Ronde van Oost Lancashire - a Flanders classic for the North of England
Free-to-enter 50-miler taking in some hidden cobbled gems around Burnley
ronde van oost lancashire
Free entry! Free cake! Right, now we've got your attention. If you're in the vicinity of Burnley on Saturday 31 March then why not get yourself out and about and have a go at the Ronde van Oost Lancashire, a 50-mile loop that takes in some of the area's finest scenery and a whole host of hidden cobbled gems. To whet your appetite, they've produced this rather nice video to set the tone...
The Ronde is in its third year and this year the organisers are expecting 100 riders. The ride starts at Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford and loops anti-clockwise around Burnley, with an Easterly leg that runs out to Hebden via Hawks Stones and back past Widdop reservoir for some tough climbing on some fairly wild roads. As well as that, the organisers have included as many cobbled sections as they can to give the full Flanders experience. They make the route 'a little contrived' according to the crossjunkie website and you can miss them out if you really don't fancy them, but we can't help feeling you'd be better off manning up and getting your arse on the cobbles.
Some of the climbs look a bit frightening; the Packhorse in Hebden has a handrail, which is never a good sign. The organisers describe it as "brutal to ride, probably impossible in the wet or damp", so pray for a dry day if you're rocking up. For full information on the ride head over to http://crossjunkie.blogspot.com/
If I wasn't doing the real thing I'd be well up for that.
Looks rubbish, I won't be there. This happened to me last year:
http://www.tdwsport.com/en/imagedesk/image-details/id/162202
: great big smiley :
Ouch!
That rider is Gustav Larsson, training for 2010 P-R by one of the finest photographers in the sport, Tim De Waele of http://www.tdwsport.com/
Looks a bit northern for my liking
What can you mean? There's no brass band and cog dancing at the finish this year.
I suppose the 'nose bleed north of Watford' brigade are better off out of it. We'll still come south though to glide around what your so called 'challenging' sportives like the Dartmoor.
Got to go fly t'whippets now.. 
MercuryOne
Terrific picture. Poor bloke.
Joking of course, the RVOL was a highlight of last year for me.
get thee t'th Ronde. It's champion, I tell thee.
we won't be there sadly. we get a bit jittery if we go above any genuinely northern sounding towns on the map. placenames like hebden and mytholmroyd make us break out in a cold sweat. we'll see if chipps wants to go, he's built up a tolerance 
Looks great. Shame it's a bit far away.
The North starts at Salisbury btw.
Lancashire? North? Pah! Practically the Midlands, that like.
Rode it last year - really good route, great cobbled fun and fantastic company too.
Cakes were nice too.
Would be doing it again if I was in the country.
Do it if you can.
Shouldn't there be free cloth caps provided as well as free slices of 'Ovis for t'climbs? Eee , when I were a lad ....
Sean
Singletrack MTB mag
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