Lovely winter sunny local ride ride to Stanhope / Crawleyside

What fantastic weekend of weather for a change. The winter sun was out again with a hard'ish overnight frost. I took the A690 all the way through Brancepth Village, Willington, Crook, Wolsingham, Frosterley then Stnahope. Once at the other end of Stanhope I turned right and headed up Crawleyside with the sun on my back. I had a quick drink stop at the top and took some photos (see the one above). From there it was a massive freewheel downhill as I had a tailwind. The roads were dry salty in places and other stretches there was running water. The bike was going well and so was I. After 30 miles my back pain started and was most uncomfortable for the rest of the ride. All in I covered 43.5miles, ave 16.1 mph and climbed 36000ft. Below are more sunny snaps, enjoy and hopefully more soon -

Salty roads in the sunshine

Steepest part to come!

No time to turn off for a cuppa today

Cold and icy at the top of Crawleyside

Time to wash and charge the bike when I get back home