliness of people who rode.  Coming from far and wide to participate, it was great to reach and out meet fellow Onix owners.  The ProTool cycleworks workshop was immaculately set out, really demonstrating their pedigree as high end bike mechanics, they know their stuff when it comes to spannering that's for sure.  I'd highly recommend them for bike servicing if you're in that neck of the woods.

Rob Hayles was accessible to all, moving up and down the groups for a chat, which made the event feel really personal and staying behind when everyone was arriving back for photo's and further bike talk.  

It was one of the most enjoyable three hour routes I've ridden in a while.  Great route, not a really difficult ride in terms of the ascent ratio and some stunning scenery thrown in to boot.  Days like today remind you why life is so great out there on the road.  

Highlight for me was the descent coming after the climb at about the 32 mile point, fast descent with some twists and turns in which made the climb highly worthwhile.  Equally meeting some great new people and sharing a few stories.

You can find out more about Onix Bikes here and follow them on Twitter here.