I planned a new route in the Ribble Valley. What was it like to cycle?

One of the best coffee stops in the ribble valley is a hidden gem. I took my normal route to the cafe through the trough of bowland but decided to take a risk and plan a new route back. How did that turn out? You’ll have to watch to find out! Along the way I meet some vintage tractors!

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In the video:

Voom Bar I tried and enjoyed: https://www.voomnutrition.co.uk/products/pocket-rocket-electro-energy-bar-raspberry

Old Post Office Cafe in Caton: https://www.instagram.com/theoldpostofficecafe/
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More from me:

Blog: https://puncheurchronicles.org/blog/
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/puncheurchronicles/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@puncheurchronicles
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/puncheurchronicles.bsky.social
Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/puncheurchronicles
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#cyclevlogging #vlogging #cycle #lancashire #yorkshire #cycletour

So, the plan for the day is a 92 km route out to Ken. Uh, I’m going to go out the way I normally go, which is through the trough of Poland. And then I decided I would plan a different route back just to kind of shake things up. So, I’m going to uh come out towards the eastern side a little bit more. So, not come back over the the big fell, but actually like take some roads I haven’t ridden before. So, that should be pretty interesting. Uh, no idea. Didn’t do Google Maps thing to see what they look like. Uh, elevation looks pretty undulating, actually. So, rather than it being like a collection of three big climbs, it’s it’s a whole load more like up and down. So, that’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Uh, but yeah, all in all, looking forward to it. Hoping to have a good ride. Weather is overcast, but reasonably warm in the 20s, I would say. Low 20s. Uh, not too much wind at the moment, but it is forecast to pick up wind at about 1:00. So, it’s 9:00 now. So, I am going to get on the road, get moving, see how I feel. Legs feel a bit heavy today. Uh, I had a rest day yesterday, so hopefully they will spring back into life. Uh, I’m also trying some different nutrition today. Uh, I realized that I’m not taking off on enough carb when I’m on the bike. The Snickers, although they work for me for my for my stomach, they don’t actually have that much carbon uh for the number of calories. So, I’m trying like a Voom bar, which is like a solid gel. Uh supposed to be slightly easier on the stomach because you chew it, so some of it gets absorbed in the mouth. Uh so, we’ll see how that goes. Uh so, yeah, all in all, looking forward to having a great ride. [Music] start. I just got caught up in some sort of charity tractor ride. Uh they look like quite oldfashioned tractors. They were kicking out a lot of diesel smoke. So they were actually taking the route I was planning to take. So, I decided to chuck in a small diversion just to get out of the line of tractors cuz they were doing 27 km an hour. They just overtook me uh while I was riding. And I let them by actually thinking it was just one tractor and then like four came by and then another four were behind me and I was in this sort of parade and actually it wasn’t much fun. So I chucked the diversion, put the hammer down and now I’m back on route and I think I’ve beaten them or they’ve gone a different way. So happy days. I’m now carving through the trough of Boland, uh, which is one of the most beautiful places in England. So, yeah, having fun. Uh, going to try my Vroom nutrition soon. Just had a quick bite of a Snickers, but uh, the next time I take some nutrition on, I’ll try the Vroom, see how it goes. Uh, so yeah, all in all, having fun, weather’s holding. It’s very windy. You can probably hear. I got the mic with me, thankfully. So hopefully not here too much, but it is really really windy. But not spoiling the fun yet. But it’ll be interesting to see when I get up in the fells how bad it is. I may have to rethink the route. Uh but for now, there’s a bit of sun and I’m enjoying myself. Happy days. [Music] So, a quick uh refuel stop at the old post office cafe in Ken in Lancasher. It is a a hidden gem of a cafe. Uh I stumbled across it on one of my rides. They make really, really good coffee. Like really, really good coffee. They use the carabeti beans that are roasted up in the Lake District and they make sublime cakes. They make them themselves and they have really nice uh sourdough toast and toasties and highly highly highly recommend. It’s really tucked away, but it’s called the Old Post Office Cafe and it’s in Ken. I think it’s only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But honestly, 10 out of 10 this cafe. 10 out of 10. Really, really, really good every time. Like every single time. Uh so yeah, highly recommend. So quick stop, little bit of toast, coffee, and then I’ll be back on the road. Uh I’ve done the normal route here through the trop of Bolan, but I’m going to take a different route back that I’ve never been before. And that’s going to basically take me slightly out west, loop back round, and then cut around to the east, like around the fell that I climbed up over to get here. So, it’s going to be interesting taking that route back. Uh, it’s always nice to mix up the roots every so often and try new roads. So, let’s see how it goes. Looking forward to it. [Music] [Music] So I am right on top of AFL. Uh, one more on the side. Actually, I’ve just done the first section of new route out from Katherine to Quinnmore. What a lovely, lovely route. So, normally the bit I do is a little bit more of a main road compared to some of the roads around here, but actually this new section, it’s just this narrow single track lane that carves through the fells and there’s this really steep section of climb which was lovely. The road surface was awful. So, I wouldn’t want to do it in the other direction. Like when you’re slow, like churning up a climb is fine, but it was actually right at the base where it was steep and the surface was a bit gnarly and wet. So, I wouldn’t want to have descended it. So, I’m glad I did it this way round. Uh, originally I did it this way round just because I wanted to get get to the coffee with roads I know and then have an adventure on the way home. So, I’m really glad I did it that way round. It worked out really well. Uh, this is now a new section as well. So from here on in, it’s new most of the way home. So I’m looking forward to it. So far it’s been a great adventure changing up the route. So yeah, let’s hope the quality continues and I have as much fun for the rest of the new roads as I’ve just had on the first section. But yeah, having a blast. [Music] [Music] So that’s a wrap. I did 94 kilometers in the end and uh the route back from Kton was a new route and I’ve got to say it was amazing like found some really really epic local roads. uh just to add to the list of all the other epic local roads, but there was this really long descent that was silky smooth and you could see out over Pendle and Lancashier for just as far as the eye could see basically. So it really was an epic epic descent. Uh and just the whole way was kind of very kind of rolling sharp hills and then long descents where you could see quite a long way and overall the road road surface was silky smooth. There was one section where it was a bit gnarly and you had um a bit of a bumpy surface but apart from that it was absolutely epic like just tons and tons of fun. So yeah, all in all I had great coffee. Uh I went through the trough of Poland for some epic views. Some of the best views in you can have on a bike in uh the UK. And then a new route back from Ken that was equally epic. So yeah, tons and tons of fun. Happy days.